Gallery Road

A Mr.DeGri has been busy on the Ha'Penny Hatch...

No lights on Ha'Penny Hatch for past three months (Lewisham side)

While on Deptford High Street there is a shortage of Christmas lights, at the Ha'Penny Hatch where Lewisham meets Greenwich over Deptford Creek, there have been NO LIGHTS AT ALL since the beginning of October (or is it longer?).

The picture above is from 9th November. There's no change. Fortunately, as far as we know, with darkness descending at 4pm or sooner, the only remotely bad thing that has happened is graffiti artists having a party or two (and leaving all their litter, which is also never cleared up). But it's almost three months since this path has been lit.

Usually this is the sort of thing you could post to Love Lewisham, but it is not so simple. Firstly this path has no postcode – so they can't find it and you can't use their interactive map to report it. More importantly, neither can the police if something awful happens here in the darkness.

Secondly, you have to report the number of the nearest lamppost that has a number written on it (back on Crossfields) because none of the lampposts on the path have numbers. We would normally have been reported it ourselves, but we have been waiting to see how long it takes for someone else to do it for a change – or to see if Lewisham notice it themselves!

It's a very important path since it forms part of the GLA's Cycle Quietways. In fact TWO so-called Quietways are offered at the Creekside end of the route across the Ha'Penny Hatch (one of which is through Crossfields – the maintenance of some of the path has been paid for by the leaseholders who were never even consulted). Strangely, that path is the responsibility of Greenwich Council even though it's in Lewishame, and roadworks to accommodate it across Deptford Church St are still being carried out by Greenwich, months after the work was started. Lewisham Homes wasn't even told about it. (Not that them knowing now makes any difference since they would hardly tell us).

However, cyclists using the Ha'Penny Hatch usually have their own lights. Pedestrians do not.

(This story was originally posted as part of the previous post).

London Design Festival in Deptford

The London Design Festival is an annual event which both celebrates and promotes London as the "design capital of the world". It starts tomorrow 13th September and runs till the 21st. Check out events all over the city at the LDF website.

Three local events include:

The Living Installation in Giffin Square
Sat 13th September, 9am-4pm
Local designer Linda Florence will create a 60s living room in the square and fill it with stuff she's sourced in Deptford Market and the high street. More info at deptfordhighstreet.com and thelivinginstallationdeptford.tumblr.com

The Intertidal Cinema at Deptford Creek
Sat 13th 9.30-10.15pm, Sun 14th 9.40-10.40pm, Mon 15th 10.15-11pm
Hannah Fasching shows two films she has made about Deptford which overlay local peoples' narratives onto scenes of its architecture and landscape. Both can be viewed from the Ha'Penny Hatch footpath – one film is screened in an arch and another is cleverly projected onto the river bed.

Contemporary Craft & Art Weekend at Greenwich Market
Sat & Sun 13th & 14th September, 10am-5.30pm
Designers and makers will be demonstrating their crafts, including rag rug making, ironmongery, furniture making. For more info see Meet the Makers. Plus up to 80 designer makers in the market and exhibitions at the surrounding galleries.

Krom... and SLAM Last Fridays

Krom Balgesky is a Bulgarian artist working in Deptford. His striking outdoor drawings are popping up all over the place (here in the Sue Godfrey Nature Park, for instance). On Friday 26th July he'll be showing his work indoors at the Arthub Gallery (5-9 Creekside). Open from 6pm, with a 'performance' at 7pm.

More on Krom 

Friday is also South London Art Map's late opening night, with galleries in Deptford, Bankside and Peckham open 6-8pm. At Occupy My Time gallery in Resolution Way, artist Andy Wicks will be focusing on the history of the Thames and its relationship to Deptford. More info at South London Art Map.

New life on the Creek

This pair of Canada geese have two goslings. Look out for them at the Ha'Penny Hatch.

These swans have built a nest on a precarious floating garden next to the Theatre Arm boats. They have three eggs and the boaters are worried the eggs may not survive. If they do, you'll soon be able to see the cygnets trying out the water from the Ha'Penny Hatch bridge.

Ha'Penny Hatch tidy up

Back on 11th March, we reported the litter that had been building up on the grass verges either side of the Ha'Penny Hatch bridge. It wasn't easy since both borough's (Lewisham and Greenwich) online reporting tools would not recognise the existence of the Ha'Penny Hatch. The bridge does not have a postcode and the path does not have a name.

However we sent photos and awaited acknowledgement. Greenwich responded on 22nd March saying our report had been passed to their Cleansweep service for action.

We didn't hear from Lewisham until we sent the report again on 12th April, using a more direct method. At first, Lewisham's Clean Streets team had no idea where the Ha'Penny Hatch was nor whether it was their responsibility, but the litter was then cleared the same day.

But although Greenwich (who are responsible for the maintenance and operation of the bridge itself) had been the first to respond, they still haven't cleared the path on their side of the Creek.

As for the homeless people who have been sleeping in the spaces under the bridge on the Greenwich side, well that's another story...

Ha'Penny Hatch lighting

Lots of folk crossed the Ha'Penny Hatch last night in pitch black darkness on their way to Blackheath fireworks. With the moon hidden in cloud and not one of the seven lamps working on the Lewisham side of the pedestrian path leading to the bridge, it was a spooky, if not potentially dangerous, experience.

Street lights are usually numbered so that faults can easily be reported on Lewisham's webpage where you should also be able to track the fault. There are, however, emergency situations in which you can call the Croydon & Lewisham Street Lighting service on 0800 028 5986.

"Three or more adjacent street lights unlit" constitutes an emergency, as does "damaged apparatus posing a risk to the public". So we've called them, got a log number, and look forward to the situation being remedied as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, none of the lamps are numbered and there's no postcode for the Ha'Penny Hatch, so the online reporting form is somewhat useless. Nor is the river crossing marked on most maps by name. This has resulted in the police being unable to locate it when responding to reports of crimes being committed there. We hope the Street Lighting team can find it.

Regular users of the path will know that many of the lamps on Ha'Penny Hatch are often unlit or broken on either side of the bridge. You can report faulty lights on the Greenwich side of the bridge (where the lamps are also unnumbered) here (or call 020 8854 8888 in an 'emergency'). Next time, instead of moaning about it and avoiding using the path, try getting in touch with either of the councils responsible instead of waiting for someone else to do it. This applies especially to the person who just told us there is now also a light out on the Greenwich side.

UPDATE Wednesday 7th November: 
We're pleased to report the lights on the Lewisham side have been fixed!

Coming up: DEPTFORD

Just watched the first film in the seventh series of Coming Up, Channel 4's "talent scheme where new writers and directors have the opportunity to make an original film with guaranteed network broadcast".

The film was called NEW CROSS. However, Deptford film location fans will have spotted that most of the scenes were shot in Deptford rather than New Cross – except the pub scenes (possibly The Amersham Arms?). So why not call it DEPTFORD?

Inside Faircharm looking out at Holden House

Albury Street

Just off Albury Street

Ah! New Cross underpass, the one scene set in SE14

Ha'Penny Hatch footpath again...

The cast includes that bloke from Being Human, Russell Tovey (who always looks so bloody sad), plus Alice Sanders, Georgia Brown, Alex Lanipekun and Jordan Long. The director is David Stoddart and the writer is Laura Neal. More about them here.

Maybe we're being a little pedantic about the locations, and it's perhaps just as well the title of the piece wasn't changed to more accurately describe where the film was mostly shot, since the central character gets randomly mugged beaten up in the New Cross underpass (not in Deptford, in other words).

Watch again on 4OD.

Ha'Penny Hatch – local landmark threatened

 The Lifting Bridge at Ha'penny Hatch  Photo by Deptford Visions

Whilst 500 years of Deptford history is under threat from a multi-national company operating out of Hong Kong (we refer, of course, to Convoys Wharf) and by mostly all accounts supported by a weak and vain council leadership ready to trade heritage and local people's needs for some quick and easy Section 106 money that may never be spent in Deptford, more recent signs of the area's industrial heritage are now under threat.

The lifting bridge at Ha'Penny Hatch lies under the jurisdiction of Network Rail. Rumour has it (yellow jackets and suits were spotted with technical equipment and were cross-examined by a local) they are considering its removal, due the potential costs of maintaining the structure, which obviously, should it become unsafe, may cause quite a hazard to train travel. Network Rail reckon they don't have enough cash to maintain the old iron structure.

Many people refer to the lift bridge as the Ha'Penny Hatch, but the name actually refers to the lower crossing on the Creek. The bridge was built in 1963 to replace the original bridge dating from 1838. The Greenwich Phantom has a marvellous story on the history.

Deptford Launch #1 – High...Low

Monday evening saw the launch of High...Low, the light sculpture by Shona Kitchen & Dominic Robson which we reported was installed back in November. Apparently the makers have been ironing out some problems since then, but it is now fully operational.

We found out at the launch, which was attended by Joan Ruddock MP, that the structure houses 165 low power 1 watt LED spotlights which are synchronised using a micro-controller and a database of predicted tide times. A small solar power unit which feeds into the national grid has been installed on the roof of Faircharm to offset the power consumed by the artwork.

More details at www.high--low.com.

Official: Chris Moyles is lame.

You get to see some odd sights on the Ha'penny Hatch.  This afternoon's sight from my balcony looked like this.

On the left, a handful of token urban youth, on the right, a muddle of Morris dancers and mediatricians.  They appeared to be dancing intermittently without music. 

Approaching closer, it appeared to be a hammed-up dance off between the two groups of ''dancers''.  This little bit of ha'penny opera appeared to finish with Chris Moyles accepting defeat while explaining to the victors that he only had one leg.  Which, given that he'd just been pretending to Morris dance on two legs, had to be a pretty lame excuse.

A woman cycling over the bridge saw me on my bike and asked whether I had a pump for her very flat front tyre.  As I fiddled vainly with my pump valve adaptor, I mentioned something about Chris Moyles.  ''Oh yes'' she said and, leaning forward she confided, ''He's a twat.  He talks rubbish.''

So there you have it: bicycle maintenance, astute criticisms of popular culture and work for the BBC costumes department, all on our bridge.