Let's all hang together

'A shop with a difference in an area where theatre and community were once one'.

A new shop on New Cross Road promises something a little bit different, offering not only hand-picked second-hand clothes and accessories, but also cheap exhibition space downstairs (£12.50 per day, three days minimum) and poetry & music on Friday nights starting this week. Art lessons and life drawing classes are also being offered at a very reasonable rate.


'Let's all hang together' is a great name with its mixed-up connotations of solidarity versus execution, and the shop is well worth a browse. The shop is a venture by Art Saves Lives which is run by Dean Stalham and Jaine Laine of the Deptford Living Archive; in the window are old black and white photographs from the archive, blown up and framed, a snapshot of the past.

Inside you can find hand-picked good quality second-hand clothes; don't come here for the cheap stuff, if you have the stamina to root through the stalls in Douglas Way you will find similar stuff for a fraction of the price, but it will be a godsend for folks who are cash-rich(er) and stamina-poor.

The items on sale - including lots of shoes and handbags and a rather alarming mountain of day-glo-painted 'rave' T-shirts - are just a part of the offering. Every Friday from this week they are offering The Friday Lip - poetry and live music with a resident DJ who will be playing an eclectic mix of original vinyls from 10pm till 1am. Entry is £2 and there is a cheap bar and 'exquisite nibbles'.