How to get by in South London without losing your soul.

Three Tips From The Top

South London and its composite boroughs are a strange place, a place full of juxtaposition; the young cohabit with the old, the wealthy share adjoining walls with the unemployed, Afro-Caribbean barber shops stay open all night and squat parties thrown by art collectives stay open even longer.  

In a place so culturally boundless it is hard to keep track what’s what, who’s who and who you yourself even are - especially if like many of its citizens you’re an arts student recently expatriated from some suburb in the back end of nowhere.  

Things may seem strange to newcomers, indeed when I first moved to New Cross I found it hard to get to sleep for the constant wailing of police sirens.  But as I came to learn, this is but one of many quirks and eccentricities one has to put up with when living on the gaudier side of the river.

If only there was a blog way back then that sought to aquatint me with the nuances of South London living. Thankfully there's one here now, and its three tips for getting by down South without losing too much of your soul.

This is that blog, by the way, if you didn't get the whole meta-textual angle I was going for. 

1. Be smart when it comes to bendy busses: Now, I know every one looks to the bendy bus as a convenient and virtually free mode of transport, but ever since they kicked Red Ken out of City Hall there's been a bit of a crack down. Transport for London has random spot checks to see if you've tapped in for your journey and they're dishing out £20 fines like they were bird seed. The trick here is to always have £1.20 on your oyster, just in case you find yourself in a situation where they're storming the bus like the gestapo they are. I ended up having to pay a grand to these guys once.
2. Don't head to a party till at least 11.30: South London is one of those places where everyone knows everyone but not really enough to have a conversation that isn't excruciatingly awkward, over the course of your time here you're going to make a lot of "acquaintances." These acquaintances will for the most part be the people whose house parties you go to, and they'll have a whole circle of friends made up of people you barely know. If you head to one of their parties a little to early, say anywhere between 9 and 10, you'll end up having to partake in the awkward social melee that is exchanging pleasantries with people whose names you keep forgetting.  That all might sound a little anti social, and whilst I agree that life's too short not take any opportunity to make friends, its also way too short to waste an hour and a half of your life in a front room full of about four people trying not to look too bored whilst you text your mates find out when the hell they're gonna get here.
3. Get some work done, dummy: I understand that you're young, you're trying to make your way in the big city. I won't blame you for thinking that your life is like a greyer, more poverty stricken version of The OC, but try and prioritise things just a little. Whilst late nights and early starts might be a fundament of university life, going bald from overdue essay stress isn't the look this year. Avoid going nuts by offsetting having a good time with doing some actual work every now and then, I might sound like your dad but its all very true.

Local Boys (and girls) Done Good.

A showcase of South East London's burgeoning talent.

Once whilst on the toilet at uni, I noticed someone had written on the stall door "Lets fill this town with artists"; my sources tell me this is the slogan for a popular art supplies company, but I don't know jack about art or arts supplies so I'm going to assume it was written about the all the young creatives living in South East London, a group  and whose productivity knows no bounds and whose ranks will never thin, so long as

Who are these young masters and mistresses of the south east creative scene? Quit asking questions and I'll tell you about a few of them, alright?

 Beaty Heart

Chances are that if you've ever set foot in New Cross, been to a warehouse party in Peckham or received a Facebook invite to one, it was to see this band. Beaty Heart are a band comprised of five students from Goldsmiths and London College of communication, all living together in New Cross,  They've been making waves for about a year now, garnering a great deal of positive press coverage and who's to blame them? Their self styled brand of percussive dream pop gets the heart racing like a conga drum! Last year they played a riotous house party down South that eventually got shut down by the police. Intense, right?!

Check 'em out on the interwebs before they get too big to play your front room.

www.myspace.com/beatyheart

Clinic

Single handedly making poetry cool again, Clinic.  is a poetry, arts and music platform based in New Cross, South East London. They hold multi-disciplinary events which aim to bring together poets, artists and musicians - both emerging and established in their respective fields - in an ongoing artistic collaboration. So far they've held poetry readings, published books and released records and there seems to be no sign of them letting up any time soon.

Check them out at www.clinicpresents.com where you'll be able to submit work towards their latest anthology, check out photos from their previous events and find out about forthcoming ones. Give it a try buddy, Poetry's not just for girls' diaries and dream journals anymore!

 www.clinicpresents.com


The Old Police Station.

I know that in light of the current political situation, you might feel slightly adverse to anything even vaguely related to the police, but bare with me a moment. The Old Police station is a former police station re-purposed as a do your self art centre, run by artists for artists. Its facilities have been a temporary home for everything from exhibitions, independent film screenings, live performances and plays. Available for absolutely anyone to use, The Old Police Station is a rarely seen example of re-appropriation of disused urban space. It even has its own radio station. Holla at 'em via their website to listen to their radio-station, get informed about their latest and greatest endeavours and for details on how to book the space for your own exhibition, performance, screening or whatever the hell you want!

www.theoldpolicestation.org

 

Terrible tea and cheap fried breakfasts.

An interview with South London photographer Alex Harley.

Alex Harley is a fine example of the kind of creative talent that inhabit South East London;equal parts photographer, sales assistant and club promoter, our buddy Al does it all.

A hard working, creatively minded photography student, Al's blog functions both as a personal work journal a crucial insight into the lives of our fair town's youngest and freshest.


We caught up with him in one of his less busy moments to find out just a little more about who he is and what makes him tick.

Hey there! Who are you and what do you do?

Hey My names Alex Harley and I'm a photography student, part time denim specialist for Levis, part time lighting assistant for Studio Private and club promoter.

You're originally from Kent, what was it that initially drew you to South London?

I actually made a last minute decision to come to London, it was originally university that brought me here and a lot of my friends that I had met in UCA art college in Kent moved here too.

You've been living in South London for a number of years now, what do you have to say about the creative scene in this part of London, how does it compare to other places you have lived and studied?

I think there's always been a creative scene about this part of London, I just think its a case of we're adapting or growing into it at the moment. But in comparison to other places that I've lived there's just so much to grasp and make use of. If you put in the effort to find out what's going on you'll be constantly spoilt for choice.






Where's your favourite place to eat South of the river?





My favourite place to eat has to be the only place I really eat 'out' South of the river and that's Goldsmiths Cafe. It's a regular cafe with terrible tea and cheap fried breakfasts. What more would you want on a hangover and a budget.

South London is a place with a bit of a reputation, some people either love it, hate it or are scared to death of it; what are your best and worst experiences of South London, do you think there's any clout to the negative opinions people have of it?

South London is like any other part of London when you really get down to the facts, shit happens. Sure it has a reputation but so does everywhere else. If you put yourself in the situation enough times when bad shit is likely to happen then bad shit is likely to happen eventually. Sometimes its unavoidable. I've walked dark streets late at night in South London for years but the only time I've been mugged is on East London's busy Brick Lane. But then again, I know others who have not been so fortunate. Just do everything you can, with out trying too hard, to not make yourself an easy target.

How much, if at all, would you say your surroundings inspire and inform your photography?




Well I would love to go into documentary photography. Catching moments in time that would have been forgotten if not captured by my lens. People are my inspiration, peoples stories and their decisions. So South London is a very inspirational place for me as there are a ridiculous mix of individuals to observe everyday.

Young people and their exploits are a recurring theme in your work, what is it in particular that draws you to the subject of youth?







Again like I said, its creating these moments in time with a camera. When it was first invented people laughed at the fact of even considering an image 'art' (many still do). The camera and the images it produced were purely scientific recordings. I see the camera as a tool, a tool to record and observe. The youth that I interact with on a daily/nightly basis catch my eye more than anything else in this moment in time. Yeah sure I have a certain style that I like to keep fluent (my blog) but its my projects that really capture my main aims.


Also I find it interesting, and I'll try and word this with out sounding cheesy, how todays generation react to the lens. As little as 40 years ago someone would produce a camera and people would huddle together knowing how important that single image would probably be. Now everyone pretty much has one in their pocket. That racks my brains sometimes.



Outside of London, where are some of your favourite places to shoot?



My Grandparents house really inspires me to shoot, theres so many photographs from over the last 70 years or so all over the walls, all different formats, different cameras etc. It drives me insane the amount of memories lie with in these flat old crinkling 2D images. So I'm always hopped up on inspiration when I'm around that area in Hastings. But more as well is a obvious one but when I travel, anywhere when its unfamiliar. Even if its 20 miles in a direction I've never been before I photograph things that probably don't need to be.


You're one half of the creative force behind Fuck The White Board, a club night that's gotten a lot of positive press and drawn in some great talent from South East and even bands from across the pond, how did the night get started?

Well it started out with me trying out some college Gillian Wearing inspired project on clubbers really back in 2006. I started heading to these places in Kent asking them to write on a whiteboard whatever they were thinking. The club asked for the photos and used them as their actual photographs for the night and put them online. I started getting paid to do it round clubs in the Medway area. Then when I moved to London my friend Russ Tannen had more than enough contacts to keep it going around London with me.

So we headed from night to night with a camera and a whiteboard getting people to write stupid shit so we could get drunk for free and paid. We turned some heads at Time Out magazine as well and got a double page spread feature about us, claiming we were 'the future of club photography'. We decided to put the best images on a blog and had a launch night for the website and it rammed out, we had a queue for the whole night. That was nearly two years ago and now we have run nights all over London and have two monthly nights in major establishments in East London.
Russ has an incredible ear for new music so that is really our back bone. 



Where do you hope to see it go in the future?  


We have some serious shit planned for 2011. We were recently approached by The Roundhouse in Camden to host our 2nd birthday there instead of The Macbeth in Hoxton. They offered us a generous budget if we could offer some amazing upcoming bands. We got the night and its coming up in February and it stands to be one of the biggest parties in London on that night. Time Out magazine are constantly backing us so hopefully we'll turn the right heads and take another step up the ladder.

South London's Best Dancers

A little bit about who we are and what we do.

What happens when you take four of South London's raddest dudes and give them an internet connection and a joint gmail account? You get S.E Local, that's what happens!

We're here to impart knowledge on to you, we're here to hold your hand as you make your way through the cultural wilderness that is South East London; we're here to show you how, when and where to have the time of your life.

Now, humble reader, I know exactly you're asking yourself as you read this blog:

"Just who are these gentlemen and scholars who so boldly seek to educate me in the ways of the world?"

Well kiddo, let your eyes do the walking 'cause I'm about to do the sweetest role call you've ever read in your short young life.

Hold tight!

Jamie Sambridge:

A media student at the prestigious London College of Communication, Jamie Sambridge has lived in London all of his life but it wasn’t till he turned 18 that he’s made the jump down South. Since then it’s been a whirlwind of great times and even greater tasting wines! A man of many tastes and an eternal optimist, Jamie is the glue that holds S.E Local together!

James Tittensor:

Hailing from Camberwell by way of Stoke, James Tittensor is a music fan without equal; always on the look out for a tasty beat, a harsh bass line and a place down South that houses the two. When not studying Media and Cultural Studies at LCC, James can be either found playing Striker with his house mates or setting dance as one half of DJ Collective “Ambush.”

Charles Olafare:

Since the day he was born Charles Olafare has never had good nights sleep, he probably owes you at least a fiver. With one ear to the ground, an eye on the streets and both hands on the keyboard Charles gets his kicks out of staying up late and staying abreast of the current trends, social mores and creative ventures that keep South London ticking.

Dominic Manhi:

Dominic Manhi is a question wrapped inside an enigma; as stoic as he is mysterious Dom is the Jack Bauer of the blogosphere, the kind of guy you never see until it’s too late. Ever equipped with a sharp word and a keen eye for what’s hip and what’s not, Dom knows exactly what you like before you even knew you liked it.