Brixton news, rumours and general chat
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hiraethified
That's the one where the fucks tried to install 'poor doors'
Property developer Lexadon plans 27 new builds along Acre Lane with uncertainty over level of ‘affordable’ units
Property developer Lexadon is planning on building 27 new residential units and three commercial units at the current site of Diamond Hire along Acre Lane.
www.brixtonbuzz.com
Rushy
basically a scrotum
We decided to get changed (family and men's changing rooms closed apparently) and chance it. Bloke at the desk referred me to the website for times. When I told him it was only showing one hour of swim for all in the kids pool that day he said I was wrong. Then checked and said should ignore the website and book on the app. Couldn't even give any idea of schedule. Seriously, a pool where the staff cannot even tell you times when you can turn up to swim?! Certainly didn't make me feel any warmer towards the place.
On the other hand I took lots of the advice Gramsci gave and booked the sweet spot between aqua aerobics and the inflatables.
I wasn't with children and I have a soft spot for Brixton Rec. The staff are all so nice and the pool's amazing. My kids used the soft play and pool a lot when younger.
Apparently the staff at Streatham are so rude it's 50/50 if you're even going to get let in.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
They are useless.
Tricky Skills
Well-Known Member
The queues at the Rec reception before the automated barriers were legendary. You had to turn up about 15 mins early to pay for a class, just to get through the queue. I always think now that the Rec appears like a ghost town. There was a buzz about the place in the evenings. It now seems empty. I'm not sure if the user figures back this up, or it's just my perception now the reception is simply a swipe in area.
The guy on the front desk is cool. Always very helpful and understanding when your card doesn't work. I wouldn't fancy going through the Better phone system or online help. It's the same over at the Lido tbh. Fusion are just as crap in trying to get a response out of. This leads to the poor staff on the front line taking all kinds of crap.
It will be interesting to see what solutions Lambeth has when it takes the leisure contract back in house next year. It's an opportunity for a major overhaul of customer service. I can't see them reversing the app booking system. This was brought in under the cover of Covid for the Lido. It's really not needed now. But Fusion have always wanted to know who is at the Lido at any given time.
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
Haven't been swimming since pre pandemic and haven't been to the rec in years, but I want to take up swimming again. Finding Better rec web site really difficult to navigate. Think I've figured out how to book a £5+ swim but can't figure out if there is a 60+ discount. I see the memberships have a 'senior' discount but I don't think I'll go often often enough for that to be worthwhile. Are there any concessions on the one off prices? I can't see any way on the website to ask.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Yes there is 60plus discount.
Here is how using the Better App on phone.
Select centre- Brixton recreation centre
At home page of app select buy membership
Select Pay and Play
Select Payment type -single payment
Select Better Adult Senior from list. This is one off £6.30 payment for a year.
Gives you discount for each booked swim. Price is about £1.20 per swim for over 60s
Also gives discount for gym.
Hope this helps.
Your not the first person to ask me about this. The info isn't readily available.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
To add. It used to be called Lambeth Leisure Card. Once over 60 I was charged the lower amount. The Lambeth Leisure Card was an actual card with barcode on back. It is on my phone now instead.
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
very helpful - it wasn't obvious what 'pay and play' was and it said something like discount 30% - but at £1.20 that sounds like you only pay 30% - big difference!
Only one problem I dont have a smart phone and partner has no phone at all. Pre pandemic (and pre 60th birthday) I used to pay a monthly fee to go swimming and I didn't have a smart phone then. So I presume there is a way to pay without a phone?
DJWrongspeed
radio eros
I’ve been away. Has the Elm Park tavern shut down?
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
With pandemic paying at the Rec reception stopped.
Only way to pay is using the App. This also gives entrance at the barriers.
Pandemic meant cash sales stopped as well
I use the App to open the gates at Rec for me.
I'm in Brixton Rec Users Group and we have been raising issue of the stopping of cash and smart phone only entry.
Senior Cllrs to be fair say they are concerned about this. So I await what actually happens.
Personally I think people should have right to different ways to pay for reasons of social inclusion.
I'm concerned that they are seeing this as the new normal.
I have seen the staff on reception let people pay by card sometimes. But that's up to their discretion.
This page of the thread is useful as imo Council need to understand that once they take over management that for reasons of social inclusion all methods of payment need to be re introduced.
That is fully manned reception which accepts cash, card as well as App bookings.
Ability to pay for Lambeth Leisure Card at reception. A actual plastic card. Not just one on the App.
Once GLL/ Better have gone Council needs to revamp customer service.
Phone enquiries answered promptly.
Staff trained in timetables and best payment schemes for individual and families.
On your issue of over 60 use the default training of staff under Better is to sell monthly memberships. Which aren't always the cheapest option. But let's screw the over 60s for what we can get
Council see "leisure" as income generating. Part of reason why they want to take over. As don't have to give Better/ GLL a cut.
I don't blame Better for all of this. The Council poor over seeing of the contract is to blame
My somewhat contentious personal opinion is that Lambeth has problem with high overturn in officers. People don't stay. There is poor continuity of officers. So new ones come and have to start from scratch. Well in Lambeth they do as their seems to be no handover process. Plus officers get moved around a lot. In one post. Learn the post then it is all " reorganized" and they are on different area.
I look forward to Lambeth taking over. It is going to be a ride
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Yes - it’s for sale on Rightmove.
Check out this Pub for sale on Rightmove
Pub for sale in Elm Park Tavern, 76 Elm Park Brixton Hill, London, SW2 2UB, SW2 for £100,000. Marketed by Christie & Co, London
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
New lido?
story
Changing the facts
Watering hole for the foxes and squirrels suffering in the drought
sparkybird
ask the bird...
Also similar problems on the A23 opposite the big Tesco
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
Oh no! I can use the website on my laptop to book and pay - but I wont be able to get in with out a phone, that is mad! I've just paid for the pay and play membership which tells me I must 'upload' proof for the concession with 20 days - but I can't see anywhere to upload it, so I've contacted Better via the website asking for a link and mentioned that I don't have a smart phone or app. I'll await a reply. Its very confusing. I only want to go for a swim...
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Review: Friday 6 August HOUSE MUSIC IS BLACK QUEER MUSIC:- Stories from East Harlem to South London. Hosted by DJ Lynnée Denise and Marc Thompson. BRXTN Village Studios
Funnily enough the very "discrete" studio entrance, where you had to press a 1970-style door bell (which had a video camera trained on it incidentally) reminded me of the Picador - a seedy Manchester nightclub of yore.
Anyway - once it got going - the House Music is Black Queer Music event was very well-presented with two fluent compères, and some musical examples and visuals on overhead projector. What they were reminiscing about was really well after my clubbing time - black female DJ Lynée Denise was born in LA in 1975 she said - but very much appreciative of the gay music scene in Chicago, New York and London. Marc Thomson was the local talent - having grown up on the Angel Town Estate. Co-presenter Marc Thompson commented that London venues were all white owned and particularly the Ministry of Sound was not welcoming to black patrons when it was started "by a public schooolboy". I'm sure that's true - I spend many occasions pre-loading at the Elephant Wetherspoons and walking to a much seedier and no doubt more pleasurable multi-cultural venue called the A-bar under the Thameslink tracks in Great Suffolk Street.
Actually I hate house music - I'm more for Sylvester and the disco queens (Gloria Gaynor etc). I was greatly moved to see the memorial patch made for Sylvester on the AIDS quilt when it visited Evanston Unitarian Church, North Chicago when I was in town.
Aside from whether you get e-d-up (not mentioned in the talk actually) and like a boom boom boom style of music, it would appear from this clip of Marlon T Riggs film "Tounges Untied" show at the end that what gay black men and women were after from House music at that time was Solidarity.
PS give me Voguers over drag queens any time!
Ms Ordinary
randompointlesschemistry
I've noticed the northern Brockwell Park looks a little bit greener than most of the parched grassland around here - maybe it's the Effra / leaky Lido?
(In reality, probably just a bit sheltered on the northern side of the hill)
Ms Ordinary
randompointlesschemistry
It is nuts, & outrageous that owning a smartphone or even having access to a computer is taken for granted.
But if its anything like Fusion (Brockwell Lido), or PFP Leisure (Tooting) as long as you know the time of your booking, they'll be able to look it up & log you in manually at reception.
(Maybe note down your booking ref, or print out an email if you want to be absolutely sure - but I've never been asked for that)
PS - my swimming tip is to use the Fusion app to book at Brockwell (website is unworkable), but the reverse is true for Tooting, use the website as the PHP app is unusable, or was the last time I tried it. And both those places have booked me in at the desk when I've turned up thinking I'd made a booking when I hadn't, on days when they weren't fully booked, obs.
And the Better app seems to work OK, for places that use it.
Desk staff are helpful, but the whole booking thing is still a ridiculous barrier.
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CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Exactly. Its like Forbidden Planet - we shall all be abled to vent our anger to each other on Twitter in Nano seconds - but we all have been long dead for millennia!
thebackrow
Considerably more Brixton.
house, in its early days, was very much a rebranding and descendent of (what was still at that time fairly toxic) disco. On tracks like Marshall Jefferson’s “love can’t turn around“ and Ten citys “That’s the way love is“ the roots are clear.
20 Best Chicago House Records
In honor of the legendary Frankie Knuckles, the 20 greatest singles from the booming movement he helped create
www.rollingstone.com
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Ironically I went to Chicago several times 1990-1992 - presumably pre House Music. The sort of venues I frequented George Winston was all the rage - like a modern day Scott Joplin to my ear.house, in its early days, was very much a rebranding and descendent of (what was still at that time fairly toxic) disco. On tracks like Marshall Jefferson’s “love can’t turn around“ and Ten citys “That’s the way love is“ the roots are clear.
20 Best Chicago House Records
In honor of the legendary Frankie Knuckles, the 20 greatest singles from the booming movement he helped create
editor
hiraethified
Rush Common looks crispy dry
Parched Brixton: the first signs of autumn appear in Rush Common – in photos
Parched Brixton: the first signs of autumn appear in Rush Common – in photos
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
Building collapse in Stockwell. Bloody landlords etc ‘I’m still in shock’: Brixton man escapes near death as wall collapses in front of him
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Be interested in knowing what reply you get from Better
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Yeah well as we are getting into the nitty gritty my favoured venue was
Man's Country, Chicago's oldest gay bathhouse, closing after 44 years
Man's Country, the longest running gay bathhouse in Chicago, is closing after 44 years with a final farewell New Year's Eve.
I was delighted you commented - it caused me to Google and find the article above, new to me. To think I might have slept in the same sauna cubicle as Nureyev!
Actually the 4th time I went to Chicago - in 1992 - my anticipated lodgings were unavailable, and I was forced to spend the first night in Man's Country bathhouse with my belongings got looted. The cleaner took me to a rubbish area in the basement and told me to look through.
I recovered my passport and air ticket, but not $1000 of American Express travellers cheques, or my cash card and credit card, or my cherished Seiko watch.
I needed to contact the police to get the travellers cheques replaced, and the receptionists were very cagey. They made me wait until they could speak to "Chuck" referred to in the article above, on the phone. Chuck was OK apparently and told them I should phone the local police from reception, which I did.
I think all the Police asked me was my passport number and then gave me an incident number. Amex replace the cheques within an hour like their advert used to say.
I wondered if Church was a Mafia type - but unless someone writes a biography I'll never know. As for the Police - they were so matter of fact. None of this wallowing ion a cess pit of your own making which we got here in Britain at that time.
I don't think I went to Chicago again, but I did go to Detroit and Philadelphia. All on British Airways using this weird company called Polo Express, where you got return flights for around £100 or even less but had to carry documents on your flights, no changes allowed. That too sounds suspicious?
Casaubon
Well-Known Member
Before Polo Express and other brokers started selling courier flights the big courier companies gave them away free. You had to be introduced to the company via friends or family, you didn’t get much choice of dates and you could only take hand luggage, but free flights were available to loads of destinations.Yeah well as we are getting into the nitty gritty my favoured venue was
where they did like to play sultry Joplineqsue piano music in the changing rooms.
Man's Country, Chicago's oldest gay bathhouse, closing after 44 years
Man's Country, the longest running gay bathhouse in Chicago, is closing after 44 years with a final farewell New Year's Eve.www.chicagotribune.com
I was delighted you commented - it caused me to Google and find the article above, new to me. To think I might have slept in the same sauna cubicle as Nureyev!
Actually the 4th time I went to Chicago - in 1992 - my anticipated lodgings were unavailable, and I was forced to spend the first night in Man's Country bathhouse with my belongings got looted. The cleaner took me to a rubbish area in the basement and told me to look through.
I recovered my passport and air ticket, but not $1000 of American Express travellers cheques, or my cash card and credit card, or my cherished Seiko watch.
I needed to contact the police to get the travellers cheques replaced, and the receptionists were very cagey. They made me wait until they could speak to "Chuck" referred to in the article above, on the phone. Chuck was OK apparently and told them I should phone the local police from reception, which I did.
I think all the Police asked me was my passport number and then gave me an incident number. Amex replace the cheques within an hour like their advert used to say.
I wondered if Church was a Mafia type - but unless someone writes a biography I'll never know. As for the Police - they were so matter of fact. None of this wallowing ion a cess pit of your own making which we got here in Britain at that time.
I don't think I went to Chicago again, but I did go to Detroit and Philadelphia. All on British Airways using this weird company called Polo Express, where you got return flights for around £100 or even less but had to carry documents on your flights, no changes allowed. That too sounds suspicious?
In ’83 DHL gave me a free flight to New York on Concord. At the time it was seriously under-used and money-losing, and I think the courier companies got cheap rates for particularly urgent stuff. My luggage was 12 huge mail sacks of legal documents, computer tapes etc. which the US customs poked through for 10 minutes.
There were only a dozen or so other passengers, including three other couriers and Bryan Ferry with his wife and new baby. It allowed the cabin staff to really pamper us, and 3 hours 40 minutes wasn’t enough time to really appreciate the booze and grub on offer – it was the first time I encountered a cherry tomato!
The head steward asked if I’d been on Concord before, and when I said ‘no’ he took me up to the cockpit for a chat with the pilots. Sadly, they wouldn’t let me have a go at the controls, even for a minute.
The best freebie I’ve ever had, and I still swank the large leather Concord luggage tag on my rucksack.
The return flight was also free, but sadly with the hoi polloi on a 747.
Sorry for derailing the thread.
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