The White Swan might not be around, but the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival is back in September after a year’s break
Coronavirus might have put paid to last year’s event, but the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival is coming back in 2021. PAUL CHAPMAN reveals when and explains how you can get involved…
Very excited to announce that the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival is coming back in 2021! After the disappointment of last year when coronavirus called a halt to so many people’s plans, we’ve started planning and we’re on the lookout for volunteers to help us put on events.
We can also announce – exclusively in The Charlton Champion – that this years Festival will run from Friday 3rd to Saturday 11th September!
If you’ve not heard about us before, it’s a simple concept. We’re volunteers, and we host films, for free, only in venues with an SE7 or SE18 postcode. The films range from documentaries to blockbusters, and the venues range from pubs to churches to cafes to… well, you tell us! (Especially if you run a venue!)
Previous highlights have included Vertigo at Severndroog Castle, Battle of Britain at St George’s Garrison Church, Shaun of the Dead at The White Swan in Charlton and First Man under the Stars on the Woolwich riverside. We’ve also played obscure documentaries where the volunteers outnumbered the visitors, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the big screen at General Gordon Square… when the sound didn’t work. You’re always guaranteed an adventure with CWFFF!
To get involved, or to be notified of advance news, sign up to our mailing list. You can also find our social media details below, where you can give us a follow and let us know your film and venue ideas.
Faraday Works – the long-closed Siemens factory – is on the Thames cycle route
The pandemic has pushed many people to get back on their bikes or try cycling for the first time. CLAIRE SELBY is one of them. With Charlton’s new cycleway under construction, she’s been brushing up on her cycle skills on the Thames Path…
Prompted by a couple of my dearest female friends who bought cycles in the first lockdown, I finally bit the bullet a few days before Christmas and got myself a city bike. I used Cycles UK in Deptford and found them ridiculously helpful for a complete novice. Panniers, rack, mudguards, a helmet and a lock later I wheeled my way out of the shop. I knew I could cycle most of the way back to Charlton along the river on the Thames Path but I hadn’t actually done it.
Context here: I haven’t cycled since I was about 14 years old, which is a long time ago and not in London. I didn’t like the idea of trying Boris bikes, and there are unbelievably no hubs yet near Charlton or Greenwich. But sometimes you just have to go for it, and go for it I did.
During the first lockdown I had three local walks I did very often: Charlton via Westcombe Park to Greenwich via the park, walk up and across to Blackheath Village and then Charlton round the O2 via the Thames Path. I got reacquainted with my local area again quietly as I had done through mudlarking over the past couple of years on the foreshore outside the Anchor and Hope. Traversing the area by cycle is quite different, but much more fun. You realise just how long a bus can take. Cycling along the Thames Path will never get old or dull for me. The absolute exhilaration of being near the river, on a designated and pretty decently maintained surface is quite the rush.
From my house off Woolwich Road I can easily cut down the usually quiet Horn Lane, use the Bugsby’s Way crossing and go down Peartree Way right up to the yacht club and then have a glorious cycle right around the O2. Soon I’ll be able to come out of my road and go immediately onto the new cycle track either all the way to Greenwich or Woolwich.
The metallic bridge on the Thames cycle path
My favourite part of cycling in Charlton is the Thames Barrier. If you cycle from Woolwich and follow the Thames Path, you cycle alongside the river on your right, across the white metallic bridge by the marvellous Thames-Side Studios and slide right down the slope onto Warspite Road. Hook a right, sneak through the gate and cycle alongside the beautiful old warehouse buildings. How long until Faraday Works opens? I can’t wait! You come to a small restriction barrier, onto tarmac humps and there you are – the Barrier! It feels so un-London I love it. Did you know it has its own Twitter account? The glistening peaks of the Barrier hit with sunlight never fail to delight me.
I recently learnt of a proposal to build a bridge alongside the Barrier, why ever not? Recently I arranged to meet a friend there: as I got there I realised he was on the other side of the river.
My next goal is to use the Woolwich Ferry to go north, which should be an adventure. Sadly due to the redevelopment west of the ferry means you can no longer cycle right beside the river, you have to take an awkward ride or walk alongside the road and then rejoin a diversion through one of the new developments. But oh, it is surely worth it because as soon as you pop out, you are right alongside the almost mythical Woolwich Dockyard fishing lakes. Apparently there is still a 40lb carp in there somewhere according to one of the lads fishing there.
The old South East London Aquatic Centre in Woolwich, which has been earmarked for development for many years
On cycling trips around the Peninsula, I have played with cycling back on part of the new cycle lane westbound from Greenwich towards Charlton. As long time residents and avid readers of The Charlton Champion will know, one of the main reasons for this cycle track being developed was the number of fatalities on the Angerstein Roundabout. Even as a pedestrian it is always quite hairy crossing the A102 – the car is king. As a cyclist now, you can’t take an unbroken route to cross it but they have made it a little easier by widening lanes and utilising the pedestrian lights to enable you to cross while still mounted. You still need to press three crossing buttons to do it though so it’s not entirely seamless.
Work is continuing on the new cycleway along Woolwich Road
The traffic on Woolwich Road and around the Blackwall Tunnel has always been terrible ever since I moved south of the river about 24 years ago. Lockdown is the only thing that has made it less congested, and the new cycle lane makes things more accessible.
If you are also starting out or getting reacquainted with a bike there is an excellent company called Cycle Confident, which offers free cycle lessons for adults. I had one lesson in that weird limbo between Christmas and New Year amongst children with fancier bikes than mine, scooters, roller skates and everything in between. I highly recommend them and have booked a second now Covid restrictions allow.
The Yoruba Soul Jazz at the Thamesmead Festival – a show put on by GMFA
You might have seen its posters up in and around Charlton, but the pandemic has seen Global Fusion Music and Arts reach far beyond southeast London, as NIKKI SPENCER found out.
Putting on events via Zoom isn’t how Global Fusion Music and Arts was expecting to be marking its 20th birthday this month.
“We were planning to celebrate with live music and fireworks, and we had a whole year of theatre productions and festivals organised,” explains its co-founder and project manager, Louisa Le Marchand. “But we’re still here and that’s the main thing – both the charity and ourselves.”
GFMA began when Louisa and her partner, Gill Swan, and fellow musicians Sukh Saini and Kaz Kasozi, were in a band called The Fusion Factory. They started organising regular world music nights at the Wine Cellar in Woolwich. This then led to them running workshops in schools, and at the Natural History Museum and the Horniman Museum, as well as developing a whole range of projects from film-making for young people on the former Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke to helping students record their own music.
In 2013 GFMA became a charity, and four years ago, after getting support from Charlton Triangle Homes, it moved into Valiant House, next to The Valley, where it has an office and runs workshops.
“We originally set up GFMA to educate people about the wonder of world music, but we use all sorts of different creative activities to help build confidence. Over the years thousands of people have come through our doors and have benefited from what we do in all sorts of ways,” says Louisa.
When Covid-19 hit, GFMA’s events were cancelled overnight and Louisa was worried the charity might go under. “We looked at our finances and it was scary, but we put an appeal for donations and we raised over £1,000 which was amazing. I have lived in Charlton for over 25 years and the local community has always been so supportive of what we do, and this sustained us to then start applying for grants.”
Back at the beginning: Louisa (second left) with Kaz Kasozi, Gill Swan and Kaz Kasozi in The Fusion Factory
In May last year Charlton Triangle Homes started funding some online community workshops and the following month, GFMA received a lottery community grant which enabled it to take its regular events online and add a few more too.
“2020 was a difficult year but we have just adapted,”, says Louisa who worked as TV producer before she retired. “I am very techy, and good at getting to grips with new skills, which has come in useful.”
GMFA’s spring programme, which is running until the end of this month, includes monthly poetry, spoken word and music nights, a quiz and a writers’ group as well as weekly sessions ranging from storytelling to singing.
“People tell us what a lifeline our events are for them, especially if they are shielding and living on their own and it is wonderful that we can make a difference,” says Louisa.
For its birthday, on March 15, there’ll be celebration on Zoom and Facebook and Louisa hopes to have an outdoor celebration in the summer if restrictions allow.
For many years GFMA has also been helping musicians record their work, and in January it launched ‘Mater’ of Life, a single by a local reggae artist, Setondji Spirit.
Louisa says GMFA has one person – Edna Patterson, who received a Volunteer of the Year award from Greenwich Council in 2019 – to thank for its new global reach.
“She does all our digital marketing and has worked really hard to get the message out.”
What is great about online is you can join in from anywhere. I often ask people where they are in the chat function and I know we have people from the Czech Republic, Sweden and France in our dance fit sessions and someone from the Isle of Arran in our writers’ group.”
When the coronavirus restrictions eased last summer, GFMA was able to put on two live performances at Shrewsbury House in Shooters Hill for Black History Month with the actor Paterson Joseph, which were also streamed on Zoom and Facebook.
“Because the room was quite small and people had to socially distance, we could only have about 20 people for each, but we had over 2,500 watch on Facebook,” says Louisa.
“Thanks to Zoom we have a much bigger audience now and we will be thinking about how to keep them involved once we do go back to live events.”
GMFA has brought tai chi into the community, such as here in Eltham – now it has gone online
During the pandemic Louisa and her fellow trustees have been running GFMA from their homes and she is the first to admit that it has been a challenge.
“When we worked in the office it was easier as you left for the day but now I don’t seem to stop. I am working six days a week and most evenings. Last night we didn’t have anything in the programme, but I was writing a letter to a funder until 10pm.”
And they are all doing it on a voluntary basis.
“I’m passionate about GFMA and do it for love, but I am 70 now and I am not getting any younger. Our plan for the future is to try and get core funding to get someone to do my job, and ideally employ two others.”
In the meantime, GFMA is always looking for new volunteers.
“We have an amazing group of trustees who have been working really hard to keep everything going but we are always keen to hear from anyone who has skills to offer”, says Louisa.
GMFA is also looking to raise more money so they can carry on their workshops beyond March.
“We launched a new appeal in December and we have raised another £1,425 so far, but we do need more to be able to carry on doing what we are doing. I am such a strong believer in community and bringing people together and now we need this more than ever.”
Tonight’s International Women’s Day show will be shown on Zoom and Facebook. To keep up with the latest Global Fusion Music and Arts events, follow the group on Facebook and Twitter.
NIKKI SPENCER is a freelance journalist who has also written for The Guardian, The Independent, Lewisham Ledger and Peckham Peculiar.
This is one of a series of stories published here and on our sister site 853 about how SE London’s communities have reacted to the coronavirus pandemic. See all the stories published so far.
CHRISTINE ANTHONY from the Friends of Maryon Parks has been in touch – can you help solve a sporting mystery?
In the middle of December last year, The Friends of Maryon Parks were contacted by Victoria White, a metal detectorist, who had been working in a field near Buxton, Derbyshire when she found a silver Albert or watch chain.
Attached to the chain was a silver medal, inscribed on the front with the monogram “AH” and the reverse with “Maryon Park Gymnasium, 1st Prize Juniors, won by A. Harvey 1910”.
The front of the medal
We were able to tell Victoria that the Maryon Park playground had opened in 1895 when “the Maryon-Wilson Estates gave one third of an acre more land for the formation of an open air children’s gymnasium with an additional entrance in the Lower Woolwich Road” and to provide a picture via the Charlton Parks Reminiscence website at . It is thought the photo was taken about 1910 and appears to show parallel bars and other gymnastic equipment in the upper playground.
Victoria has been unable to make a link with a Harvey family in Buxton but we wondered if there is one with GA Harvey metal works of Charlton. Unfortunately to date we’ve not been able to find out much about the family so would love to hear from someone who knows something about them.
If you can help solve the mystery, drop Christine a line at friendsofmaryonparks[at]gmail.com.
Old Dover Road, seen here in this Google Streetview image, could be closed at the A102 bridge
Plans to make cycling safer for schoolchildren could see through traffic banned from Old Dover Road, according to plans unveiled by Greenwich Council yesterday.
Cameras could be placed on the bridge over the A102 to stop cars, vans and lorries from heading down the full length of the road as part of the proposal to finish a proposed cycle route from Shooters Hill Road to Greenwich Park.
The council also plans to put a camera on Banchory Road to stop the rat-running that has blighted the short-cut to and from Charlton Road for years, with HGVs transporting cars to the Metropolitan Police’s pound on Bramshot Avenue continuing to thunder down the dog-leg into Craigerne Road.
Traffic would still be able to use Old Dover Road, but drivers heading to the shops would have to enter from the Royal Standard if the proposals go ahead. Using cameras means buses and emergency services can still use the route, while closures could be limited to rush hours or daytimes only.
Part of the cycle route, from Baker Road to Weyman Road, was finished last year, but now the council is consulting on proposals to extend it west along Shooters Hill Road, and then to route riders along a quieter Old Dover Road, before the route continues along St John’s Park towards Blackheath.
However, rather than following an existing footpath to Greenwich Park, cyclists would be expected to turn left into Vanburgh Terrace and then right into Maze Hill – the top section of which would be closed to through traffic – before reaching the park.
The route was chosen as it runs close to or past five different schools: Greenwich Free School, Halley Academy, Leigh Academy Blackheath and John Roan School. It is one of two routes to be chosen for funding by Transport for London – the other is a cycle route from Eltham to Greenwich Park, which is also being consulted on.
Sizwe James, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said: “These routes will help more people cycle more often, even more safely, and help us with our green recovery. Whether it’s for shopping, commuting to work, getting to school or for leisure these routes have the potential to make cycling a serious option for more people.
“Travelling by bike is much cheaper than driving and these cycle routes will open the borough up so residents can travel further, more confidently. Not only is cycling easy on the wallet it’s good for our health and everyone around us too. If you’re serious about putting the brake on unnecessary car journeys, avoidable chronic health conditions caused by car exhausts and climate change then please have your say.”
Last month Greenwich announced a scheme which would involve cutting through traffic in Westcombe Hill: many Charlton residents have recently received anonymous leaflets urging them to protest against the proposals, and promoting a website which also does not reveal who is behind the campaign. Two weeks ago the council told The Charlton Champion it would monitor any effect the scheme had in Charlton and would take action if necessary.
Progress is also well under way on the extension of Cycleway 4 along Woolwich Road into Charlton, a scheme which is being delivered by Transport for London rather than the council.
The cross outside St Thomas’ church in Woodland Terrace
Have you seen the big wooden crosses outside St Luke’s and St Thomas’ churches? REV LIZ NEWMAN, the rector of the Benifice of Charlton, explains why they are there, and how you can use them to remember loved ones you have lost.
In both St Luke’s and St Thomas’ churchyards, large rough wooden crosses have appeared. During this season of Lent, we invite members of the community to share with us a loss you’ve suffered over the last year. It could be the name of a person who has died or something else you’ve been mourning. We’ll hang your messages on the cross. Please email your messages to: lentmessages[at]netarts.co.uk
Funding could be used to help people in Charlton get out and about
Community Voting Day is coming to Charlton on Saturday March 27. Greenwich Council has a pot of government money to spend on community health and wellbeing schemes in SE7 as part of its response to the pandemic. GAYLE WALLACE, who is running the scheme, explains…
Individuals and organisations are encouraged to apply for ‘small grant’ funding of up to £500 or ‘larger grant’ funding of up to £2,000, to provide projects that will improve health and wellbeing in the local area.
The criteria for funding applications have been set by local residents from the Charlton Neighbourhood Delivery Team, who have been championing health in the community for some time.
This is a unique opportunity, as it will be local residents in this area who will vote to decide which projects will be successful through an online (lockdown compliant) Community Voting Day, based on the principle of participatory budgeting. This will be held on Saturday March 27 (time to be decided). It’ll be a community-style Dragons Den.
The funding is being dispensed through the Royal Borough of Greenwich. I have been commissioned by the council to deliver the Community Voting Day process for this area.
Residents and organisations have the opportunity to gain funding through making an application outlining a project that they wish to deliver (based on the criteria set by the local community).
As well as organisations, we are actively encouraging individuals with great ideas, enthusiasm, and the energy to deliver, to apply. To support this aim we are also looking for organisations willing to play the role of an umbrella/sponsor organisation for an individual or small group that has a good idea but may not be constituted.
The application forms will be available shortly, with a final decision being made (as to who gets the funding) at the community voting day to be held on March 27, to which all from the community would be invited to take part.
Training will be available to help those interested in applying to help them formulate their project ideas, complete application forms, and to make a great presentation to the local community.
If you have any further queries regarding this funding, please do feel free to contact me at gayle.wallace[at]btconnect.com or call me on 078144 22696 for a brief discussion.
The Charlton Champion 