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his campaign for justice for bomb victims and to promote his single “Something I Wanna Tell You” but the invitation was withdrawn after it emerged that he had been among seven men convicted of raping two 16-year-old girls on the Stockwell Park Estate in Brixton in 1985.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

3. The most recent proposal   2. The second proposal   3. The first proposal

Property Developer Glentoran has had it’s plans for the redevelopment of the Megabowl/Ceasars site rejected for the third time. The controversial proposal has divided many in Streatham, with a large number of local businesses in favour but most resident associations against it. The Streatham Guardian reported yesterday that planners had recommended the proposals get the go-ahead but, according to Councillor Steve Reed, Lambeth Council’s planning committee rejected the plans at a meeting yesterday evening.

What does this mean for Streatham? Lost oppurtunity for desperately needed investment and development? Or is it a good decision to help ensure Streatham ends up with a development which doesn’t have such a big impact on the local area?

Whatever happens with this site let’s hope it doesn’t become another Streatham Hub, with the buildings laying derelict for many more years to come.

Much of the content on Streatham Pulse is made up of Streatham related stuff that I’ve found on the internet. It’s a place to put all of the stuff that I find which I think deserves to be seen by more people and hopefully appreciated by some of those who think that Streatham has nothing to offer of interest or beauty. As I search I keep coming across Ronald Hackston’s pictures. Some of his photos are included in the Streatham Pulse gallery, which was meant to be a place to show off Streatham at its best. However many of Ronald’s photos depict the less attractive side to Streatham; The decaying buildings, graffiti, strange shop windows, the rubbish dumped on streets, the unusual street signs; Yet he manages to find the interest and beauty in them. This blog would be a worse place without Ronald’s photos so this is a nod to him. Keep up the good work.

Here are some of my favorite Streatham photos from his Flickr photostream. Clicking on the photo will take you to the Flickr page. Please explore his stuff. He does, of course, also take photos of other places and things.

Click here to see more

Streatham Fireman, Stephen-Remell Coleman, also known as rapper ‘Controversy’, is using his talents to help recruit more young people in to the London Fire Brigade. You can watch the video for his new song, London Firefighter, below. It’s pure genius.

If you liked that check out his ‘Got Mine, Got Yours’ video he made a couple of years ago to encourage people to fit fire alarms in their homes. He also made an Asian Streets Mix.

Oz Bayldon, who runs The White Lion on Streatham High Road set the world record for the highest live gig in 2005 when he and his band played to a hundred or so mountaineers 5,545 metres up Mount Everest. He’s since set the world record for the longest gig (44 hours non stop), however both of these have since been broken. Clearly not one to accept defeat he has decided to make a second attempt at the highest ever gig next year when he will climb 6475 metres up Mount Mera in Nepal. watch the video below to learn more about it.

All of these record attempts are in aid of his charity Music 4 Children and The White Lion is also run in aid of the charity. If you’d like to get involved in the latest record attempt or just find out more about it, get yourselves down to The White Lion tomorrow, Saturday 28th Nov. Support Oz, whilst also supporting a thriving music scene in Streatham.

You can follow The White Lion on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook or visit there website here.

Streatham Ice Rink, despite being on the brink of closure, has decided to pull its socks up and redecorate. Desperately in need of a paint job for some time the owners appear to have gone all out and given it one of the most dramatic touch ups imaginable. It’s almost psychedelic. Unfortunately the paint seems to have run out half way through the job so the sides of the building remain as they were. Perhaps that’s a deliberate reminder of how run down it was looking before the paint job, and still is behind the facade.

Sign the petition to keep Streatham skating here.

The campaign to bring the tube to Streatham has gained a little more steam recently with the addition of a new campaigner called Kent Martin. He has started a blog called simply, Streatham Tube, to raise awareness and has submitted a petition to Number 10 which is awaiting approval. This follows on from the campaign which was started by Labours parliamentary candidate for Streatham, Chuka Umunna, who has his own petition which you can sign here. Read the rest of this article…

There are links on the right where you can click to follow Streatham Pulse on Twitter or to join the Streatham Pulse Network if you want to chat or upload photos or videos to the site. Also on the right there is a feed bringing in all the posts from Twitter where Streatham is mentioned. Below that is a feed bringing in photos from Flickr which have the Streatham tag. These feeds are great ways to keep track of what people are saying about Streatham or what’s happening in our area.

Let me know if there is anything else you think I should add to the site. And please spread the word.

Thanks

Well done to Cllr Mark Bennett for making this video of the Streatham Common fireworks display. I like his slightly tenuous but interesting facts at the end.

Well done to Streatham Residents for voting for Streatham Common in the ‘Your Bourough, Your Budget, Your Choice’ scheme. Another boost for Streatham.