On this day in 1981, 13 young black partygoers were killed in a house fire at 439 New Cross Road. Although many suspected that the fire was the result of an racially motivated arson attack, a succession of inquests returned an open verdict.
The 1980s saw a number of organised racist attacks against the black community in South London, including firebombings at nightclubs in Deptford and New Cross. The black community accused the police and the press of showing a lack of sympathy for the victims of the fire, which led to huge political mobilisation amongst the local community.
On Monday 2nd March 1981, 20,000 people gathered to march for the Black People’s Day of Action, the largest political demonstration ever seen in the UK black community. The Sun reported this with the headline “The Day The Blacks Ran Riot”.
Twenty years on there are still no clear answers, but what is certain is that we will not forget, thirteen dead and nothing said. We will not forget.
The East London Line is on the verge of rattling into life again after a 2 year hiatus. South-East based art students can breathe a sign of relief as Beyond Retro is only a 20 minute journey away, and The Amersham Arms can once again proclaim New Cross the New Hoxton™.
The East London Line was always fairly idiosyncratic; never entering Zone 1, and with only 8 stations along its length. Compared to the sterile efficiency of the Jubilee line however, the Line had a great amount of charm.
The line has been taken over and extended by London Overground, with a variety of monolithic additions, not least the giant bridges over Shoreditch High Street and through Little Millwall, north of New Cross. As such I imagine most of the Line’s endearing foibles will be gone on its return.
This video details a journey from New Cross to the old Shoreditch terminus when the East London Line was still part of the London Underground, and it was still acceptable to drink two cans of Super on your journey to Canada Water.
So, I went along for the results of my personality test at the Scientology Dianetics Centre yesterday. It was surprisingly uneventful other than the fact that the building was amazing and the girls were all beautiful.
I would go into more detail but really I wasn’t paying much attention when they analysed my test results what with all the attractive architecture and Scientologist girls.
Suffice to say they told me i wasn’t achieving my potential and that Scientology and Dianetics could help me do that. As long as I bought lots of books. And DVDs. And volunteered down at the Centre. You get the drift.
They gave me a nice DVD too.
I’m going to go back and take some photos later in the week but for now here’s a photo of the central staircase.
House sharing inevitably generates passive aggressive behaviour patterns, which although tiresome, can lead to some wonderful intra-house correspondance.
These are a handful of the notes I’ve collected over the past three years of sharing a house, and as soon as I can dig the rest out from under my bed I will add some more to the collection.
Once I found a discarded notepad in the Hobgoblin pub in New Cross.
It started off a bit strange, with shopping lists for “leci”, “tobac”, “T Bags” and “puff”. Then it had a design for a water tower, and a page about electro active polymers. Then a page that said “The actions the Jews are taking justify what Hitler did to them”.
I feel a bit weird keeping this book with my personal effects but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it whilst I still have no idea what it all means.
Below are a few pages of the notepad reproduced for your viewing displeasure.
My grandparents moved to Spain last year but before they left I got to root through their photograph collection for a few gems. Here are some of my favourites.
