Ellie and Rosie established a ‘pop up diner’ in their flat above the market in the heart of Brixton earlier this year. Jokingly referred to as the Salad Club the monthly Saturday night underground restaurant serves delicious four course meals in their front room.
Ellie chatting to guests
Eager to go underground and experience Pop Up dining for ourselves four of us booked online a couple of month’s in advance (such is the Salad Club’s popularity), we received details about the menu and venue by email the day before and set off on a culinary adventure.
Curious about how Salad Club started I interviewed Ellie the following week:
So how did the idea of Salad Club come about?
Rosie and I have always cooked for each other since we met at university – Continue Reading »
Campaigning to reintroduce a cinema to Crystal Palace
Roll film…
The camera’s definitely rolling with the Picture Palace Campaign here in Crystal Palace. It looks as if the battle to bring a cinema back to the No. 25 Church Road site could roll right through to the credits. But this is most definitely going to be an epic to rival Ben Hur! The hope is for a Renaissance picture house, woven into the local community, which will bring diverse, innovative and enlightening cinematic treats, children’s films, live opera transmissions, and possible satellite Q&As with stars of the big screen from around the world.
The rapidly growing volume of support for the campaign reached its most visible (and audible) peak at a meeting held on October 18th in which several speakers took Continue Reading »
Oooh and Aaaah! We all love firework displays don’t we (ok, except maybe not cats and dogs). Brockwell park put on another fabulous 30 minute show last week.
I had some firework footage from last year and set it to a particularly cosmic dance track called Wonderweb. A song not about the internet, but more about the interconnectedness of life, the universe and everything (to borrow a line from the late Douglas Adams).
At Moby’s gig this summer at the Southbank, he reckoned he was the only person to have written a dance track about quantum physics. Well Moby, (“we’re all made of stars”) this one came earlier with the same Continue Reading »
Susie Schofield, the Alumni Officer at Alleyn’s School, has been continuing her research into the identities of the Alleyn’s Old Boys who were killed in both World Wars.
Six Alleyn’s Old Boys (AOBs) who died were honoured – five with the DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross], and one [Lt Cecil Meadley] who was Mentioned in Despatches twice. Many who survived the war were also decorated with honours.
Pilot Officer (P/O) David Leary DFC’s citation in the London Gazette reads:
Pilot Officer David Cooper LEARY (42756)— No 17 Squadron.
In November, 1940, this officer was engaged with his squadron in protecting two destroyers which were being attacked by a formation of enemy dive bombers heavily escorted by fighters. Showing magnificent courage and determination, Pilot Officer Cooper destroyed two of the enemy bombers and assisted in the destruction of another. He has now destroyed at least five enemy aircraft.
P/O Leary was an ‘Ace’ – where a pilot shoots down five or more aeroplanes. P/O Leary was 19 years old. Continue Reading »
Susie Schofield, the Alumni Officer at Alleyn’s School, has been continuing her research into the identities of the Alleyn’s Old Boys who were killed in both World Wars.
1946
Now, to coincide with Remembrance Day on 11 November, Susie has completed her research into those who died on military service during the Second World War.
This fascinating information comes in two parts. Part 2 is published on Tuesday.
As with the First World War, Alleyn’s Old Boys were involved in all parts of the theatre of war and are buried as far afield as Thailand’s Kanchanaburi War Cemetery to Kings Lynn Cemetery here in Britain. Local residents may be interested to learn that two of the casualties of World War 2 were killed by doodlebugs in Dulwich – one in Burbage Road and the other in Lovelace Road.
Alleyn’s Old Boys who were killed in the Second World War (Part I) Continue Reading »
Andrew Robinson will be introducing the film. He is the author of the definitive biography Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye which will be for sale on the evening and a large-format photographic book Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema. He is now planning a short study of Ray’s Apu Trilogy.
Andrew Robinson continues his article recalling his meetings with Ray in Culcutta in 1983 during the filming of the lavish period filmThe Home and the World.
When I first entered Satyajit Ray’s flat in Calcutta, I found him discussing the exact kind of button required by one of his costume designs with a member of his production team. This was typical of his attention to detail. No director, including Chaplin, was more personally responsible for his films. He wrote his scripts solo. He designed the sets and costumes. He acted out the roles for his actors with consummate nuance. Continue Reading »
By Kate Knowles, Head of Communications at Dulwich Picture Gallery
For the last couple of years Dulwich has asked artists who have had connections with the Gallery to design the Christmas card, and both Quentin Blake and Humphrey Ocean made lovely cards, which sold gratifyingly well. Before that we used to use pictures from the Gallery, but there weren’t many that would do for a Christmas card.
Building on Dulwich Picture Gallery’s current exhibition ‘Drawing Attention’ is a series of talks‘Drawn From Life’ – given by well-known illustrators. Opening this In Sight series on the 11th November is the London based illustrator Lucinda Rogers.
Borough Market by Lucinda Rogers
During her career Lucinda has produced illustrations for an array of clients including the New Yorker, The Guardian, The Times, Habitat, and the V&A; as well as her long-running series of illustrations for the Independent’s column ‘The Weasel‘.
Her work has us looking at cities in new ways, capturing intimate scenes of people and architecture. Each illustration beams Lucinda’s eye catching style created with a mixture of pen and ink and watercolour. Continue Reading »
Early Christmas shopping, and the money you spend going to a charity, how satisfying. And kids activities too.
One of the first local opportunities for this is described by Julie Murray, the Chair and Christmas Fair Co-ordinator for Southwark and Lambeth NCT.
Like most people, I joined the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) when I was expecting my first child as a way to meet people and learn about babies and what to do with them.
I became an active volunteer in 2006 when I volunteered to take on the overall coordination of the Christmas Craft Fair – the thoughts of creating mini project plans and lots of Excel spreadsheets was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I used to be a software consultant in a former life.
Four years on and I am still organising the fair. It is a lot of hard work and I couldn’t even think of doing it without a small army of volunteers, not to mention my mum who is the world’s greatest tidy-upper, but it is such fun and a lovely family atmosphere.
It is a great day with some absolutely fantastic stalls selling beautiful gifts such as toys, pictures, jewellery, ceramics, cards – Continue Reading »
Andrew Robinson will be introducing the film. He is the author of about twenty books, including the definitive biography Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (1989/2004) and a large-format photographic book Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema (2005); he also edited three screenplays by Ray, including The Chess Players. He is now planning a short study of Ray’s Apu Trilogy.
Durga in Pather Panchali
Andrew Robinson recalls his meetings with the film director Satyajit Ray, one of the giants of world cinema.
Part 1
You might not think that Satyajit Ray and John Huston, the larger-than-life director of The Maltese Falcon and Moby Dick, would have much in common. But when I was writing a biography of Ray in the 1980s, I received a letter from Huston about Ray and his work. “I recognised the footage as the work of a great film-maker. I liked Ray enormously on first encounter. Everything he did and said supported my feelings on viewing the film.”
The footage in question was from Ray’s maiden venture, Pather Panchali. Huston saw it in a rough cut in Calcutta in 1954 and strongly recommended it to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where the film received its world premiere in 1955.
Today Pather Panchali has become an enduring classic of world cinema, besides being the film that put Indian cinema on the international map. Even if you see nothing else by Satyajit Ray, none of his more than 30 feature films, you have to see Pather Panchali. This film, alone, was probably what persuaded the Hollywood Academy to give Ray an Oscar for lifetime achievement just before his death in 1992. Continue Reading »
Like most people, I joined the
