The Camberwell Society’s new president, Grove Lane resident and BBC presenter Justin Webb, reminisces about his introduction to the neighbourhood, his love of our quirkiness and the challenges ahead.
It was not love at first sight. I was camping out in those days in Sloane Square or as close as I could get to what I imagined to be the epicentre of London, and a trip to Camberwell seemed, well … annoying.
But a friend who had started the BBC training course at the same time as me, a young dashing chap with a sports car and a sense of style named Jeremy Bowen, invited me down, or along, or whatever it was.
The first impression, at the Green, was of shutters. More on this in a bit – it is after all still a problem – but the need to cover glass fronts at night was not much in evidence where I hung out on the Fulham Road. I had not seen such blank spaces since a stint in Belfast, and they had (at the time) the excuse of a reasonable fear of bombs.
But still, when we arrived at Jeremy’s: goodness, nice flat. Actually, very nice, even if the back was falling off and there were saucepans catching drips. Georgian living at its finest. Jeremy had made it. So bowled over was I that I came back often and ended up marrying the woman who lived in the flat below his. I think Sarah half-saw me as an escape from South London to be honest, but when we were house hunting, we thought we would look at one place in Camberwell, just for fun. Just in case. And we still live in that house. Which cost us roughly what you’d spend today on coffee at Gladwell’s.
We have arrived and left and arrived back again to that house a few times down the years, as have our children, but Camberwell has always been home and always will be.
Yes, I suppose we could do with a Tube stop. When John Humphrys came to supper years ago, he texted next day to say I’M ALMOST HOME. But one of the massive changes over the time we have lived here has been the wonderful Denmark Hill station, cared for by members of this society and brought back from a near- death experience to being a hub that can connect you to anywhere in London in relative comfort and speed.
Talking of which: when I present Today, I am taken into central London in a car, but I can be back walking the dog in Ruskin Park before 10. This is London living.
And Camberwell does not escape London’s problems. I don’t care that it doesn’t look like Sloane Square – it’s never going to be as snooty or as filled with nervy looking rich people – but we do have to find a way of providing a mix of shops and a solution to crime that makes the shops less fortress like and the people who work in them safe and secure.
For goodness’ sake that police station must re-open too! Nothing sends out a signal of failure so much as grand buildings with proper purposes – the buildings of an era of confidence and decorum – left to rot. Frankly I think it ought to be re-opened as a police station, but I know that is unlikely. Just anything really. But it must be done.
I know there is a mix of opinions in the society about the council and its planning committee. But they should not be losing judicial reviews in the High Court, as they did with the Mission Care building in Love Walk. More compromise and quicker action please.
Camberwell needs sharp-focused and locally beneficial development, and it needs it soon because our near neighbours in Elephant and Castle are rather famously smartening their act. We don’t need a fancy shopping centre, and we are not getting the Tube, but we need and can achieve vibrancy. Buildings that are properly scaled. And, above all, keeping the quirkiness: Civilised Car Hire, Cowling & Wilcox, Nandine. Jeremy never left. Nor did I. We have travelled the world (he still does!) but always come back to Camberwell.
