What a weird winter – weather-wise!

The warmest and wettest winter on record (at the time of writing) has played havoc with plant life and put environmental issues right at the top of the national agenda. Luckily London was spared the horror of the floods which affected other parts of the country.

But we certainly didn’t expect to see hosts of golden daffodils nodding and dancing in the Horniman Gardens the first week of January (see picture). Our efforts to brighten Forest Hill continue with bulbs we planted last year springing up again in the planters in front of the Job Centre in Dartmouth Road, the tubs on the station platforms, on the corner near Barclays Bank and the Horniman play triangle. However, the colourful cyclamens we planted in the station’s forecourt didn’t last long. By Christmas all but two had – how shall I put it – disappeared... and they were not eaten by squirrels!

Literally, on a brighter note, we are negotiating with LOROL to have fairy lights permanently entwined in the trees in the station’s forecourt to bring a bright welcoming feel on dark winter afternoons and a festive feel in the summer and (hopefully to send a message to all those litterbugs), among the many things in the pipeline for this year to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Forest Hill Society, we are organising a Trash Mob litter pick-up in the town centre and a Flash Mop wash down of the subway planned for Saturday March 5th from 2.00pm. Both activities will link us into Keep Britain Tidy’s national “Clean for the Queen” weekend. If you would like to join in for about an hour we can supply a selection of very attractive plastic tabards bearing a suitable logo, gloves and pick-up grippers. It should be fun!

We are hoping to give the town centre Edible High Road tubs a bit of a spruce up around Easter. With help from Wes Shaw and his Horniman Gardens’ planting team, our free-to-all-comers distribution of edible/food producing plants will happen again on Saturday May 7th from 2.00pm in Forest Hill station’s forecourt. If permission is granted for us to install brightly painted car tyres as plant containers on the pavement between the Perry Vale station exit and the entrance to the car park, we will extend our neighbourhood planting by working with Rockbourne Youth Club to brighten up this area. Watch the Forest Hill Society’s on-line newsletter for more details about when this happens.

Since Shakespeare and St George share a celebratory day on Saturday April 23rd and the Bard is in the news as 2016 marks 400 years since his death, these events, together with the 10th anniversary of the Forest Hill Society, mean we will be organising some delightfully exciting things - possibly combining the Shakespearean, Georgian and Foresthillian in April.

Watch this space...

BakerLewisham 2030

It seems that most of our recent newsletters have mentioned the Bakerloo line extension, despite the fact that it won’t actually come to Forest Hill. However, there is little doubt that the Bakerloo extension would mean a lot for South East London, and particularly north Southwark and Lewisham.

At the end of 2015 TfL announced the preferred route would go to Lewisham via two stops on the Old Kent Road and New Cross Gate. At New Cross Gate there would be an interchange with Southern and Overground services to Forest Hill.

In reality this line would make little difference in journey times for Forest Hill commuters, as the interchanges at London Bridge and Canda Water would continue to provide better connections.

TfL have decided that the case for extending beyond Lewisham has not been made successfully, but that should not delay the extension to Lewisham.

The Forest Hill Society believes that although an extension to Hayes remains hard to justify on the existing line through Catford, consideration should be given to an underground extension to Catford or Bell Green, where growth in housing could justify the cost. It would also take some pressure off Lewisham as an interchange station for SouthEastern, Bakerloo, and DLR.

The TfL document also recommended a new station at Camberwell on Thameslink and interchange at Brockley, to the Nunhead to Lewisham line that goes over the station. This is part of a wider plan where TfL will take over much more of the London rail network, just as they have done with Overground. This would happen over many years starting from 2019, as franchises come to an end. Potentially this could result in new stations (Camberwell), more frequent services for commuters (Crofton Park), and many other possibilities.

While we await more details, we will continue to lobby for better services on the existing network - regardless of who runs it.

Business Profile: Canvas and Cream

Canvas & Cream is a exciting mix of food and art located on London Road. It was set up by mother and daughter team Joanna and Emily Gore, and we wanted to know more about their business, so we asked Joanna a few questions:

How did Canvas and Cream get started?
From the outset this was a community venture.  We found this building on London Road - it had no electricity, no walls, no plumbing and many holes in the roof, floors, walls etc. It was a big project and we invited local people to get involved. 

We taught people how to tile, how to build walls, decorate, even wire up lights and lay parke flooring. We learnt many skills ourselves from books, the internet and from past DIY endeavours, it was a fantastic experience, a vast public art project.

What did you do before opening C&C?
Before conceiving of Canvas & Cream I was a free-lance artist for 12 years working alongside people in disadvantaged groups such as those in the mental health system and deprived youths. I studied Fine Art and went on to get a PhD in the Role of the artist in exposing and challenging hierarchical structures and concepts in institutions.

Emily, my daughter, had been working in events for large entertainment company, she also had her own small bakery business supplying cafes and markets with her homemade cakes. She is a talented baker and has since taught her grandmother to bake many of Canvas & Cream’s impressive cake offer.

After time as a lecturer in fine art at Middlesex university, and running art courses for Tower Hamlets council I got together with Emily and we decided to use our combined knowledge and experience to create a community arts hub, and close to our home in Forest Hill seemed like a great place.

What is the most popular dish on your menu (or your favourite)?
Our ‘to die for’ stack of pancakes served with berries, crème fresh and pure Canadian maple syrup, they are not only made from the usual pancake ingredients but also include cream cheese!

In the evening it has to be our oven Roasted Duck Breast with Creamy Mash, Roasted Fig, Tangy Red Fruit & Wine Jus or the Mushroom Cobbler, a Creamy Mushroom & Tarragon Stoop baked with Cheese Scones, both warming and perfectly comforting for the winter months.

I must mention our fantastic variety of delicious homemade cakes, not just because we have a fabulous display but because most of them are made by my mum!

As well as the restaurant what other activities do you do?C&C Gallery is an artist led contemporary art gallery that collaborates with artists to promote and exhibit innovative and thought provoking art by emerging and mid-career artists. We build long term relationships so as to support artists who share an interest in narrative, identity and personal and cultural histories whose work is intellectually challenging and socially relevant.

The next show up is ‘Heavy Weather’ - new works by Trevor Appleson an established Artist/photographer who has found innovative and interesting ways of photographing the weather. The opening is on Friday 11th March, 6.30pm and everyone is welcome.

We also have six studios currently occupied by three illustrators, an upholsterer/artist, a flower/sculptress, and a fashion designer and we currently have one vacant studio.

What do you think is the best thing about Forest Hill? I love the mix of people and sense of community in Forest Hill, we get customers of all ages, from elderly couples for cream teas, lots of babes in arms, to young professionals meeting friends for cocktails, families for Sunday Lunch. Forest Hill know how to be a community and it is wonderful to be a part of that.

What would Nigella say?A few years ago Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi visited the gallery, Saatchi bought the whole show by Rafal Zawistowski before it opened. We were delighted when Nigella tweeted about the inspiring cakes and fairy light gift-wrap.

In Search of the Lost Stations of Forest Hill

By Alistair Dey

One of the best things to have happened to Forest Hill in recent years was the opening of the London Overground line in May 2010. This has provided more travel options, opened up new places north of the river and attracted more passengers. The London Overground and National Rail go through the two stations in SE23 – Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park. Forest Hill Station, which opened in 1839, was originally known until 1845 as Dartmouth Arms after the nearby public house which still exists (though not in the original building) a few doors up from the station at 7 Dartmouth Road.
 
But there used to be two other railway stations in Forest Hill – Lordship Lane and Honor Oak stations. They were both on the now closed Crystal Palace High Level Line. Steve Grindlay’s article on this Line in the Summer 2014 (Issue 28) of the Forest Hill Society Newsletter gives information on the Line and the stations.

Suffice to say here that the two lost stations were both built in the 1860s during the heyday of railway expansion, partly to carry visitors to the Crystal Place -  which had been relocated from Hyde Park to Sydenham in 1854. The two stations were both closed on 20 September 1954, several years before the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. It seems that the High Level Line was never quite as successful as hoped. The destruction of the Crystal Palace in the fire of 1936 and the damage and disruption caused by the Second World War were blows which sealed the eventual demise of the Line and the stations.

Lordship Lane Station

With Steve’s article in my rucksack, I set off to locate the two stations. The former Lordship Lane station was located just to the west of Sydenham Hill, and south of London Road, where Sydenham Hill meets London Road. This is the point where London Road becomes Lordship Lane at the junction with Wood Vale, virtually opposite the blue sign that says Welcome to Lewisham. The streets which now occupy the former station are Lapse Wood Walk and North Crofts, Sydenham Hill which both have SE23 post codes but are in the Borough of Southwark, not Lewisham.

In his article Steve states that nothing, apart from sections of the embankment, now survives. This is true and if you did not know a station had been there I doubt you would know that the embankment was once part of a railway station and line. The Green Chain Walk now rather incongruously weaves through the houses and apartment blocks here.


Lordship Lane is the station which was famously painted by Camille Pissarro in 1871 from his viewpoint on the railway bridge which still exists in nearby Sydenham Hill Woods (see above). The painting is commonly known as “Lordship Lane Station, Dulwich” and I have also been to an exhibition where it was described (presumably mistakenly) as “Lordship Lane Station, Upper Norwood” (which is where Pissarro lived). These possibly reflect that in 1871 Forest Hill was not yet a widely recognised district of London.



Honor Oak Station (without the Park)

Wood Vale would once have been one of the best served roads in London for railway stations. With Lordship Lane station at its southern end, it also had Honor Oak station at its northern end. Honor Oak station was the next station from Lordship Lane on the Crystal Palace High Level Line going towards London. The line went over London Road on a bridge and Honor Oak station was located just to the east of Wood Vale and between it and the flat part of Canonbie Road where they meet Forest Hill Road, opposite Brenchley Gardens. No trace of the station remains, although as with Lordship Lane station, there are some traces to be seen (with a little imagination perhaps) of the railway embankment in Buckley Close and the Wood Vale Estate. Apparently, the old station master’s house remains nearby on Canonbie Road.

So nothing much remains to be seen of the two lost railway stations on the western edge of Forest Hill but it was interesting to explore and see, as far as possible, exactly where they were and what they are now.

Why not have a street party?

Every year The Big Lunch encourage streets to eat and party together. This year the Big Lunch coincides with the Queen’s 90th birthday. So we asked local resident Oliver Kerr how to throw a street party!
So you think it would be nice to hold a street party. You want to increase that sense of community and get to know more of your neighbours. What do you do?

First you talk to a few neighbours and see if they agree. If enough of you are keen then why not give it a go?

Since we arrived in our street 18 years ago we have had 8 street parties – one impromptu (and slightly illegal) one for the Queen's Golden Jubilee and 7 under the inspiration of The Big Lunch, an organisation that has been encouraging people to hold street parties on one day in the summer since 2009. The aim is to boost the feeling of local community spirit. This year the big day is 12 June to coincide with the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations, but usually it is the first Sunday in June.

How much effort is involved in running a street party? Our experience with the Golden Jubilee showed us that it did not take much. That day started off in the morning with someone cooking some bacon and egg sandwiches on a camping stove, and all the small children running around. People drifted along, brought out some tea, and blocked off a bit of the road with cars so the children could play more safely (yes, this was a bit illegal, but the police didn't seem to mind). As the day progressed more food and drink magically appeared, along with garden furniture, and yet more people. Nearly all the street was involved, a great time was had and no planning was involved.

Over the years things have got a bit more organised, but not much. People bring along food and drink to share, and always seem to bring quite a variety. We find that you do not need to organize who brings what. If you run out of anything there is bound to be someone who will pop indoors and sort it out. Tables are very useful, we borrow ours from a school. Shelter for the food is also recommended. Rain can spoil food, but people are quite waterproof, so a gazebo or two is very useful – it has rained on all but two of our parties. Some bunting is nice. We have accumulated a good collection over the years.

You may want music and games. Both can be a good idea, but not my field of expertise. As with most things to do with a street party, there are bound to be neighbours who are keen to organise these, and who will know what to do. Don't feel you have to do everything.

One important decision is where to hold your event. If you want to close your street and have the party in the middle of the road then a bit more organisation is required. You let Lewisham Council know which section of road you would like to close, and hopefully they will give you approval to go ahead with the application. You then have to collect signatures from your neighbours declaring they don't object to the road closure. This is also a good way of spreading the word – leaflets through the door can just end up in the bin unread. The Council doesn't charge anything, and has always proved to be friendly and helpful in their support of The Big Lunch.

You will have to provide appropriate “Road Closed” signs. If you don't want to close a street, then life is simpler. You can hold your party wherever you have space – in someone's garden, in the grounds around your flats, or in a hall.

The Big Lunch web pages are full of useful guidance. They can send you information packs. Lewisham Council has a web page for The Big Lunch that gives information about obtaining street closures, the time-scales involved, and who to contact for help and guidance.

www.thebiglunch.com

www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/events/whats-on/Pages/the-big-lunch.aspx

The Future of Forest Hill Library

At the end of 2015 the council ran a consultation on library provision proposing to turn Forest Hill, Torridon Road, and Manor House libraries into ‘Community Libraries’. During the public consultation 54% of respondents rejected all the options proposed by the council and 59% rejected the council’s preferred option of downgrading these libraries to community libraries.

Despite these views expressed in the consultation, and the opposition of the Forest Hill Society among other civic societies and user groups, the mayor of Lewisham accepted the recommendations of the report. It would be unfair not to mention that Lewisham council, like others across the country, are under enormous pressure to cut budgets and find savings wherever they can. Across the country this is resulting in the closure and downgrading of library services, although some, such as Southwark, have managed to avoid significant disruption to library services.

With the decision made to downgrade the libraries we now need to look to the future. The Forest Hill Society will be doing everything we can to ensure that Forest Hill library continues serves the community as well as it possibly can. Over the next few months the council will be putting the library services out to tender. We understand that at the early stages there have been around eight expressions of interest in running one or more of the community libraries in Lewisham. The ambitious plan is to have other organisations running these libraries by August 2016.

The major concern from the Forest Hill Society is that levels of book borrowing continue to be maintained and we do not see the 70% drops that other community libraries have experienced in the last 4 years (compared to a drop of just 4% in Forest Hill over the same period). To achieve this the council needs to ensure that their IT systems are able to work properly with the community libraries, levels of stock must be retained, primary school  visits must be facilitated, and volunteer levels must be sufficient to keep the library open seven days a week, from morning to late evening.

The Forest Hill Society will be looking at what we can do to safeguard the future of the library. This is now likely to involve being part of a consortium (together with local traders, V22 - next door in Louise House, and other partner organisations) bidding to run these services. But whoever does take on the management of the library, we know that we have a vital role to play in helping to find volunteers.

If you would be interested in volunteering for a few hours per week at the library we would like to hear from you so that we can start compiling a volunteer list to help with the transition in August 2016. At this stage we don’t know what your duties would be, but an interest in books and internet research would be a big advantage. If you would be interested, please contact michael@fhsoc.com

A decade in the life of the Forest Hill Society

2006

• April  - Proposal for Forest Hill Society on se23.com
• May - First meeting of the steering committee
• October - First public meeting and elections. Michael Abrahams elected chairman.

• 2006-2009 - Campaigning to save the pools 
• 2006-2010 - Campaigning to keep train services

2007

• February - History walk attracts 90 people
• June - 23 Club launched - visiting local restaurants
• August - Surprise listing of Louise House
• October - Peter Irby becomes chairman

2008

• January - First Burns Night celebration
• July - Swimming pool rebuild confirmed
• October - 200th anniversary celebration of the opening of the Croydon Canal
• December - last direct trains to Charing Cross

2009

• May - Tidy up in Albion Millennium Green leading to a new lease of life for the green
• October - Richard Hibbert becomes chairman

2010

• February - Tyson Road development public inquiry (we lose to the best planning barrister in the country)
• May - First trains run on Overground
• December - Pop-up events around the high street 

2011

• March - Forest Hill In Bloom begins with planting at the station
• April - Royal wedding is an excuse for an early taste of a pub at the post office

2012

• February - Swings for Horniman Triangle from Society bid to ward assembly
• March - First Food Fair at the station
• July - Forest Hill and Sydenham win funding from the Portas Pilot scheme (later to be SEE3)
• September - Forest Hill pool reopens!
• September & December - Two food fair traders open shops on the High Street (Aga’s Little Deli and The Butchery)
• September - Helped form Friends of Dacres Wood

2013

• January - Joined march to save Lewisham A&E
• May - First Edible High Road in Forest Hill
• June - Subway cladding and lighting installed
• December - Final food fair as a weekly market is established in Horniman Gardens
• December - Michael Abrahams is back as Forest Hill Society chairman 

2014

• April - Street piano is installed at Forest Hill station by SEE3 and the Forest Hill Society
• July - Design workshop re-imagines the town centre
• September - Free concert at the station as part of Forest Hill Fashion Week
• December - First five carriage trains on Overground

2015

• October - Campaign to prevent Forest Hill library being downgraded to a community library

2016

• Improvements to Dartmouth Road public highway

10th Anniversary of the Forest Hill Society

Back in April 2006, not long after the closure of the swimming pool, a discussion started on SE23.com about forming a Forest Hill Society. The idea quickly took hold, so on 23rd May 2006 a meeting took place at the Dartmouth Arms to set up the Society. Our first AGM was on 25th September 2006, where we elected the first committee, and I was proud to be elected as chairman.

Over the last ten years the Forest Hill Society has done lots to improve the area and influence decision making about Forest Hill. There have been some great improvements in this period, most notably the new swimming pool and the increase in train services. For the first few years these two issues dominated most of our discussion, but in 2010 we started to turn our attention to the high street and the public environment around Forest Hill.

Page 2 provides a timeline of some of the key events for the Forest Hill Society, it shows just how much we have done in ten years. Two major initiatives have been particularly instrumental in changing Forest Hill; planting in the town centre, and setting up a food fair.

Flowers in the Town Centre
Planting started modestly with an application to the ward assembly for money to install a couple of planters in the town centre. This was successful, and in 2011 we starting planting. Since then we have increased the number of planters which are maintained by volunteers  from the Forest Hill Society. To help our work around the station we arranged for the installation of a watering system for the station forecourt.

We took the planting further with the Edible High Road, which brought small trees and flowers to many of the shops in Forest Hill town centre. Many of the 2015 set of trees are doing well and our intention is to give them a spruce up in the spring.
 
Food Fair - gone but not forgotten

The Food Fair started almost by accident as a one-off event for St George’s Day 2012. Due to popular demand this became a monthly market and continued until the end of 2013, when the weekly farmers’ market was firmly established in Horniman Gardens.

The food fair led directly to two new shops (butcher and deli) in the high street, a general increase in footfall in the town centre, as well as providing an important element in our successful bid for Portas Pilot funding, and of course the weekly farmers’ market.

These are just two projects! There have been many other activities that have added up to so much more than the sum of their parts.

After 10 years we are still going strong, with some ambitious ideas to further improve Forest Hill and to keep Making Forest Hill an even better place to live. A massive thank you to everybody who has been involved and supported us through the years.

Time of the Signs

At the end of January the Forest Hill Traders Association unveiled a new notice board and trade directory for the town centre.

Strategically positioned at the entrance to the station it provides a place to find out about shops and community events, and we even know who has the key (unlike the previous notice board).

The notice board was designed by Cyrus Colquitt from Stag & Bow and The Framing Salon, and includes a collection of local buildings rising up above the ’Welcome to Forest Hill’. Funding was provided by SEE3 Portas Pilot, Forest Hill ward assembly, and traders themselves.

Dinosaurs at The Horniman

From February the Horniman Museum has a special exhibition entitled Dinosaurs: Monster Families.

This exhibition reveals the fascinating family life of dinosaurs through interactive exhibits, authentic specimens from around the world and life-size models.

The exhibition examines how dinosaurs cared for their eggs, nests and babies. Visitors can step back in time and meet ‘Baby Louie’, the near-complete skeleton of a dinosaur embryo; dig in the discovery pit; touch a real dinosaur leg bone; view an amazing collection of fossils including the longest dinosaur eggs ever discovered; and come face-to-face with T-Rex’s relative – a life-size Tarbosaurus skeleton cast. Dinosaurs will ‘fill’ the exhibition in vivid illustrations by artist Luis V Rey, and stunning photographs show some of the world’s renowned dinosaur hunters and their discoveries.

Jo Hatton, Keeper of Natural History at the Horniman says: ‘We may think of dinosaurs as “monsters” but this exhibition reveals they were actually excellent parents who cared for their young. By studying fossils of dinosaur nests, eggs and babies, and comparing them to their living descendants such as birds and crocodiles, we can gain a new insight to the family lives of these creatures which continue to fascinate and enthral us.’

Alongside bird and crocodile specimens from the Horniman’s collection, visitors can also see a fossilised egg of the extinct Elephant Bird, on loan from Sir David Attenborough’s private collection.

An exciting programme of dinosaur-themed events and activities will also run throughout the year to complement the exhibition.

Dinosaurs: Monster Families is open at the Horniman Museum and Gardens from Saturday 13 February to Sunday 30 October 2016.
See www.horniman.ac.uk/dinosaurs for more information. Horniman Members enjoy free, unlimited visits to the exhibition.
For information on how to become a Member see www.horniman.ac.uk/visit/membership.