My Fathers Place on Coldharbour Lane to become a cocktail bar

[Dexter Deadwood]

I probably should care about my personal data - but don't.

Are we not compelled to do lots of other things? Not just the census.

Can we just pick and choose?

I keep being told this is a free country but i don't see much evidence of freedom. If you are lucky you become a slave to the free market, if you are less fortunate you are punished. This is not a democracy, it's an open prison, our chains cut according to our coin.
The more coin you have the more likely you are to obey even doing the masters dirty work by chastising those with little to lose who threaten the penitentiary peace just by saying no.

We are compelled to be complicit in a system that is criminal, that is how the system maintains itself, but if as individuals we abdicate our responsibility to "pick and choose" then there is no hope of breaking the chains and we should accept the sear of the overseer without screaming.

 

[leanderman]

Fair enough

 

[ringo]

I think the venue had been struggling for a few years.

My Fathers Place was, for many years, run by Larry Lawrence, a Jamaican reggae producer of some renown who owned the Ethnic Fight label. I used to drop by now and then and have a chat with him and occasionally have a dig through the boxes of old vinyl stock he still had out the back. Lovely chap, he was always very friendly and helpful. Sadly he passed away in 2008 and the shop was never really the same, or even open that much, after that time.

 

[Rushy]

My Fathers Place was, for many years, run by Larry Lawrence, a Jamaican reggae producer of some renown who owned the Ethnic Fight label. I used to drop by now and then and have a chat with him and occasionally have a dig through the boxes of old vinyl stock he still had out the back. Lovely chap, he was always very friendly and helpful. Sadly he passed away in 2008 and the shop was never really the same, or even open that much, after that time.

Do you happen to know whether his real first name was Rudolph?

 

[ringo]

Do you happen to know whether his real first name was Rudolph?

His real first name was Clifton. Larry was a nickname, as you might have guessed.

 

[BigMoaner]

My Fathers Place was, for many years, run by Larry Lawrence, a Jamaican reggae producer of some renown who owned the Ethnic Fight label. I used to drop by now and then and have a chat with him and occasionally have a dig through the boxes of old vinyl stock he still had out the back. Lovely chap, he was always very friendly and helpful. Sadly he passed away in 2008 and the shop was never really the same, or even open that much, after that time.

like, whatever! we can now have an awesome cocktail there and take pics of it on our ipads! and it'll be soooooo random, cos we're like in realllllly rough part of brixton?

 

[ViolentPanda]

It's not impossible that as we get older we become less tolerant of antisocial behaviour, less tolerant of young people, more fearful that others are pushing in etc, etc

It's human nature innit.

Except that "human nature" isn't actually innate human behaviour where you progress from one POV to another as you age/go up in the world, it's entirely dependent on cultural exposure.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Might be a common enough occurrence through history, but to dismiss it as "human nature" is to sweep under the carpet the immediate history and politics of what is happening.

TBF, "human nature" is a veritable dustbinful of vague excuses dressed up to look like serious comment. As you say, the history and politics (as well as the social setting) need to be borne in mind.

 

[ViolentPanda]

The laads, shireites apparently ruining CHL.

Aren't they a sect of Muslims?

 

[ViolentPanda]

You're getting your social sub groups, stereotyping/generalizations totally out of whack here.

Never seen a fight in a 'hipster' style bar or venue, hate to generalise here but hipsters tend to be quite chilled and not the type looking to fight.

Its the dregs that follow once an area is seen as to be cool that will cause the riff-raff and ruin it for everyone.

"Dregs"?
What, you mean like descendents of convicts and such?

 

[ViolentPanda]

And white working / middle class, asian, Portuguese, blah blah blah.
Brixton should not be curated like some sort of afro-Caribbean museum. It's another phase in its evolution to which plenty of afro Caribbean business people (not just business) have been and still are contributing.

"Evolution" implies a natural process of development/re-development/social change. I'd say that over the last 10 years (arguably 15) "forced mutation" is a better description, and that given the plans of this local authority and its neighbours, the mutation will only speed up.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I refused to complete that census and the one before that, so did many people i know. We don't figure in their statistics.

The reason I never succumbed to that temptation is that central govt based (not sure it still does since the coalition) their funding formulas for certain local authority services on census returns.

 

[ViolentPanda]

The Tube usage stats - and, more importantly the housing and school places crisis - suggest population estimates for London may be too low.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. For example, anyone attempting to avoid a debt will minimise their exposure to debt collectors by not getting on the electoral register (another source for crude numbers of adults per borough). Arguably, since the Poll Tax, there's been a consistent underestimate of around half a million for London alone (I don't have a source, this was an "educated guess" by a demographer working on a TfL job to model potential passenger numbers a couple of years ago).

 

[leanderman]

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. For example, anyone attempting to avoid a debt will minimise their exposure to debt collectors by not getting on the electoral register (another source for crude numbers of adults per borough). Arguably, since the Poll Tax, there's been a consistent underestimate of around half a million for London alone (I don't have a source, this was an "educated guess" by a demographer working on a TfL job to model potential passenger numbers a couple of years ago).

Also, it's possible that recent migrants do not fill out the forms in great numbers.

 

[Ol Nick]

Armies of statisticians interpret the census and lots more besides before publishing any figures. Over 65 million people you can make a lots of statistical inference.

 

[CH1]

My Fathers Place was, for many years, run by Larry Lawrence, a Jamaican reggae producer of some renown who owned the Ethnic Fight label. I used to drop by now and then and have a chat with him and occasionally have a dig through the boxes of old vinyl stock he still had out the back. Lovely chap, he was always very friendly and helpful. Sadly he passed away in 2008 and the shop was never really the same, or even open that much, after that time.

Here is part of a photo of the terrace taken in 1986 (apologies for quality).
As you can see it was a record shop called Round 2 Records then.

 

[editor]

Here is part of a photo of the terrace taken in 1986 (apologies for quality).
As you can see it was a record shop called Round 2 Records then.

That pic is ace. Is it yours? I'd love to do a 'then and now' feature.
Have you any more?!

 

[CH1]

That pic is ace. Is it yours? I'd love to do a 'then and now' feature.
Have you any more?!

A friend did some black and white photos of the shops/Barrier Block/houses in my part of Coldharbour Lane. I have A4-ish prints of some, these "contacts" and the negatives.

 

[isvicthere?]

I keep being told this is a free country but i don't see much evidence of freedom. If you are lucky you become a slave to the free market, if you are less fortunate you are punished. This is not a democracy, it's an open prison, our chains cut according to our coin.
The more coin you have the more likely you are to obey even doing the masters dirty work by chastising those with little to lose who threaten the penitentiary peace just by saying no.

We are compelled to be complicit in a system that is criminal, that is how the system maintains itself, but if as individuals we abdicate our responsibility to "pick and choose" then there is no hope of breaking the chains and we should accept the sear of the overseer without screaming.

Still, mustn't grumble.....

(Only joking. Actually, you make a very good point).

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

Still, mustn't grumble.....

(Only joking. Actually, you make a very good point).

Lol, i woke up in a bad mood that morning.

 

[Nedrop]

Great photos, looks a lot neat and tidier than it currently is in those photos

Bit suspicious about a couple of those convenience stores on that strip, one has barely any stock

 

[gabi]

My Fathers Place was, for many years, run by Larry Lawrence, a Jamaican reggae producer of some renown who owned the Ethnic Fight label. I used to drop by now and then and have a chat with him and occasionally have a dig through the boxes of old vinyl stock he still had out the back. Lovely chap, he was always very friendly and helpful. Sadly he passed away in 2008 and the shop was never really the same, or even open that much, after that time.

He was a tough old bastard. I lived next to my fathers place for a couple of years and me and my flatmate got to know him. That backroom of his was fucking incredible, he wasn't immune to a bit of name-dropping either, worked with some of the greats. He helped my flatmate get his first record pressed too i seem to remember. He was the don of that little block of shops/flats.

 

[ringo]

He was a tough old bastard. I lived next to my fathers place for a couple of years and me and my flatmate got to know him. That backroom of his was fucking incredible, he wasn't immune to a bit of name-dropping either, worked with some of the greats. He helped my flatmate get his first record pressed too i seem to remember. He was the don of that little block of shops/flats.

Yep, often the way with the old reggae legends, it's to their great credit that so many can bely their tough Kingston upbringing with a kind and generous nature.

 

[Rushy]

That backroom of his was fucking incredible,

How so?

 

[Peanut Monkey]

A friend did some black and white photos of the shops/Barrier Block/houses in my part of Coldharbour Lane. I have A4-ish prints of some, these "contacts" and the negatives.
View attachment 48141
View attachment 48142
View attachment 48143

Do you have full size prints of the photos on the contact sheet? One of those is of my house and it'd great to have a copy.

 

[Smick]

A friend did some black and white photos of the shops/Barrier Block/houses in my part of Coldharbour Lane. I have A4-ish prints of some, these "contacts" and the negatives.
View attachment 48141
View attachment 48142
View attachment 48143

Not specific to Brixton, but I'm loving some of the cars in those photos. The first one has a Mk2 Granada and a Citroën DS.

 

[gabi]

How so?

Huge vinyl collection including some pretty rare stuff and original plates of trojan records stuff on the walls.

he also claimed that bob marley, lee perry etc etc used to bed down in there when in town.

 

[CH1]

Do you have full size prints of the photos on the contact sheet? One of those is of my house and it'd great to have a copy.

Looking at the contacts the ones I do NOT have prints for are Nos 3,4,13,15,16,18,19,20,21,22,23,25,26,28,29,36
I have scanned all the prints I have and will be sending them to Editor.
If you want to reply or PM me I can send the relevant one(s) to you.
If it is one of the unprinted shots you could also borrow the negative if you want.
Maybe we should start a Coldharbour Lane thread for CHL cognescenti?

 

[leanderman]

Going to have Swiss beer, Twitter suggests:

@saltsearth: John from @John1936biere a reet nice bloke! 1936 coming to 336 #coldharbourlane soon http://t.co/FVlEIOa9Lm

 

[CH1]

Going to have Swiss beer, Twitter suggests:

@saltsearth: John from @John1936biere a reet nice bloke! 1936 coming to 336 #coldharbourlane soon http://t.co/FVlEIOa9Lm

All I could find out about the premises is that locals think it is owned by Larry's daughter who had been talking of renting it out, but currently on holiday.
Obituary of Larry here
Tracks on Gabi's featured album sound like this:

Not many have large enough bass units to get the effect - though my 30 year old Wharfedale Delta 70s do alright!