Reg Smeeton

I've stopped sending parcels from the Post Office. Book online, print off the label, and DPD can pick up the parcel from your home or, if you want to do it a bit cheaper, you can drop your parcel at various places locally including Food & Wine 141 Lordship Lane. I dropped off a 4kg parcel on Tuesday and it was delivered on Thursday, and cost me less than ?10 I think. (Hermes et al also do similar, you'd need to check online which shops they pick up from).

Meanwhile if you are looking for a quick, low cost way to SEND parcels, I highly recommend DPD. You can print off the label and drop your parcel at Food & Wine (141 Lordship, opposite the cinema). Saved me standing in a 30 minute queue at the Post Office.

My weekly magazine has been arriving, on average, about six days late since April. One edition was over 2 weeks late, another never arrived at all. A birthday card arrived over a week late. It's the collapse of what used to be a great service that perhaps we all took for granted.

Back on topic - the central 'villa' section of the hospital will be retained, and will become the school's library etc. The large buildings with the domes will all be demolished. Demolition was due to start at the end of term, slightly surprised the bulldozers aren't already at work.

I subscribe to a weekly magazine. The June 13th issue hasn't arrived yet (unsurprisingly nor has 27th June). This isn't just affecting customers, the publishing companies must be getting flak from readers complainting about late delivery, and there will be cancelled subscriptions.

Still had no significant rain for weeks - do water those trees.

Judging from the pipes in the ground you find next to some new trees, I assume there is a tree watering service, but maybe it's been reduced during lockdown. For the time being I suggest we shouldn't rely on the Council to water the trees.

It has barely rained since the middle of March, and the forecast is fine for the next two weeks. Lovely for people, but not great news for young trees. One young tree not far from me is looking extremely parched, with the leaves dry and crumbling. If you have young trees near you, do give them a bucket's worth of water this weekend.

Anyone else been aware of a marked increase in sirens in the last week or so - numerous per day. My guess would have been coronavirus-related ambulances, but the two vehicles I've seen with sirens have both been unmarked cars. Are these police?

Having just done a shop on Lordship Lane, I'm astonished at how casual many people seem to be about social distancing. In one deli there were about 25 people standing inside in a queue. I left immediately. Even in M&S, people were quite close to each other in the checkout area. In one bakery, an assistant was putting loaves into bags with bare hands. In contrast, Hop, Burns & Black were strictly enforcing a limit on people in the shop. Come on people (shops AND customers) it's time to take this extremely seriously, and if you need a glimpse of where we might be going, look at Italy.

Some reasons to love East Dulwich, especially with young family: - because of local amenities, can manage without a car, even with young family - walkability to many 'useful' shops (groceries/butcher/drink/newsagent/post office/hair/DIY) - being able to walk/take very short bus ride to a good cinema - numerous good primary and secondary schools (can't actually think of any 'bad' ones) - good selection of pubs and cafes/places to hang out/meet up. - close to Dulwich Park and Dulwich village/Gallery - Dulwich Hamlet FC, and lots of good sports amenities (cycling at velodrome, swimming pools, football, hockey and cricket grounds) - the brand new Dulwich Day Health centre opening in 2020 (and for anything more serious, Kings College Hospital) - convenience of 13-minute train ride to London Bridge (and Denmark Hill is a very handy station too), trains frequent enough to be a reasonable substitute for tube. - the East Dulwich Forum, which we've found invaluable over the years, particularly for buying/selling and for general advice and expertise, it's probably one of the best such local forums in the country

This adds to the list of petrol stations that have closed in and close to SE22 in the last 20 years. Ones I can think of that closed are: - SG Smith in Dulwich Village (still sold petrol in late 90s, later became just a car showroom, now flats being built) - Two garages that sold petrol between Goose Green and Peckham Rye (one is now Tesco express, the other flats). A third (Murco) remains on that strip. - a Texaco just up from Denmark Hill station (now flats) There was also at least one close to Camberwell New Rd near Camberwell Green, and three on Walworth Road (only one remains)

Alleyns have history with this sort of thing. They did something similar on a Sunday night when opening their new theatre.

Alleyns of course (celebrating 400 years, or something). Who else would put on a late evening firework display with little thought for the hundreds of families with sleeping young children close by?

Now I'm being really dim - I clicked on the link in the OP - where is this overview map? Which page? All I see is Fig 2, 3 etc - each with roads highlighted in red blue or green. I don't see a key anywhere. But I'll be happy if somebody just tells me: Green = ? Blue = ? Red = ? MarkT Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Reg, there's an "overview map" which includes the > key, and shows the layout of maps 1-5

Sorry to be dim, but can somebody explain to me the colour coding of the roads in the map: what does red/green/blue represent (I can't see a key anywhere).

The one at the Phoenix is also good (just out of SE22 I know)

Superdrug? - ouch, that's going to hurt Lloyds pharmacy on North Cross and Co-op a few doors up on Lordship, two shops that I am quite fond of.

Good to see builders hard at work restoring the building that was the 'Golden City' chippy - they've already removed the crumbling pebble dash to reveal the old brickwork.

Some perspective - in 1985 an off-duty policeman, George Hammond, was stabbed at a very similar location on Lordship Lane. And I think that was late evening rather than the small hours. I'd say East Dulwich felt less safe then than it does now (in those days the East Dulwich Tavern was a hang-out for crooks, for example).

Among the new double yellow lines proposed are some more in Playfield Crescent. These are to go along an old dropped kerb that hasn't been used for at least 25 years - what may once have been used as a parking space is now fenced off with a shed behind it, so nobody's going to using it for parking. This means Playfield is due to lose three parking spots for no reason other than box-ticking. This is in addition to the gratuitously long yellows that were added at the Playfield junction with Colwell, and around the inside of the Playfield bend. Meanwhile no extended yellows were added where they are actually needed (Colwell/Lordship Lane junction). Ludicrous.

Is this thread now about Mr Liu or about slagging off Lux Thai? It's hard to tell. Please stick to Mr Liu as the topic.

I've always been resistant to CPZ because of its knock-on impact on non-CPZ areas, and also on people who work locally (eg retail and the primary schools) who may not have easy public transport commutes. Regarding the proposed cost however, since the charge only applies to car-owners who are generally not among the most deprived members of the community, ?125/year, ?2.50 a week, doesn't seem extortionate in the grand scheme of things. It costs that much just to park on the street for one hour up on Champion Hill.

3:30pm - the roundabout has partly re-opened, but there were still a couple of police cars there, and the 185 that I was on announced it would be non-stop from Goose Green to the library. The traffic tailbacks had gone, fingers crossed it'll be ok by rush hour.

Robin - only just saw your update, that's great news about the trees on Melbourne, thanks for all your efforts on this.