Sydenham Arts presents An evening of Mozart & Mendelssohn by Ensemble SE26: Eleanor Meynell, Ellie Fagg, Tom Norris, Ruth Gibson, Hannah Sloane at Saturday 9th February, 7.30pm at St Bart’s church, 4 Westwood Hill SE26 6QR.
The annual Spooky Sydenham Halloween event rail has been announced on Wednesday 31st October and it’s set to be another Spooktacular event! Starting at 4pm (until 5pm) from Kirkdale Bookshop, the Spooky Trail continues along Sydenham Road where there are treasures, delights and surprises as you go along our shops and businesses, ending in the ‘Terror in the haunted house’ at our favourite little comedy club – The Poodle Club. To see who is taking part, look at the image on our website or collect a map from Kirkdale Bookshop, White’s Pet Store or visit the Sydenham Centre.
There is also a costume contest at 5pm at the Sydenham Centre.
Thank you to everyone who has helped arrange this fantastic local event and other great initiatives in our local area.
At the end of last year, London Overground announced that they planned to permanently close ticket offices at all London Overground stations including our local stations at Sydenham, Forest Hill and Penge West.
With great anticipation, Nando’s officially opened their doors this week to the people of Sydenham, Kirkdale and surrounds. Queues of an hour wait to get it on the first night were proof that this is a great addition to the excellent pubs and eateries we already have in the area.
We are pleased to have a good mix of independent as well as chain eateries in Sydenham, and it’s excellent that more local jobs have been created thanks to Nando’s opening.
We look forward to the other businesses opening up in the area soon!
Lewisham Planning gives builder (Darwin/Built Off Site) 28 days to show how they intend to remedy the breaches of planning control.
Height of building, cladding, windows and surrounding fences are amongst many items the developer will have to address.
A public meeting about the new St Philip Neri school development was held at Sydenham Library on Thursday 19 July. Just over 50 local people attended with six others who were unable to attend sending written questions. The meeting was chaired by local councillor Tom Copley and attended by Viv Evans, Lewisham’s interim Head of Planning. There were no representatives from the builder, developer or the diocese of Southwark and the head teacher sent his apologies. A member of the board of governors was present.
Since the meeting Lewisham has carried out a first survey of what’s been built and compared this to what was given planning permission. Now Lewisham has taken clear steps to ensure that the builder remedies all of the faults. You can read the report which points out some blatant disregard of planning permissions below.
A further public meeting will be held in the Autumn. In the meantime, we’ll keep you abreast of developments.
Join in the discussion for the future of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. There will be workshops that will ask a wide range of users to help inform the future plan for the Centre through a series of swift and discursive activities.
Lewisham Planning have warned St Philip Neri school following a public meeting which was held at Sydenham Library on Thursday 19 July.
The Sydenham Society and These Streets Belong to Us from Perry Vale regret Lewisham Council’s recent decision to permit the demolition of the locally listed cast iron Bell Green gas holders.
At the Sydenham Assembly on Wednesday June 13 a packed audience voted overwhelmingly to support the Sydenham Society’s call for a public meeting to be held within the next 10 days to discuss the outstanding issues to do with the planning permission. We’ve asked for representatives from the school, the diocese and the London Borough of Lewisham’s planning department to be present, to answer questions from local residents. We’ve also asked that, before the meeting, planners supply us with a list of the discrepancies between the approved plans and the structure that has been built. Our councillors are now pressing for the meeting to take place.
We are seeking firm reassurance that the new school hall (currently under construction) will be built according to planning consents. There should be no possibility that this building proceeds along the same lines as the one currently occupied.
As soon as we have a date, time and venue for the meeting we’ll publish the information here.
Sydenham Arts are proud to have played a significant part in the rise of arts and culture in SE26 over the last 10 years. This year our festival theme is Heroes & Heroines and we bring you another 10 day multi-arts programme with some great talent.
Opening the festival is Exploding Whale’s compelling theatre production Heroes; a story of friendship, growing up and loneliness. Set to Bowie’s The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders from Mars, the humdrum lives of Joe and Billie are changed forever after witnessing Bowie performing Starman for the first time on Top of the Pops. Determined to go to Bowie’s upcoming London gig, the friends leave home on what becomes a journey of self discovery, where the lines between hero worship and friendship become blurred. Written by Bebe Barry and Tony Barry, and directed by Max Harrison, this exciting piece of theatre (performed at Edinburgh Festival in 2017) hits Brighton Fringe, and then opens here at Upstairs at the Sydenham Centre on 27 June and runs for 5 nights.
(Edinburgh Living **** “If you are a fan of new writing or the music of David Bowie you will not be disappointed with Heroes.”)
There’s more – we are hugely excited to be joining forces with local comedy newcomers, The Poodle Club, who have been bringing some exceptional talent to audiences in their fabulous home on Sydenham Road. It really is London’s Happiest Little Comedy Club! For one night only they will bring us 6 comedy greats Upstairs at the Sydenham Centre; true elder statesman of British Comedy, Arthur Smith, joined
by Sydenham’s own Ben Norris and razor-sharp clawed David Mills, South London diva Arielle Souman and another local lad, Toussaint Douglas, and finally the loveable Irish comedian Gráinne Maguire.
Did someone mention films? We also have collaborations with TNG and Sydenham Film Club and will be screening Matilda, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Hop on over to Mayow Park for some live music on the bowling green with Perry Vale’s annual Lark in the Park, and the return of locals, Rosie & Ben Fox with their live band and family fun with Foxtots Bops. Plus we have our regular commitment of dance and music for our Plus 60s event with local dancer Amanda Botterill and guitarist Alex Hart. As well as all this, at St Bartholomew’s Church there are performances by Bristol City Poet 2018, Vanessa Kisuule and singer/songwriter, Jill Jackson, following in the footsteps of Boo Hewerdine and Kathryn Williams last year.
Don’t miss award-winning duo, Witt ‘n Camp’s musical theatre, comedy and cabaret show on our final night. Lastly, and never to be forgotten, we have the Artists Trail bringing you a multitude of visual arts over both weekends (see page 3 for further details). What’s not to love? Dive on in, book your time off and see you there!
Box Office opens on Friday 18 May 2018 sydenhamarts.co.uk @sydartsfest www.facebook.com/SydenhamArtsFestival Rachel D’Cruze (Managing Director, Sydenham Arts)