Damo

You could certainly call it "unpretentious", its a closer relation to the CPT than the Palmerston. One of the few drinking places near LL where you can get a seat on a Fri/Sat night. In fact, you usually have a pick of about a dozen. Does Becks Vier and the Grolsch Wheat beer on tap, nice. Food is trad pub grub, certainly not gastro. For a quiet (though sometimes the barmaids turn the music up a bit loud) or quick drink, it hits the spot. Disclaimer - I live round the corner so its easy to get to and I have gone off busy pubs, see most of LL

Maybe you have mine?

Our collection day is Tuesday but they collected today instead. I'm okay that they were a day late but they've taken our paper recycling bag and green waste bag away AGAIN!!!(6) Its so wasteful that we, and I guess many others, have to re-order these items time after time. BORING

Caleb Samuels are opening on Upland Road at the moment. Signs went up yesterday on the old furniture shop opposite the dry cleaners. I'm guessing they are more rentals than sales, judging from a quick Google search. Interesting to see how an independent (presuming they are?) based off the main LL strip will do in this property environment? Anybody know what "Don't Lose The Plot" up by the Magdela was about? Can that be added the list of ex-estate agents too?

Off topic slightly but I for one am seriously relieved that Tesco didn't get their claws into the site, that goes down as a near miss. Interesting Natwest were interested too, I wonder if this was for a new branch or investment purposes? Good luck to ESPH, a welcome addition to LL. Not an estate agent or kithcenware shop and renovating a derelict building whilst offering a unique service to the locale. Ignore the boo boys. (Great to see the forum tradition of putting the boot in is alive and kicking, literally. If a "premium" gym isn't your thing, don't worry about it or the welfare of those who may be interested. Or wait until its opened and you've seen what's on offer, it may be actually reasonable value? Mini-rant over :)))

IIRC, the block on Lordship Lane with Budgens at one end and the chemists at the other is built on a bomb damaged site. I think it was a V2 that not only destroyed the original block but killed about 20 people at a tram stop, pretty grim. Not only does this account for the modern block but that the Northcross Road shops don't start for a while and the corner of Nutfield Road has two new builds. I presume the Palmerston must have been significantly repaired? All of this was from a book on old East Dulwich which I sped read in the Horniman a couple of years ago (probably the same as AB references above) so apologise if the details are a bit flakey. There may have been a before and after picture of that area too.

Apologies for getting off the thread title but I guess we can look forward to Foxtons Mini's joining the ranks of Ludlow/Wates Beetles clogging up the surrounding area too? I'm really looking forward to seeing another bunch of braying wideboys screech around in their "urban" painted cars, good luck to those that end of Crawthew Grove. And, along with Curry Houses, the last thing LL needs is another Estate Agent. There goes the neighbo(u)rhood indeed.

The London Wildlife Garden Centre on Marsden Road is always good for a quick runaround for younger kiddies.

Good luck, did the Sprint a couple of years ago, great fun! Quite a useful time too, even if I say so myself. Then I had kids and am now fat. Which seamlessly leads me into antenatal classes. We had NHS ones from Kings at Dulwich Hospital and they were absolutley fine. Never did the NCT ones, so can't comment but we made several good "baby" friends from the classes. The midwife and info was fine and I guess the facts are pretty much the same NHS or NCT, ie childbirth will probably be painful and you'll be tired for a while! Ah, the joy of being on the other side:)) I'll leave it to others to go on about types of delivery, pain relief etc. As a bloke, you're on shakey ground passing comment. Some people are quite anti/pro NCT but I'm not sure why? Personally, it was good to do something pro-active prior to birth but afterwards we were lead by the kids, which was fine. We, but especially my wife, really benefitted from the whole social thing though. A good support network has been invaluable so I say go to for that. Our class demographic was 95% white, middle class, media types. Read into that what you will. Even the Dad's have been for occasional beer/curry too so I've benefited too but my 5k time hasn't.

Thats the one, ooops! :-$

The Grove near ED station has a nice garden. Despite its slightly dodgy reputation, I've always had a nice time there, staff have been pleasant and you can usually get a seat in the garden unlike many of the other pubs about. Was there at Easter with my kids and one of the barstaff gave us a large Easter Egg/Cuddly toy combo, which was certainly a nice gesture and I enjoyed the egg at least.

The guys in Budgens will give you a plastic bag for some chewing gum.

Understood. The thing that pains me about re-using plastic bags in this way, which I agree is recycling, is that the contents are sealed in a plastic sarcophagous that inhibites the potential breakdown of waste thus adding to landfill. Or thats what I think anyway, unless someone knows better? Anyway, I'm straying off topic. Whilst I'm here, if anyone buys a newspaper or single item and puts it in a plastic bag in front me, I apologise for bringing you to task in advance. I'm sure you have a very good reason :)

Er, what's your logic Jeremy? Dub may use bin liners so he/she should have to use plastic bags from shops too? The less plastic used, the better I'd have thought. For the record, (self righteous mode)I use biodegradable bin liners and take my satchel to the shops. We have cloth bags from SMBS and Ed's, maybe other traders could join in and get the green brownie points as well as free advertising.

As a fellow commuter cyclist, that is one rough story. You have all my sympathies and I'm glad that you came off relativley lightly. A scaffold pole in the face sounds amazingly painful and I guess the consolation, if any, is that you weren't more seriously injured and they didn't follow you and finish off the job. Or maybe at least if they had tried to pinch your phone etc, there would have been some "justification" rather than an extreme act of random violence. Makes my p*** boil(6) I shudder to think if that happened to me. As I head into the West End, I've usually steered clear of Burgess Park mainly as I feel it slows me down a bit, would rather go via Southampton Way etc. Luckily I've never been attacked in 12 years of cycle commuting. Plenty of scares and scrapes but nothing compared to this. I hope you heal quickly and get riding ASAP, I presume this isn't putting you off? ps I'm familiar with your "work" from a cycle based forum and have seen the Ratbike around ED a couple of times. I'm on a Trek Portland with panniers at the moment, so say hello if we pass on the road and keep on truckin'. Damo

Despite my earlier pessimism, I commute to work everyday by bike and have a stable of 5 bikes. So will be in need of a LBS (local bike shop) for servicing and spares. How about doing some nice coffee rather than nasty?

Cue "horrendous" experiences from car drivers with other CPZ's, accusations of "stealth tax", the injustice of suspended bays, no guarantee of a space blah blah blah There are too many cars around LL. If a CPZ means fewer cars, then I'm for it. I personally find the sight of car clogged roads, both parked and moving, pretty depressing. A car is a privilege, not a right.

As a lurker on cycling forums, the topic of starting your own bike shop pops up regularly. Unfortunatly the universal response seems to be runnning an independent bikeshop is a very hard way to make a living. Most of these comments are from those working in the industry and seem pretty sincere. With reference to the talk of big boy chain stores on this forum, Evans seem to be opening a new shop a week. They are regarded as the Macdonalds of bike shops, I think they have one opening in Clapham soon? It'd be very hard to match their stock and price. Is there enough money in fixing punctures? The internet is also taking a sizeable slice of the higher end market too. Sorry to be doom laden and would hope to be proved wrong. FWIW I would happly patronise a local facility.

www.streetcar.co.uk No car, no problem. On your specific point though, the neighbour is in the wrong. On our particularly crowded street, the old traffic cone placement is a favourite way of "reserving" a space. As a non-driver, the irritation, fury and conflict this raises makes me glad to be unencumbered by such stress. ps All these metal boxes are a blight on our roads but thats another thread.......

Very shut for a couple of weeks after only being open for a relatively short time. ED not able to sustain a car wash/florists/cafe? Anyone got any gossip? Or maybe they're just on holiday?

Dog excrement, what about the human stuff? On the pavement at the start of Upland Road this morning, a pile of human looking poo with associated toilet paper, nice. A couple of months ago in exactly the same spot (this is opposite the Garden Centre) were some poo encrusted purple pants. Could this have something to do with the secret police HQ? Someone waging a faeces based vendetta against our boys in plain clothes?