Stage crew needed!

The Alexandra Players, Charlton’s amateur theatre group, is performing Neville’s Island by Tim Firth on 2-4 June 2011. A few people are still needed to help out back stage, so if you’d like to get to know some new people, or learn a new skill, or just get out of the house twice a week, why not get involved? No prior experience needed! We particularly require:

  • stage crew, to set the stage between scenes (make sure props are in the right place etc), operate smoke machine and operate a light backstage
  • someone able to make a few props that are needed, most importantly a dead bird (if you want to know why we need that, come and see the play!)

We are always looking for people to help with non-theatrical roles such as manning the door, selling programmes etc.

If any of this sounds your sort of thing, you can get in touch on alexandraplayers@gmail.com .

Tickets for the show itself are on sale now, at £6. shows start at 8pm and are in the Alexandra Hall, next to the URC church on Bramshot Avenue, SE7. To book, send an email with your name, how many tickets you want and which night you want them for and they will be available for you on the door.

Open weekend at ‘secret’ art studios

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment

The flyer below says it all – the Second Floor Studios complex, at the end of Warspite Road on the Charlton/Woolwich border, is opening up its doors tonight and across the weekend to show off its wares to art fans, artists and neighbours…

The whole project’s an interesting one – a plan to develop 280 studios together with a gallery and cafe on the old industrial site. It’s tucked away out of sight now, but when the riverside walk is finally finished between the Thames Barrier and Woolwich Dockyard, it could be quite a landmark. More on this soon, I hope.

A fantastic season for Charlton…

Matt
photo courtesy of CPRFU

Okay, okay I’m not talking about our beloved football club who’ve had their worst season since 1974. I am in fact talking about the other team from SE7, Charlton Park Rugby Club. Okay they’re not quite in SE7 are they? They’re in fact over in Kidbrooke SE3….but they’ve got the right name haven’t they?

Yes Charlton Park are genuine winners this season finishing second in the Southeast London 3 Division and getting themselves promoted. The RFU brought in new rules at the start of the season to award one additional match point for either scoring four tries or losing by seven points or less. This actually means under last season’s rules Charlton Park would have been clear winners.  But regardless of this, Charlton Park will be playing in the second division next season at level seven of the national pyramid. I chatted to club secretary Andy Potts:

“You never know when you go up. We were playing some quite good rugby at the end of the year. We hope if we keep those players together we might do quite well in the league above.”

He went on to explain the ideology of this amateur club. “We don’t pay [our players] – we don’t think the membership would let us! We’re a fairly proud social club”.

They don’t expect the spectators to pay either as its free to watch and I’m told the amenities include a bar and some pretty decent grub. If rugby’s not your game then the clubhouse also has a squash court and a gym available to members and the bar is available to hire for weddings, parties etc.

Here’s the full interview with Andy Potts – let’s hope they can continue their success next season.

Discuss Olympic rail cuts plan on Monday

Darryl Chamberlain3 Comments

The Charlton Rail Users Group will meet on Monday at 7pm at Charlton Liberal Club. Representatives from Southeastern, London Travelwatch, Transport for London and Greenwich Council will be there to discuss issues including the cleanliness of the station (I spotted a rat there recently), how easy it is to access other forms of transport (including the “dance of death“) and the issue of having to leg it up the platform if a five-car train arrives.

Also under discussion will be the planned Olympics service cuts – you might like to see the group’s response.

The Charlton Rail Users Group would like to object in the strongest possible terms to the proposed Greenwich line timetable during the 2012 Olympics.

While we appreciate Southeastern needs to run a simple service during a period of high demand, we feel the current service, strengthened with longer trains, will be able to cope. Charlton station has coped well with Premier League crowds of over 27,000 for football matches – it is only when the service is reduced things go wrong. Indeed, Charlton was more than able to cope with Millennium Dome traffic during 2000, although most visitors used North Greenwich..

It appears to us that dropping station calls and closing Woolwich Dockyard has more to do with reducing the risk of Southeastern incurring financial penalties for late running than making the service easier for passengers to use.

Anything less than a normal service will confuse and inconvenience regular passengers, who will find alternative forms of travel – particularly the Jubilee Line – also affected by Olympic traffic. During this period, we should be able to rely on a full train service, and not face arbitary cuts. With North Greenwich station expected to be more difficult to access, Southeastern’s customers in this area will depend on these services more than usual.

London 2012’s organisers have promised a car-free Games – your proposal seems designed to achieve the opposite. Indeed, the secrecy surrounding your proposals – with no mention of them on the Southeastern website – leaves a lot to be desired, especially from a company which already has a poor reputation for communication.

1) Proposal to stop Charing X-Lewisham-Gillingham trains calling at Charlton
It seems utterly perverse to reduce the number of trains calling at Charlton when it is being publicised as a stop for the North Greenwich Arena. Similarly, it will inconvenience passengers from north Kent and the Medway Towns planning to visit Olympic events there – people who need persuading to leave their cars at home.

2) Proposal to cut train services at Westcombe Park and close Woolwich Dockyard
Again, this is perverse and seems designed to protect Southeastern against financial loss rather than provide the best possible service to passengers. Displaced passengers will switch to Charlton, putting pressure on services you plan to reduce.

3) General proposals for stations on the Greenwich line and nearby
Cutting station stops on the Greenwich line and at Kidbrooke will only force people to seek alternatives during the Olympics. The Greenwich and Charlton area will be particularly badly affected by the Games, with Jubilee Line use made difficult by Olympic crowds and road capacity reduced by the Olympic Route Network. The only way to achieve a car-free Games will be to ensure ordinary Londoners can get around during the Olympics by running a full service, with longer trains, from first train to last – not to cut rail services as you propose.

Should Charlton’s gardeners run their own allotments?

linzikinghorn3 Comments

One topic that’s close to people’s hearts and has been coming up habitually in conversations around Charlton recently are the Highcombe allotments. They are one of two in the Charlton area (the other one being at Cherry Orchard) and mean a lot to all sorts of different people. I know from experience; my dad has one back home in Dorset and it’s his pride and joy. Anything he can muster – from spinach to onions to strawberries (when the weather’s nice).

Greenwich Council is putting the price of renting allotments up, so the local people who pay a yearly lease for them are awaiting the news of how much more this is going to be. Some people within the Highcombe community have had the idea of breaking away from the council and privatising the allotments in order to avoid having to pay more for the land.

I spoke to a local resident who has rented land from the council for a few years now. She pays yearly, from April-April usually, but this year it has gone from April-June, so the announcement of how much the price will go up by won’t be until then. Her main concern about going private involves a number of factors and suggests it would be much better to keep the allotment under the maintenance of the council.

Her main concerns are that if the allotments went private, there would be extra costs to pay and sort out that the council does now already. These include a possible water meter, maintenance of the fence, finding a skip which at the moment is provided by the council, and finding manure, which at the moment is delivered by the council twice a year. She feels these costs which are included in the yearly lease fee at the moment will add all sorts of extra costs and burdens to the residents.

At the moment, the woman I spoke to only shares a small patch with someone else, but she told me there are lots of families who have much bigger areas to maintain and so it would cost them a lot more if prices went up. She said she may well have to give her rods up because it will be difficult to pay for, which is a shame for people who spend their time reading, planting and relaxing.

She did stress that the council has been pretty good up until now with helping residents out and maintaining the allotment. This is just one opinion. Maybe you have a different opinion and think the only way to save it is to privatise it. I’d love to hear.

Japanese classes at Charlton House

linzikinghorn

Have you ever considered learning Japanese? Watched Japanese films or had an interest in anime or manga? Or have a girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse that is Japanese and just want to learn a bit of the lingo? A closely kept secret in Charlton, it seems, is that at Charlton House during the weekdays anyone can go along and study Japanese. I don’t know about you, but I was quite surprised by this as I didn’t know there was such an active Japanese community, despite seeing the beautiful garden at the house.

The classes are run by the IIEL (Institute of International Education in London) and although they are designed to teach teachers who want to teach Japanese, I believe anyone is invited to go along and it doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner or an advanced speaker.

There’s a one time registration fee of £18 but after that, the classes are free if you take the teaching classes otherwise they’re free. I spoke to Clay Harris who has been going along to the classes, and he told me that he had met such a diverse cross-section of people and called it, “London at its multicultural best, all ages and backgrounds.”

People who have been to the classes have said there is a real sense of community there – and what a great use of Charlton House! The institute holds cultural evenings there sometimes where some of the students give a presentation about an aspect of Japanese culture in English and there is also an annual sports day there!

I wasn’t aware there was such an active Japanese community in Charlton, but if it’s right there on our doorsteps, it seems like a great opportunity to try something different and meet new people. I shall certainly be giving it a go if time permits! Let me know if you’ve been, what you think about it or if there’s anything I’ve missed out.