Goldsmiths occupation against new round of cuts

 Students at Goldsmiths University of London have occupied the college library in New Cross in protest against another round of cuts threatening the jobs of hundreds of staff (academic and professional services) and leaving the future of some courses in doubt.As the occupiers have noted, 'Goldsmiths is a microcosm of the decimation of Higher Education, ...

“New Cross Hell on Earth”

Ludicrous rant going round on line from a far right wannabe influencer who apparently commutes by train into New Cross from Kent and then gets the bus somewhere. I'm not going to name her as these shameless grifters rely on publicity, but here's a flavour: 'you have never known hell on earth until you have stepped ...

The Pogues on HMS Belfast, 1985

In 1985, the Pogues launched their great second album 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash' with a party on HMS Belfast, the retired Royal Navy ship permanently moored between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. All of this was in keeping with the nautical theme for the album, the sleeve of which features  Theodore Géricault's painting 'The Raft ...

New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival 2026

 The 2026 New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival  starts on 24 April and promises '21 events across ten days, with venues ranging from pubs to parks and from boxing gyms to churches'. Some interesting movies and venues, including 'When we were Kings' at Double Jab Boxing Club in Fordham Park and David Byrne's 'True Stories' at Piehouse ...

Sticky Fingers Publishing Fair in New Cross, April 2026

Coming up at Goldsmiths in New Cross next week (April 11th), the Sticky Fingers Publishing Fair'Join us for a fair celebrating feminist, queer, disabled-led and local interdisciplinary publishing, returning for its third year. Featuring 56a Infoshop, The 50-ft Press, The Alternative School of Economics, BitterSweet Review, Burley Fisher Community Press, CAMP!, Ⓐ DUDLEY Ⓔ, Em—Dash, F.A.T. Studio, ...

Figurant at Strange Parade

A mesmerising audiovisual performance at Strange Parade in Nunhead last month (28 February 2026), with Inga Tillere's film piece accompanied by words from Johny Brown (of Band of Holy Joy) and musical accompaniment from Mark Beazley (bass) and Jono Podmore (theremin and other sounds).'Figurant' is centred around the 'discarded fragments of space and time' embodied ...

South London Landscape History

I strongly recommend 'Commonplace: a South London Landscape History', a series of limited edition zines/pamphlets written by John Gray with photographs by Sam Walton. There have been three published so far:'Bostall Heath to Plumstead Common''Woolwich Common to Eltham Common''One Tree Hill to Peckham Rye Common'The next one, 'Streatham Common to Tooting Common' will be out ...

South London Landscape History

I strongly recommend 'Commonplace: a South London Landscape History', a series of limited edition zines/pamphlets written by John Gray with photographs by Sam Walton. There have been three published so far:'Bostall Heath to Plumstead Common''Woolwich Common to Eltham Common''One Tree Hill to Peckham Rye Common'The next one, 'Streatham Common to Tooting Common' will be out ...

Telegraph Hill Festival 2026: a music walk and a New Cross history talk (and a new book)

Lots of great events coming up in Telegraph Hill Festival this month I am doing two history related talks.New Cross from fields to factories in the 19th centuryThursday 26th March at the Somerville, 260 Queens Road, SE14 5JN  - tickets here (donation)'In the space of a few decades in the mid-19th century, New Cross went ...

New Cross Giant Redwood

New Cross has quite a few fine trees - London Planes on the wider roads, cherry trees in residential streets and gardens full of all kinds of specimens. But one of the finest must be the Giant Redwood at New Cross Gate station. Legend has it that it was planted from seed in the 1980s ...