Brixton news, rumours and general chat

[editor]

Shooting on the Somerleyton Estate this morning

Police appeal for information and witnesses after an early morning shooting on the Somerleyton Estate, Brixton

Police are appealing for witnesses and information following a shooting in Brixton. Officers were called at 01:43hrs on Friday 21 June to reports of a firearm being discharged in Carrara Close, Som…

www.brixtonbuzz.com

 

[nick h.]

I knew this guy a few years ago when he was staying with his girlfriend in Dalberg Rd. His name was Andrew Thomason but he's since changed it to Groves. He might be released from prison later this year. Let's hope he doesn't return to Brixton. Former RAF doctor struck off 'to protect public' after sex offence

 

[Mr paulee]

Cafe van Gogh closes.

 

[BusLanes]

Oh that sucks

 

[CH1]

Cafe van Gogh closes.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Christ Church now becoming a bi-lingual "church plant"
By the looks of it this is a Spanish-speaking Anglo-Catholic church plant - unlike the more conventional ones which are Alpha course clones clandestinely run from HTB.
In terms of churchmanship the founders of the parish are probably spinning in their graves - but then again it's not a disco called Mass etc.

Christ Church Brixton Road | Parroquia de Cristo Salvador (United Kingdom)

Join our local church community at Christ Church Brixton Road - your local Church in North Lambeth. We're ideally located and accommodate various events.

www.christchurchbr.org.uk

 

[teuchter]

What's a "church plant"?

 

[CH1]

What's a "church plant"?

I think you need to ask Nicky Gumble that.

 

[Mr paulee]

I wonder if this has anything to do with Christ Church now becoming a bi-lingual "church plant"
By the looks of it this is a Spanish-speaking Anglo-Catholic church plant - unlike the more conventional ones which are Alpha course clones clandestinely run from HTB.
In terms of churchmanship the founders of the parish are probably spinning in their graves - but then again it's not a disco called Mass etc.

Christ Church Brixton Road | Parroquia de Cristo Salvador (United Kingdom)

Join our local church community at Christ Church Brixton Road - your local Church in North Lambeth. We're ideally located and accommodate various events.

www.christchurchbr.org.uk

What are you talking about?

It clearly tells you why in the Insta post.

 

[CH1]

What are you talking about?

It clearly tells you why in the Insta post.

Van Gogh has been there at least since 1995, apparently not under present management . The "Insta Post" only refers to the last 9 years - and doesn't mention paying the rent.
"We’ve been compelled to take the incredibly tough decision to close Café Van Gogh (from today), after nine years of trading as a unique vegan social enterprise, which always placed kindness and ethics at the heart of its business model. 
 Alongside many hospitality businesses, we’ve been negatively impacted by a series of events including covid, Brexit, the steep rise in energy costs and changes to the lunchtime economy that working from home has created. Put simply, sales have been significantly down for several months now, whilst our costs have done nothing but rise." 
 
The two supportive posts under it from Toucan Employment and Roots and Shoots suggest part of its recent income had come from training fees.

I reckon there will be a Colombian café there in due course.
Meanwhile if you wanted to discuss social firms going bust how about Café Nova at Elephant and Castle - though in their case it was because of redevelopment.

 

[Mr paulee]

'Many of you will know that we’ve been working on converting our community interest company to charitable status – but sadly our financial circumstances have meant that we can no longer legitimately continue to trade whilst this is pending. We are therefore left with no option but to close. '

Could you explain what that has to with church plant or any such?

 

[CH1]

'Many of you will know that we’ve been working on converting our community interest company to charitable status – but sadly our financial circumstances have meant that we can no longer legitimately continue to trade whilst this is pending. We are therefore left with no option but to close. '

Could you explain what that has to with church plant or any such?

Don't know. As you are so het up about my speculations I looked Van Gogh up on Companies House, and as at 30 June 2023 their account seem OK.
In fact they have gone so far as to incorporate a traditional Income/Expenditure statement - such transparency is rare these days.
Note the low rent and high staffing costs.
Note also that from 2016 their financial backers were Big Issue Invest Ltd, who still have a floating charge over the business (which can be accessed at Companies House).

 

[Tulster218]

Could you explain what that has to with church plant or any such?

The Van Gogh Cafe had been tenants of Christ Church on Brixton Road. Given the church's current success, evidenced by their expansion to a new site for what is known as church planting, they might prefer to keep the space for their own use rather than lease it to a cafe.

 

[BigMoaner]

I saw a flier about this campaign recently going on about "settlers". Nour is run by immigrant family FFS.

I was in Nour Cash and Carry later on to do a lot of shopping. Dates that aren't from Israel/ cheap yoghurt drink among other things.

I think the best way to support them is to shop there.

When I'm in Nour Cash and Carry they have a lot of people from ethnic minorities doing shopping

I think the campaign against them is the worst sort of anti racism. The if your not "black" in sense of being Afro Carribbean then you are not really subject to racism.

"settlers" is such a silly word. if we are going to play that game my nan and her mum are even truer "settlers" of brixton.

it's a divisive as any other form of racism, imo.

 

[BusLanes]

We're all settlers somewhere I guess?

 

[CH1]

The Van Gogh Cafe had been tenants of Christ Church on Brixton Road. Given the church's current success, evidenced by their expansion to a new site for what is known as church planting, they might prefer to keep the space for their own use rather than lease it to a cafe.

I think you have put what I was trying to say better.

By the way there is undoubtedly a book to be written about Christ Church - especially the major upgrade in 1902-4 when the very imposing church hall and new church were built .
I posted some stuff on the Brixton History thread: General Brixton history - photos, stories etc

It should be noted that Christ Church has struggled to survive since at least the 1970s. In the early 1980s the congregation had fallen to 7 I believe, and the Diocese moved to make the church redundant.
The surviving parishioners fought back, and a very progressive vicar called Nigel Godfrey was appointed to try to save the situation.
At that time the church hall (see link) was hived off and became the Lambeth Co-operative Development Agency.
Similarly the Van Gogh Cafe was created.

Even with these new developments, the church never had enough attendance to justify using the main part of the building (also shown in my link).
So they had services in the entrance hall - arranged as a worship space seating 100 or so.
I used to go there in the last 1980s, and what you got were "choruses" instead of hymns - accompanied by a piano or maybe a guitar.
So essentially the church was "evangelical" Anglican - as in fact it was founded to be.

The new arrangements seem to be a bit of a break from the past - but if I may cynically say the Church of England is currently in a position of seeking minorities to serve, since the majority of the population would never dream of going to church - unless possibly for a wedding or funeral. Of course some church schools give preference to church member's children too - but falling rolls suggest the demographics may make this irrelevant.

 

[Rushy]

"settlers" is such a silly word. if we are going to play that game my nan and her mum are even truer "settlers" of brixton.

it's a divisive as any other form of racism, imo.

As a "settler" in the UK myself I've always found Britain surprisingly parochial. People are often looked on at as outsiders if they can't count at least one dead generation from the area. Worst place I experienced was the west country in the early 90s. I had a girlfriend who had lived on farm there all her life and her parents had been there goodness knows how long before - but I lost count of the number of times they were casually referred to as incommers by her friends.

Brixton has its own weird thing where people very quickly let you know how long they have lived here - like a badge. I was in a council meeting recently and we were all invited to introduce ourselves and the room of twenty or so people each stated how long they had lived in Brixton. No one asked us to but the first person said it and then everyone followed. I cringed as I followed the crowd to do it too, whilst at the same time feeling uncomfortably pleased that it was longer than most. All very "I'm more Brixton than you!". Needless to say the council officers were not local.

 

[BigMoaner]

As a "settler" in the UK myself I've always found Britain surprisingly parochial. People are often looked on at as outsiders if they can't count at least one dead generation from the area. Worst place I experienced was the west country in the early 90s. I had a girlfriend who had lived on farm there all her life and her parents had been there goodness knows how long before - but I lost count of the number of times they were casually referred to as incommers by her friends.

Brixton has its own weird thing where people very quickly let you know how long they have lived here - like a badge. I was in a council meeting recently and we were all invited to introduce ourselves and the room of twenty or so people each stated how long they had lived in Brixton. No one asked us to but the first person said it and then everyone followed. I cringed as I followed the crowd to do it too, whilst at the same time feeling uncomfortably pleased that it was longer than most. All very "I'm more Brixton than you!". Needless to say the council officers were not local.

"i've lived here for 20 years, I am real brixton."

massive shrug of the shoulders from me. trrific, well done.

 

[ash]

Wrong thread

 

[Rushy]

"i've lived here for 20 years, I am real brixton."

massive shrug of the shoulders from me. trrific, well done.

I'm never quite certain what the implication is. Is it that your opinion should be given more weight the longer you've lived here? Or you should have more rights? Is it as simple as a trump card? It certainly doesn't fit well with the idea of inclusivity.

 

[BigMoaner]

I'm never quite certain what the implication is. Is it that your opinion should be given more weight the longer you've lived here? Or you should have more rights? Is it as simple as a trump card? It certainly doesn't fit well with the idea of inclusivity.

or the reality of neoliberal capitalism and the constant displacement of nearly everyone. some people get lucky somehow, they have a long term tenancy, inhereted their folks house, etc, people i guess hold on to notiions of authenticity etc. i find someone who lives in a boring suburb of cambridge just as (potentionally) interesting as someone whose lived on teh mean streets of brixton. lol. it's a weird badge of honour tbh. it's a periphery thing, with little substance.

 

[BigMoaner]

Similar is why i sometimes eye roll at the "diversity is so wonderful" - i mean it's nice to live around lots of people who are from different backgrounds, but i don't really buy that it's "wonderful". it's just sharing space and some products admist teh gruel and grind of a capitalist machine. whether i am living side by side with someone from spain or basingstoke makes little difference to me because what we are thinking, feeling, and doing is largely dominated by market forces and the "machine" anyway.

 

[Winot]

I'm never quite certain what the implication is. Is it that your opinion should be given more weight the longer you've lived here? Or you should have more rights? Is it as simple as a trump card? It certainly doesn't fit well with the idea of inclusivity.

It's also self-defeating. If you believe that you are more worthy than those that arrived after you then logically you are less worthy than those that arrived before you.

 

[BigMoaner]

"It's wonderrrfully diverse"

that's nice, but i am not like charging there because it's "wonderful." it's just different people from different backgrounds. the whole thing has never quite landed with me.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Anyone know what the police cordon was about yesterday (Thurs 27/6) on Birxton Hill around the little park towards St Matthews Road?

 

[technical]

"It's wonderrrfully diverse"

that's nice, but i am not like charging there because it's "wonderful." it's just different people from different backgrounds. the whole thing has never quite landed with me.

I kind of know what you mean, but I genuinely love living on a street where we have so many different nationalities. We have neighbours from all over the world, and it feels (to me at least) as if everyone gets on and is interested in everybody else's background - even my Yorkshire one.

 

[nagapie]

I kind of know what you mean, but I genuinely love living on a street where we have so many different nationalities. We have neighbours from all over the world, and it feels (to me at least) as if everyone gets on and is interested in everybody else's background - even my Yorkshire one.

I like it too. As a foreigner I find it uncomfortable to live in a more homogeneous part of the country.
I also love all the different smells and sounds when walking through Brixton and it reminds me of Africa, which is why I settled here.

 

[Rushy]

Anyone know what the police cordon was about yesterday (Thurs 27/6) on Birxton Hill around the little park towards St Matthews Road?

Stabbing in the Peace Gardens on Wednesday night.

 

[editor]

I'm never quite certain what the implication is. Is it that your opinion should be given more weight the longer you've lived here? Or you should have more rights? Is it as simple as a trump card? It certainly doesn't fit well with the idea of inclusivity.

I guess - and I am guessing here - that the implication is that if you moved to Brixton when it was shit/run down/fucked up then you're more invested in the community than someone who has just rollerbladed into their new penthouse suite during the big money years. Or something.

 

[CH1]

I guess - and I am guessing here - that the implication is that if you moved to Brixton when it was shit/run down/fucked up then you're more invested in the community than someone who has just rollerbladed into their new penthouse suite during the big money years. Or something.

I think on a philosophical level each are invested in THEIR OWN PERCEPTION of Brixton.
Which is our problem. (said Grasshopper)

 

[teuchter]

I think it's reasonable up to a point.

People who have known a place longer, are more likely to have an understanding of various contexts and are also more likely to be aware of issues that might have been around for some time and know about attempts at solutions that have been tried (and which maybe have failed) multiple times. Like a kind of version of what they call institutional knowledge in organisations ... the new person comes in and wants to change loads of stuff but people who've been there for a long time know that these things have already been shown to work/not work. A memory of decision making processes & paths.

It also seems fair enough to assume that someone who's already lived in a place a long time is likely to have a more long term interest in its future.