Recent happenings in and around Deptford

This blog has been shockingly neglected the last few months with my paid work taking up the vast majority of my spare time. Apologies to those of you who have missed getting your fix of cynical sarcasm - I've been keeping up on Twitter but hope to get the blog back to a respectable level of regularity in the coming months.

Of course things move on in Deptford even when bloggers are otherwise engaged, but happily we have a good complement of local voices to cover a lot of the events so I don't feel too bad, you are in capable hands with Crosswhatfields, Brockley Central and the Greenwich Phantom. Even 853 strays down to Deptford from Charlton occasionally, most recently to wade into the Job Centre row.

There's a whole host of upcoming events, new initiatives and places to review that have sprung up since I last did any serious blogging, so I have a lot of catching up to do. There's also a good few stories bubbling under that I hope to do some digging into, and of course you'll no doubt get a dose of my ramblings on new public realm in and around Deptford.

In the meantime, here's some upcoming events, new initiatives and recent stories that have popped up in the last month or so. I apologise in advance for the surfeit of exclamation marks, I was a little overcome by emotion and excitement at my first blog post for weeks.

Deptford Community Garden (aka Deptford Open Garden) on Crossfields St/Coffey St has just been launched, only to find Thames Water are due to start digging trenches around them. In a strange quirk of serendipity the garden group seem to have found a helpful and flexible attitude in their dealings with Thames Water that was sadly lacking from the council contacts supposedly there to facilitate the project.

New Deptford Cinema project! How exciting - plans to start an independent cinema in a disused shop on Deptford Broadway, right opposite the site where the Odeon was originally located! Sadly I missed the first meeting due to total ignorance - I never walk past the shop and I wasn't aware of the meeting, so I'll just have to rely on someone putting something in the comments to tell me how it went! (go on, you know you want to!)

A big row! About a pub name! Move along now, nothing to see here. I'll be reviewing our new hostelry in due course - both the arrival of the pub and my review are long overdue.

Plans for a user group for Brookmill Park, reported on Brockley Central. One of my favourite little Deptford secrets, love to look out for the kingfishers and herons as I ride through this little green strip of parkland. Meet at the park-keeper's shed on Wed 27th August, 6pm, if you are interested. More details on the BC post.

Free entry to the Fan Museum on 2 August! I've been told this is a fantastic museum by everyone I know who's been, shamefully I haven't made it yet but I certainly intend to. The community open day offers free admission for all Royal Greenwich and Lewisham borough residents, bring ID such as driving licence, utility bill etc. There are curator-led mini tours throughout the day, fan-making demonstrations, kids activity trails and refreshments in the Orangery.

4-17th August 2014: Seventh Greenwich Annuale at Greenwich Gallery, Peyton Place, SE10 8RS
Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm, Sat, Sun 1pm-5pm
Photographic exhibition by the Greenwich Satellite Group of London Independent Photography.

There are also special events - on 7 Aug at 7pm an exhibition critique by Elisabeth Blanchet and Mandy Williams, and on 14th August they have a Pecha Kucha (a series of presentations of 20 slides, 20 seconds each) from 7pm onwards.

New Cross Learning celebrates winning a two-year lease from the council! New Cross Learning is celebrating with our charity Bold Vision after winning a two-year lease from Lewisham Council, starting Thursday 17  July. It has been nearly three years since a group of volunteers backed by local charity Bold Vision took over the running of the former New Cross Library, and turned it into New Cross Learning which has a full Lewisham Library service with 5,000 books, and offers community internet access  - and much more besides. Read more on the link above...

And finally, for now, the thorny issue of river crossings. TfL wants to hear your views about options for river crossings in East London. You can take part in the survey via this link until 12 September.

The London Chamber of Commerce & Industry, on the other hand, is being shamelessly partisan in coming out with its own design for a new highway bridge for us lot downriver. A rather fugly one if I might be so bold - the influence of the architects on this design is undeniably apparent. The impacts the LCCI quotes make no mention of pollution - you might want to remind yourself of the current situation on our roads by visiting No to Silvertown Tunnel website.

Incidentally I see from the LCCI's facebook page of the launch, our own deputy mayor Alan Smith was present at the launch, where he asked a question. I wonder if it was about pollution - can anyone enlighten me?

That's it for now folks. Having discharged my duty to the community in listing a good proportion of the stuff that's been sent to me, along with stuff I've lifted from other bloggers, I look forward to spending my next lunch hour casting a caustic eye over our latest local public realm etc.