The link between Napoleon and Captain James McTernan, buried in Brockley Cemetery

On the bicentenary of Napoleon Bonaparte's death in exile on St Helena, FoBLC vice-chair Mike Guilfoyle explores his link to Royal Naval surgeon Captain James McTernan, buried in Brockley Cemetery South London Press (p31, May 14th 2021 edition) Captain James McTiernan is not the only person with a link to Napoleon buried in the Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries.  We ...

Wild Flower Hunt

Nature and our mental healthhttps://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week?fbclid=IwAR16cGn5KzWXqapwBj0zXXbZMYeUCbfhakLiqfPqovcHoitgnig_8M9V5Ng I “Nature is so central to our psychological and emotional health, that it’s almost impossible to realise good mental health for all without a greater connection to the natural world”.  Perhaps on your healthy walk you’d like to try out our plant hunt. It was prepared in a year when ...

Music Monday: Elephants and Castles – Song for the Birds

We've featured some of  Elephants and Castles' South London-tinged songs here before, including Concrete Love (filmed in the now vanished Elephant and Castle subways) and The  World's Greatest Complainers, filmed in Jenny's cafe in Deptford.Their latest single, Song for the Birds, was inspired by hearing birdsong down Deptford High Street during lockdown  'so we wrote ...

Captain Sergei Ulyanin inventor of the original drone

The Russian aviator, inventor of a 19th Century 'drone' who turned them into vital reconnaissance during the First World War, is one of the more important and unusual people buried in the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries.   We have previously featured Captain Sergei Ulyanin on this website and he is now the subject of a feature ...

Blue bells in flower on the lane

Following extensive work clearing the encroaching brambles we are being rewarded with the view of the bluebells. The existing seed bank is also getting a chance to flower along with the more recently added primroses. We are hoping to see invertebrates thrive along with foraging birds. Listen out for the black cap, they nest locally ...

150th anniversary of Jane Clouson’s death

On the 150th anniversary of Jane Clouson's death, FOBLC's Mike Guilfoyle has written for the South London Press (p32) about her tragic death which became a cause celebre of Victorian London.One of the most famous and most visited graves in the Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries, Jane Clouson's unsolved murder was recounted in this moving account by ...

The Covid Memorial Wall

The National Covid Memorial Wall has been painted over the last month by volunteers along the South Bank of the Thames between Lambeth Bridge and Westminster Bridge, opposite the Houses of Parliament, and including the riverside wall in front of St Thomas' Hospital. There are around 150,000 hearts, each representing one of the UK Covid ...

Charles Forjett and the Martyrs of Bombay

As you pass along the meandering pathway from the Dissenters Chapel and round the corner walking towards the wall of remembrance in Ladywell cemetery, you could so easily walk past without noticing the drab headstone which denotes that a former Commissioner of Police from 1855-1864 for India's most populous city Bombay (known as Mumbai since ...

Fenton Ogbogbo- murdered by racists in the Old Kent Road, 1981

Fenton Ogbogbo was a 25 year old man who was murdered in a racist attack on the  Old Kent Road in June 1981. Three white youths aged 15 to 17 from the Peckham area were jailed at 'Her Majesty’s pleasure' in  a trial at the Old Bailey in the following year.  The court heard that on ...

Music Monday: Pinty at the Gowlett Arms

I heard 'Found it', the new single from South London MC Pinty, on Gilles Peterson's BBC6 Music show at the weekend. Wait a minute, does he actually mention legendary Peckham pub The Gowlett on this track? Yes indeed, my ears were not deceiving me.Found It by PINTY It is in fact 'a love story set in ...