Lambeth is celebrating the switching on of its town centre Christmas lights with a parade, which starts outside the Odeon cinema in Streatham this afternoon at 4pm and continues on to events in West Norwood, Herne Hill, Brixton, Clapham and Oval. Apparently Father Christmas will be touring the borough in an open top bus to flick the switch. According to the Lambeth Council website he will be joined by “a band of helpers including hip hop pixies, musicians and carol singers. There’ll be face-painting fun, cookie-decorating, roasted chestnuts and snow-making fun for all the family”. What is a hip hop pixie? I can’t wait to find out.
The event is organised by the Streatham Festival.
Whilst it doesn’t have the celebrity endorsement of 2006 when June Whitfield, who was born in Streatham, was drafted in to flick the switch, it does, however, sound a lot better than 2005, when musician Garri Holness, was invited to do the honours after he lost part of his left leg in the King’s Cross Tube bombing. He was hoping to publicise his campaign for justice for bomb victims and to promote his single “Something I Wanna Tell You” but the invitation was withdrawn after it emerged that he had been among seven men convicted of raping two 16-year-old girls on the Stockwell Park Estate in Brixton in 1985. Oh dear, that’s not what Streatham needs.
Itinerary
- 4 to 5pm Streatham – outside the Odeon
- 4.30 to 5.30pm West Norwood – St Luke’s Church – West Norwood
- 5 to 6pm Herne Hill – Brockwell Lido car park
- 5.30 to 6.30pm Brixton – Tunstall Road next to Morleys
- 6 to 7pm Clapham – The Pavement
- 6.30 to 7.30pm – St Mark’s Church, Oval
