the METHRAVIA blog

A mid-summer sunset’s golden glow

methravia — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:25:30 +0000

The mid-summer sunset lights up the backs of the Methley Street houses in a very unusual way; from the year’s furthest point west, coming almost horizontally, nipping between buildings to flood the last and highest walls with gold.

2008 Street party

methravia — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:07:31 +0000

Mid-summer day 2008 was dull and a bit glum – but undeterred at 6 pm the street party started and was a lot of fun for everybody. ‘Pim’s o’clock’ lasted a full two hours long and more into the twilight of the longest day. The turn out was down on previous years but the neighbours, ex-neighbours and friends of this’modestly attractive backwater’ had a good time courtesy of the many refreshment stalls and the ‘well-endowed’ raffle.

Methravia – en fête

methravia — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:19:23 +0000

TODAY (weather permitting) is the annual Heart of Kennington Residents’ Association street party.

METHRAVIA Blog Activity

methravia — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:47:35 +0000

Sorry that I have been so inactive on this blog recently. Today someone called Henrik left a post saying how he was moving into Methley Street AND how much he liked the blog. Crikey! Just goes to show how out there people really do read this blogger’s humble efforts. So expect some new posts across this mid-summer week-end. I have been encouraged.

Residents’ Association January 2008 Newsletter

methravia — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:26:06 +0000

Heart of Kennington Residents’ Association

Chairman: Gordon Johnston CB 5 Methley Street, London SE I I 4AL

email: johnston.methley@nujj.com

January 2008

Dear Resident,

This is to update you with developments since my letter of October 2007. I thought I should wait until you had your 2008 diaries. A happy New Year to you all!

The AGM. This will be held in the Durning Library on TUESDAY 18 March. As usual, the committee will offer refreshments from 7 pm to residents attending before the formal meeting starts at 7.30 pm. Please note your diary and come and join us. I will circulate more details nearer the date.

Trees. In January 2007 1 said I had been pursuing with Lambeth the replacement of the trees felled by Lamb eith in 2006 and subsequently. Lambeth have promised to plant the trees this spring, but no firm date has yet been given.

P/C Jane Brown. Jane has been our beat officer for over 5 years. She is leaving us to be the police Missing Person Officer for Lambeth. She takes up her new post on 4 February. I have conveyed to her the committee’s thanks for all her work for our area.

Parking Controls. I have taken up with Councillor Steve Morgan, one of our Ward Councillors, all examples of unreasonable behaviour by wardens over such issues as unloading/loading, deliveries and general application of the rules. He has told me that Lambeth are undertaking a Review of parking. Already clamping in the streets had been stopped. Please let me know if you are the victim of parking controls applied unreasonably.

Rifle Court. This is still a favourite dumping ground, although it had been blocked at the Eastern end. I have asked Lambeth to look for ways of closing it completely

Legal Services. Fisher Meredith, the solicitors whose office is at the end of Stannary St (facing the Post Office), have told me that they now have a specialist in inheritance tax and wills. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Saru Balakrishan, the business manager of the practice, on 0207 0912850.

Planning. Your committee comment on all relevant planning applications, but if you feel you are directly affected by one, please let me know. The association alms to put the viewpoint of residents generally, and if necessary I will attend the Planning Committee to present our case.

Lambeth Council. The association has many informal contacts with councillors and senior officers of Lambeth; this means that we can often get action without a formal approach. There is however one formal body – the Kennington Oval Vauxhall Forum – which represents residents, tenants, business interests and amenity groups to press views on the Council. Notices about it appear on the community notice board outside St Anselm’s church. Kennington Park The next meeting of the Friends is on 3 March.

Durning Library. The next meeting of the Friends is on 18 February. Details in the Durning

Library.

Gardens Society. The Spring Show is on 15 March.

Yours sincerely

GORDON JOHNSTON

Public Meeting

methravia — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 12:59:15 +0000

PUBLIC MEETING

Come and have your say!

NEW HEALTH CARE PLANS FOR NORTH LAMBETH

Thursday 29th November, 6.30pm

The Durning Library

Kennington Cross

Chair: Kate Hooey MP

Speaker from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust, NHS London, Labeth Primary Care Trust anf the Hurley Clinic

Organised by the Hurley Patient Focus Group

c/o Hurley Clinic, Ebeneezer House Kennington Lane, London SE11

Methravia – …the ‘modestly attractive backwater’…

methravia — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:19:13 +0000

Turning to the question of the social condition of Chaplin’s South London childhood, you accuse me of placing such a strong emphasis on the the pleasantness of the Methley Street rooming house where young Charlie and his mother, Hannah Hill Chaplin, resided for a time that I leave no room for the possibility that their life there was shadowed by financial difficulty.

”You can worry about where the next meal is coming from in the most pleasant of rooms,” you write, “and you can be very poor some of the time even if you have a windfall now and again.” But the truth is that I stress the precariousness of Hannah’s situation in all of her perches, including the one in Methley Street. “If the frequency of her changes of residence was any indication, the lovers who enabled Hannah to rent decent lodgings, quickly became disillusioned with her erratic behavior and dropped out of sight, leaving her at the mercy of that awesome figure of late-Victorian urban culture, the landlady…. In the quiet and modestly attractive backwater of Methley Street…she may have soon run into trouble about the rent.” Perhaps this was the reason, I go on to suggest, that she agreed to allow Charlie, at the tender age of nine, to join a music-hall troupe.”

Kenneth S. Lynn – New York Review of Books, 25-9-97

Methley Street is said to be the inspiration for the setting of ‘The Kid’ as well as the home of the blind girl in ‘City Lights’.”

Street lights

methravia — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:36:47 +0000

The old street lights are being replaced with standards and more up-to-date lamps that reduce the upward lightspill of light ‘pollution’. Concrete lamposts are being replaced by skinnier steel columns. But somehow – left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing – the London Borough of Lambeth is installing two differing lamp housings; the first, more ‘retro’ are as seen in the films of Charlie Chaplin (see post), and the other more ‘moderne’. Different lamp-posts! Different colours too! And so far they haven’t been able to remove all of the old concrete standards. Or the now-outdated unused former traffic sign standards. Has a ‘Lord of Misrule’ got loose in the borough engineer’s department?

The KENNINGTON BOOKSHOP, now in its fourth week.

methravia — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:18:25 +0000

Mrs. Paula Kaplan has opened a bookshop at 306-308 Kennington Road; part of the ‘Kennington Triangle’. It replaces the former video shop in a rare example of “dumbing up’! We all welcome a new and charming independent bookshop as a counterbalance to our furtive Amazon clickings or Waterstone’s super-stores of best-sellers. Mr Nick Creagh-Osborne, the shop’s manager, has been surprised by the choices of the many Kennington bookworms that have visited so far. Take a look. SUPPORT IT. Their e-mail address is: post@Kbookshop.com

At the Durning Library – An evening with……….

methravia — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:04:45 +0000

Monday, 15th October 2007

MUSIC ~ A LIFE!

John White talks about his long career as musician, composer – and raconteur

with musical illustrations!

DURNING LIBRARY

167 Kennington Lane (020 7926 8682)

6.45, for 7. 15 pm

– free entry -

- Refteshments -

The Friends of the Durning Library with the British Music Information Centre,Waterloo,

for

Lambeth ‘s Celebrating Age Festival