Portraits of Lewisham youth in 1977 by John Goto

In our recent post about Oscar nominated film director Steve McQueen – who intends to make a BBC drama series focusing on the lives of black people growing up in West London in the 1960s to the present – we wondered if he might also reference South London.

How timely, then, that a new book of beautiful portraits of some of Lewisham's young black people in 1977 has just come out. John Goto's Lovers' Rock features young people from a Lewisham Youth Club, dressed for a night out at the dance hall and looking fab. Goto was teaching photography there – the sitters knew him, so are very relaxed in front of the camera.

You can view the portraits on John Goto's website, and buy the book from the publisher's website (Autograph ABP). With texts by Paul Gilroy and others, the book is set in the context of the unique South London reggae scene from the mid 70s (which gave us Lovers Rock), and the violent clashes with the National Front and the police that occurred at that time. There is also a video featuring the photos, set to a soundtrack of Louisa Mark's "Caught You In A Lie" – older readers may recognise themselves or their friends!

Convoys Wharf update – sign the petition!

Last week the decision on planning permission for Convoys Wharf was taken out of Lewisham's control when the Mayor of London stepped in at the developer's request.

Now that locals can no longer make their objections to the application, local campaigners Deptford Is have set up a petition to give a voice to the community so that we can let Boris know that we don't want this. 

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION AND SHARE THE LINK WITH FRIENDS.

See Deptford Is... and local papers. Also read this week's Private Eye (click on the image below).

BACKGROUND INFO

Heritage versus housing

Deptford's MP Joan Ruddock, in response to the Boris decision to "call in" the application, has described the site as "a heritage jewel in London's crown". The site is also of international significance, which is why the World Heritage Fund saw fit to include it on their Watch List for 2014-2016.

Boris's glib soundbite to news reporters was that "London needs more housing". Don't be fooled by the notion that London's housing crisis can be solved by the building of 3000 more luxury flats.

Originally, the percentage of "affordable housing" in new developments was set at 50% by Ken Livingstone. But most developers now claim that their sites are not "viable" (= massive profits) unless they deliver affordable housing at below 15%. In the Convoys application it is 14% – an extra 500 units at 80% market rent (still not affordable to the people who keep this city running), bringing the total to an impossibly dense 3,500 units.

It is also feared that, like other major new housing developments, the units will be sold off-plan to foreign investors before going on the market in the UK. Overseas investors currently earn enough from the rise in property values they needn't even bother renting their units out to those who can afford the high rents.   

The developers and Boris

It's feared Boris will look favourably on this application, despite the GLA's own reservations to it in their report to Lewisham Planning (in particular from Transport For London).

The developer is Chinese conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, one of many holding companies owned by the 8th richest man in the world, Li Ka Shing. He also owns major utilities in water and power (ie, UK Power Assets who run much of the National Grid and London's power), fracking (via Husky, causing community uproar in Canada) and telecoms (3G and others – and they're currently being 'investigated' by the EU on their recent purchases of telecoms in Ireland and Italy), as well as major British container ports (see June 2013 post).

Boris Johnson has recently been courting Chinese trade. David Cameron is due to visit China next month "on a trade mission" and Li Ka Shing has been spotted in and out of No.10.  Boris is also mates with Rupert Murdoch. (Thanks, Transpontine). Having sold the site to Hutchison Whampoa, News International has a profit share in the sale of the 3000 luxury flats planned for the site.

And this week the PM launched the Regeneration Investment Organisation Advisory Board (RIO), "an inward investment body" with the aim of raising billions of pounds from overseas trading partners to "fund urban regeneration projects". Sky News reports, "Its remit has been borne out of a frustration expressed by many major overseas investors about the bureaucracy and complexity of finalising major deals in the UK". Like Hutchison Whampoa, for instance, who accused Lewisham Planning of making "unrealistic demands" and "unreasonable and unwarranted requests" that would damage their profit margins.

Lungs for the City
 
The application proposes to build over almost every inch of the historic site, which was founded in 1513 by Henry VIII as the home of shipbuilding for the Royal Navy (the Royal Dockyard that, along with Woolwich dockyard, preceded the grandeur at Greenwich).

To get an idea of the density, have a look round the development at New Capital Quay. That's 1000 flats with a ground space a third of the Convoys site. Imagine that x3. To get an idea of heights, look at the tallest tower at the new Renaissance development in Loampit Vale – that's 24 storeys, half the height of the 48 storey tower proposed at Convoys (the other two being 38).

Convoys also contains the remains of Sayes Court Garden, where John Evelyn's innovative horticultural theories were developed and  which led to the founding of the National Trust. It was his theory that trees are the lungs of a city.

Considering the latest reports by the No To Silvertown Tunnel campaign, in which it was revealed that pollution levels at the end of Deptford Church Street on Creek Road have been breaching European limits for nitrogen dioxide for more than eight years, his advice is worth remembering more than ever. (Thanks, Deptford Dame).

Especially since Hutchison's plans include parking provision for 2000 cars (all housed in the giant blocks of housing units) that will cause ever greater pollution and congestion on Evelyn Street. The only public transport will be a diversion of the 199 bus and a Thames clipper, putting greater strain on existing services. And don't forget the ten years of construction traffic.

In an ideal world, the entire Convoys site should be planted with trees just to make up for the new IKEA being planned to go on the site the award-winning Sainsbury's eco-building at Greenwich peninsula, which will draw in traffic from miles around to unprecedented levels. (Thanks, 853 blog).

But Hutchisons were arguing over the necessity of widening New King Street to accommodate the bus making a two-way journey.

A people's history

The history of this site is amazing – it features loads of important historical figures (Drake, Raleigh etc), was the launch pad for some fantastic scientific discoveries (Cook, among others), and was built and designed by many celebrated pioneers in engineering and shipbuilding (Rennie, Penn etc), as well as being a place where ordinary people who worked in and around the dockyard have fantastic stories to tell (female shipwrights, black and Asian sailors), that were never recorded by Samuel Pepys who ran the yard for Charles II.

So much of Deptford's history has been buried and ignored (perhaps because of the shame of slavery), it is bursting to come through and speak to us. The site is monumentally multi-cultural – with links all over the world – as much as Deptford is now.

The archaeology

Many of the site's surviving below-ground structures (docks) will be buried under dense 12 storey blocks and 38-48 storey towers. The one remaining above ground structure, the Olympia Shed, will be overshadowed and hidden from view by the buildings closely surrounding it. You'll only be able to glimpse a small part of it from the river. Hutchisons were rejecting English Heritage's demands to open the view up.

The plans have been opposed by English Heritage, the Council for British Archaeology, the Naval Dockyard Society and other heritage bodies – not forgetting, of course, the local people who will have to live with ten years or more of building works and construction traffic.

The public space provision in the present application is laughable – a thin strip on the riverside and two strips on the sites of an historic dock and slipway, which are only not being built on because they're "protected". They could actually be listed by English Heritage, but not until the full archaeology report made by a commercial arm of the Museum of London which (had to be) commissioned by the developer has been published. It hasn't been published yet, despite the archaeology work being long completed – although not as thoroughly as it could have been (there is, according to Deptford Is, areas of the site yet to be uncovered).

English Heritage have recently listed the remaining walls on the site (including the river walls), which must make it the longest length of listed Thames wall in London. Meanwhile, with no full report, the archaeology of the site is not "fully understood". It would therefore be premature for the Mayor of London to make a decision until this report is published.

Local campaigners have emphasised the heritage of the site and how it can open up a tourism strategy for Lewisham, bringing in visitors from Royal Maritime Greenwich. Unfortunately, the owner of the site is so fixated on the simple formula of selling luxury waterfront residential units that it cannot envision the advantages of owning a site of world heritage – and the capital value that would add to a smaller number of units.  

Deptford Is are also advocating that an area on the site designated by the Greater London Authority (GLA) as a "protected wharf" (to be used for river business, very often simply cargo) should be developed as a Maritime Enterprise Zone incorporating boat building and repairs and other associated marine business that is presently lacking in this part of the Thames and which would bring great employment opportunities.

But this is strongly opposed by the developer, who will more than likely lobby the GLA, with Cameron, Osbourne and Johnson's help, to change the designation so that it can build even more luxury flats.

If you care about Deptford, you must sign the petition! This application must be opposed so that a better proposal can come forward – one that combines housing with a full appreciation of the site's heritage.

Update 18 Nov:  also see the Deptford Dame's take on the Mayor of London's new role in the process.

 

Time Out mag covers the Deptford Anchor

Time Out rarely covers South London stories (for instance, Charlton Lido was left out of their recent article on London open air pools), but the anchor graffiti post we blogged at the beginning of August must have caught their eye – plus the previous stories on the Deptford Anchor being removed.

The new free Time Out's editorial style is very jaunty and they couldn't resist including as many nautical puns as possible in this piece. You'll be hard put to find a copy of Time Out in Deptford, and the story has failed to make it onto their website, so if you haven't picked up a copy in town, click on the pic above to read.

Lewisham Hospital on Question Time

If you missed the programme, you can view it for another year on iPlayer here. The debate on Lewisham Hospital takes up much of the last third of the programme.

A small but lively (and very noisy) protest took place outside Goldsmiths' main building on Thursday whilst the BBC Question Time audience were being rehearsed just inside in the main hall. The protest was filmed by the Beeb and could be heard inside, inspiring the campaigners who were part of the audience to lobby the panel before the show began.

This resulted in some of the panel speaking in support of saving the hospital when the question came up. Though it is doubtful how much influence she has, disgraced MP Nadine Dorries promised to arrange for the campaigners to meet Jeremy Hunt, even though he has so far refused to meet Heidi Alexander and others who have repeatedly requested meetings with him.

The producers had previously told us the subject was too local to be of interest, but news that day of more proposed closures, plus the protest outside, and a wonderfully simple question from local Kate Hennessy that linked our local issue to the larger national one ("David Cameron claimed the NHS was safe in his hands...given the cuts and closures around the country is this still the case?") meant it got a full airing.

Dorries took the opportunity to blame Labour for the terrible PFI deals it struck, and John Prescott blithered and blathered at Ed Davey, whilst Dimbleby pinned Davey down on statements he made that he had obviously not been briefed on.

Davey's statements caused an elderly campaigner, perhaps a doctor herself, to point out how the views of clinicians, GPs and the community had been "deliberately ignored" in the consultation. She revealed that the plan for Lewisham Hospital "was hidden away in an annex to an appendix in the draft report", details of which were not included in the consultation document. It revealed that "every single entrance to the hospital was going to be sold off and our brand new A&E, maternity care and urgent care centre were all part of the land that was going to be sold off".

A Lewisham hospital paediatrician said "The coalition government broke its pledge not to introduce any top-down change by introducing the biggest top-down ever, the Health & Social Care Bill. It's the biggest ever change introduced in the NHS...the Coalition is pushing on more than £20 billion pounds worth of savings over the next three years. NHS funding is about £85billion. That gives you some perspective about it. A safe hospital, locally, is about to close. Now make a judgement. Is the NHS safe with this coalition Government?"

 

Camilla Cavendish suggested Kershaw's proposals "rewarded bad management", and that Hunt should consider Lewisham Hospital Trust's proposal to take over the management of the failing Woolwich hospital. John Bird voiced the suspicion of many that the plans were "gerrymandering" since a Labour borough was going to be hit, whilst other areas more likely to vote Conservative will be saved (although QEH is in Greenwich, a Labour borough)...

Since Nadine Dorries had promised to call Jeremy Hunt "tomorrow" then admitted she would be busy in her constituency so would have to text him instead, the debate drew to a close with an audience member pinning Nadine Dorries down to her promise of help, by asking her to set up a meeting for them.

Dimbleby suggested they all meet after the programme, whilst Prescott reminded us that some people don't have any difficulty getting meetings with Jeremy Hunt. "Murdoch had no problem," he grumbled in a parting shot, intent on reminding us what sort of errors of judgement the person who holds the fate of our local hospital in his hands has made in the past.

 
Also see Transpontine for a further report of this evening.

The campaign to save Lewisham Hospital is also asking that you let the Secretary of State know what you think by sending your views directly to him.

Email Jeremy Hunt at mb-sofs@dh.gsi.gov.uk or write to him at Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Health, Department for Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS.

See our previous report on the Special Administrator's overspending here.

Stargazing at Greenwich

Although it is fully booked, you can watch Stargazing Live tonight on BBC2 from 8pm, coming live from the National Maritime Museum. See the BBC website.

Save Lewisham Hospital - latest news

Today, the Special Administrator Matthew Kershaw's report to Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State, was released. In an emergency question in the Commons, Deptford's MP Joan Ruddock said the report must not be used to justify closing essential hospital services. “120,000 people use Lewisham A&E each year. Over 30,000 children use the Children’s A&E. Over 4000 babies are born in the hospital each year. There is no current capacity at any of the other hospitals in the area to provide for these patients.” She claimed the document was being used to force through a "major reconfiguration of services via the back door", echoing shadow health minister Andy Burnham's assertion that the Administrator's remit does not cover Lewisham.

Despite three months of so-called 'consultation' (in which 90% of the 8,000 who responded to the online form voted against the proposals for Lewisham) and overwhelming public outrage, the original proposals remain. Ironically, the Special Administrator hired to run South London Health Trust (not Lewisham Hospital) and reduce its £65m deficit, had to be granted an extra £1.1m by the government on top of the £4m agreed.

LibDem councillor Chris Maines uncovered the deficit through a Freedom of Information request. The Department of Health said £1m had already been paid to fund Mr Kershaw's office and a further £3.1m has gone on consultants, of which £2m has been paid to lead-contractor McKinsey with Deloitte and PA Consulting Group as sub-contractors (Deloitte charges £500 an hour just to write a letter).

Cllr Maines said “It is beyond belief that a person employed to find substantial savings could not demonstrate how to live within a generous budget himself...I am not surprised that the Management Consultants that profited hugely from the original PFI contracts are now profiting from the effect of those contracts." Read more here (LibDem's story) and here (Evening Standard).

Also see The Londonist's report on today's news. And Transpontine's post...

PROTESTS!!!

Save Lewisham Hospital are staging a protest outside Goldsmiths College this Thursday, 10 January 2013, where the first BBC TV Question Time of the new year is due to be filmed. The show, chaired by David Dimbleby, will be screened at 10.35pm. Panelists are unconfirmed (a list of panelists given to a local who has been given tickets is different to the panel listed on the BBC website). Join the protest from 5.30-9pm at Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmith’s University, Lewisham Way, SE14 6NW (click on the notice below).

Incidentally, the next day, Friday 11th January, Jonathan Dimbleby will be presenting BBC Radio 4's Any Questions from St Catherine's Church in New Cross (Kitto Road, SE14) with Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Simon Hughes MP, John Cooper QC and Sir Malcolm Rifkind. Will there be a local flavour to proceedings?

The next big demonstration Save Lewisham Hospital has called is on Saturday 26th January. Assemble at 
Lewisham Roundabout (by the station) at 12 noon.
 The march will go past the hospital to Mountsfield Park for a rally, music and a giant petition. Organisers need help with stewarding the demo, and with publicising the event over the next couple of weeks – see this page to find out how to get involved.

And if you haven't already, please sign the petition (top right of this page) and take it past 25,000.

---o---

UPDATE 12/1/13

See our report on Question Time on Thursday evening here.

Danny Baker – a Crossfields baby

Danny Baker (back row, second left) in the 3rd Year First XI at West Greenwich Secondary School. Front, second right, is his later punk cohort, Mark Perry, with whom he started the legendary punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue.

If you listen to Radio London during the day, you'll know that veteran DJ Danny Baker has recently departed his 3 o'clock slot (but can still be heard on Radio 5)*. Just a month before in October, he also brought out his autobiography, Going To Sea In A Sieve.

Danny grew up in Deptford and now lives in Blackheath. His early years were spent on the Silwood Estate in Rotherhithe in the now demolished Gillam House. But he was born on Crossfields in Congers House, and describes this on page 9 of his book...

"...After years of struggling to make any kind of progress with their lives, they [Baker's family] crossed the Thames – a huge upheaval in itself – to take up residence in a poky flat on the third floor of a pre-war block in downbeat Deptford called Congers House. It was here, in number 51, at 9am on Saturday 22 June 1957, that I was born. I was delivered by Nurse Walkerdene and my dad had to be summoned back from the pub as he was about to set off on a docker's beano – a boozy coach trip to Margate...

"At this point they had three children crammed into one bedroom. Consequently, when I was still a baby – indeed, because I was a very small baby – they were allocated a brand-new three-bedroom council flat on the ground floor of the Silwood Estate with a bathroom and a garden. They simply couldn't believe their luck..."

That's it for any more mention of Congers House, except on page 10 where he recalls that the family lived next door to a man called Jumbo Dray, who everyone called 'Jumb'. Congers House was subsequently refurbished.

Publisher's synopsis (provided by Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

"Born in 1957 in Deptford, south London, Danny's first job after dropping out of school at the age of 15 was in One Stop Records, a small record shop in London's West End, frequented by Elton John and Mick Jagger, a store rather like the one in High Fidelity. His career in print journalism began in 1976 when he co-founded the fanzine Sniffin' Glue leading to an offer from the New Musical Express, where his first job was as a receptionist. Soon after, Baker was contributing regular astute articles, reviews and later interviews to the publication.

"Danny then began making 30-minute documentaries at LWT for the cult series 20th Century Box, and appeared in two television commercials: Daz washing powder and Mars bar chocolate. His stellar career on the radio began on BBC GLR in 1989, then moved to BBC Radio 5 where he presented sports shows including the groundbreaking 6-0-6, which still influences the media's approach to criticism of players, managers and referees. He also worked on BBC Radio 1, back to BBC GLR, Talk Radio and later on Virgin Radio."

Baker joined BBC London 94.9 in 2001 presenting a Saturday show, then later the breakfast show. In 2005 he took over the weekday 3-5pm slot, featuring phone-ins and discussions with his on-air team regarding music and entertainment of the 1960s and 1970s*, and a Saturday morning show on Radio 5. "In May 2012, Danny won 'Sony Radio Personality of the Year' and appeared on Desert Island Discs. Six months earlier he had gone public on his cancer and chemotherapy treatment. This book charts Danny's showbiz career, the highs and lows, and everything in between, including the accusation that he killed Bob Marley..."

*The programme was axed in November 2012 as part of a programme of cuts at the station. Although due to continue its run until the end of the year, Baker announced on air on the day of the announcement that that day's show would be his last, branding his BBC London employers as "pinheaded weasels" for the way in which they cancelled the programme. (wikipedia.org)

The Choir: Lewisham NHS Trust

We don't do telly reviews, nor do we usually cover anything much in Lewisham, but tonight's first episode of BBC2's The Choir: Sing While You Work featured staff from Lewisham hospital and associated Lewisham NHS services, and is worth a mention.

If you didn't see it, watch again on Tuesday 25th and get ready with your hankies. The touching thing about this episode is that the people who care for us find it difficult to sing a particularly emotive song, REM's Everybody Hurts – although they're fine with Bill Wither's more hopeful and positive Lean On Me. In a place where everyone visiting literally does hurt, the staff are trained to maintain a professional distance, for the sake of all-round sanity, a strategy that often makes one's visit or stay in hospital sometimes feel less than satisfactory – but imagine if the staff all felt your pain like you do.

It's particularly poignant when you think about how NHS staff must actually be feeling themselves what with the insecurity and damage being wrought on them by this government. The next episode features a Post Office choir in Bristol – more threatened work staff then, who need cheering up with the healing power of song.

Protect our NHS! Sign the petition to local doctors.

Mentioned in Dispatches – Poundland

It seems Deptford High Street has inspired the Channel 4 Dispatches team with more than one idea for their investigations, the last one being Britain's High Street Gamble aired on 6 August (see post).

This time, our brand new Poundland will be one of many branches featured in their new episode going out this Monday (17 September) at 8pm. In Secrets of Poundland, Dispatches say:

"As other High Street retailers struggle, Poundland is booming. With a new store opening on average every five days, its pre-tax profits are up 50% in a year. In this Dispatches investigation, Harry Wallop asks how Poundland sells so cheaply, yet makes so much money."

The Dispatches team set up their own Poundland shop on Deptford High Street "to show that size matters when it comes to bargains." See the clip here.

See also the Deptford Dame's post on Poundland's arrival in our street.

Crossfields on the telly

We've unearthed the pilot episode of a sitcom called Turn The World Down set and filmed on Crossfields. Produced by Tiger Aspect, the series was shelved after a managerial change at Channel 4. It was originally aired in 2001, but was later broadcast in April 2010 on Channel 4 as part of Comedy Lab and can still be watched on 4OD.

It has a few well-known faces in it such as comedians Sean Hughes and Brendon Burns, Diane Parish (Denise from EastEnders), Rosie Cavaliero (Jam & Jerusalem) and local actor Jim Conway...(let us know if you recognise any of the other actors or know what young Aaron Lewis or baby Ethan Field are up to now)...

Much of the action takes place away from the estate, but you'll recognise Finch House in the first and last few minutes!

You can watch the entire pilot episode on 4OD here.

Jim Conway, Aaron Lewis and Brendon Burns in Turn The World Down

Deptford on BBC news - the £10 austerity wedding dress

Deptford featured big at 6am yesterday morning as journalist and milliner Mary Jane Baxter set herself the challenge of designing a stylish wedding dress for no more than ten pounds for BBC News...

Option 1: the second hand market on Douglas Way...See Peter shouting in the background whilst Mary Jane rummages in Carey's Collections and finds a dress.
Option 2: Sew your own – at Peter & Joan's!
Option 3: Sense charity shop...

See it here on i-Player (while stocks last)

Johnny Deppford

See BBC News (last link here)

"Hollywood star Johnny Depp has made an unannounced visit to a London primary school after receiving a letter from one of its pupils. The actor turned up at the school in Greenwich, South London, dressed as his Pirates of the Caribbean alter-ego Captain Jack Sparrow. He said nine-year-old Beatrice had written to Captain Jack, asking him to lead a mutiny against her teachers. Mobile phone footage captured his surprise visit to the classroom."

And here is Jimmy Depp, spotted out and about with his dog, Ghost, in Deptford High Street last Tuesday nonchalantly passing the Coral Re-up (see post here) and magically captured on the Harry and Paul show on the Beeb on Wednesday night.

See the Pirates' set building in Greenwich that Marmoset posted here and here...

Act like a Greenwich pirate day

I was asked a couple of days ago whether I knew what the animal stables were doing in the Royal Naval College.  No idea but I wandered over there this afternoon to have a look.  There's an enormous amount of activity going on over there.  There are around 60 horses being stabled in there at the moment.  Walking further on, I came across some rather impressive props - this clearly was no low budget production.  For example, that wall in the photo below wasn't there last time I visited. 

Neither was this wall...

Nor this one...

And the bunting didn't ring any bells either.





The security man I spoke to didn't want to say what film they were filming.  ''Not allowed to say.''  ''Well, Blackbeard Productions is a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?''  I replied.

It turns out that tomorrow (Mon 27 September) there will be around 600 extras and 60 horses with carriages milling around the place.  And just 8 days after Talk Like a Pirate Day, there will also be a lot of people celebrating Act Like a Pirate Day.  And it looks like you might be in for an unpleasant ride if you fail to get into the spirit of the occasion.

 EDIT: Deptford Dame has just pointed out that the Greenwich Phantom has done a couple of posts about this.  There's background and photos of the set construction at earlier stages here and here

Sherlock Holmes in Deptford

The nation's favourite new TV show is filmed in various London locations. Last night there was a murder down at the Paynes & Borthwick site on Borthwick Street. Don't know when it was filmed (this year sometime?) but interesting to see how the development is looking! Not much has changed...

Deptford Prison - Stolen Identity

My niece texted me this evening: "Deptford was featured in 'Identity'! (well the prison was ;) )"...
It was 10pm and I'd just finished work and hadn't seen the programme. I texted back "Deptford doesn't have a prison." "Oh ha, ha," she texted back, "they got that wrong then..."

As it turns out I had unwittingly recorded the episode on series link so was able to watch this pile of shite when I got home. I'd watched the first two in the series and had decided that the presence of Aiden Gillen was completely ruined by the presence of Keeley Hawes, not to mention a terrible script. Now I had to watch it cos it had a Deptford reference in it – a fictional prison by all accounts.

The reference came halfway through. There's no Deptford scenes, just a visit to a character banged up in a studio set, then later at the end, a reflective scene where the narrative, such as it is, revisits the jail, establishing the scene with a fictional sign (see above) and then we see a prison officer querying the identity of our hero. Bloom, or is it Shea?  The central conceit of this cop drama about an over-resourced team investigating identity fraud is that one of the team is an ex-undercover cop who is still playing with his identity...

We Deptfordians are used to some degree of misrepresentation, and the presence of helicopters sweeping round every night between 10 and 11pm certainly contributes to a feeling of being locked up for the night in a police state, but REALLY!

Unless you count the gigantic Lewisham Police station (is it really a prison as well?), our nearest jail is BELMARSH and it's quite some distance away in Thamesmead. However, the fact that my niece lives in Swindon (most terribly slandered itself, of course) and has never been to Deptford, so was willing to believe we had our very own prison, well, it makes me wanna SHOUT.

But curfew has begun so I can't. (Unfortunately those chavs partying on the ground floor round the corner have got some deal going with the guards so they're probably gonna shout all night)...