What next? Smallpox blankets available at the multiplex?

[boyofbadgers]

"Peckham is the land of the free. It’s like a blank canvas," said Hannah Barry, an enterprising 26-year-old

I suppose you could make a case for this being an unusual outbreak of honesty regarding urban colonisation, but I strongly suspect that she doesn't even realise what she's saying.

(Thanks to alexmacpherson for the link.)

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

My friend Pip once overheard a Camberwell student walk into a nail salon and ask for "ghetto nails" :o

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Nnnng. I shouldn't get so wound up about this sort of thing - everyone was young and stupid at some point, we've all said stuff we would later regret, etc, etc - but the sheer unthinkingness of it all really gets to me. You'd hope that all that education would provide some degree of self-awareness. Apparently not.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

26 = really not that young, though!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Well, no! I know I'm obvs fantastic but that's FOUR YEARS older than me ie: nearly Kat's age.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I increasingly think that getting wound up about idiocy is much healthier than just going "who cares" and letting idiocy pass unremarked.

[ms-bracken.livejournal.com]

What is it with the NYTimes and South London (http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/travel/22surfacing.html?scp=1&sq=deptford&st=cse) this year anyway? Or do I just notice these things because I live there?

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that earlier this year when someone linked to it. It does seem a bit odd, though no stranger than the Guardian covering Williamsburg (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/mar/06/live-music-bars-new-york).

[ms-bracken.livejournal.com]

I suppose the difference is that I've sort of assumed (mainly from HipsterRunoff and "Gary Benchley, Rock Star", so perhaps not the best sources) that Williamsburg is sort of cool anyway, whereas no-one in London goes WOW YEAH PECKHAM (s/PECKHAM/DEPTFORD/ etc) when you talk about such places...

[lozette.livejournal.com]

I do! But then I'm probably fairly unusual.

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

Me too. We are a vanguard movement. You'll see.

[lozette.livejournal.com]

:-)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm all for it if it manages to deflect these people from Dalston...yeah, I know, that horse has long bolted, but STILL.

[lozette.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, Hannah Barry and related people have been doing this stuff in Peckham for ages (at least 3-4 years; I only moved there in 2007 but I remember the Sassoon Gallery being open a couple of years before that) so it's not very new.

I was surprised to see the date stamp on that article is October 14th 2009, as I remember reading one that was identical (in fact it might be the same article, repurposed) in a UK newspaper over a year ago.

[ruudboy.livejournal.com]

Are these not just both general "I'm not a tourist, I'm a traveller" bilge?

[ruudboy.livejournal.com]

For some reason I can't explain, it pleases me a lot that they printed the phone number for Goddard's in the NYT.

[lozette.livejournal.com]

I think it's my lack of education showing, but I'm not sure what she's saying either. I just, er, feel the need to comment because I live in / love Peckham. I'm not sure if that's bad or not...?

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Land of the free = USA, the 'wide open spaces' of which were also thought of as being a bit of a 'blank canvas', conveniently ignoring all those people that happened to be living there already.

[lozette.livejournal.com]

Ah OK, I see what you're saying now.

Hmm, I feel like a bit of an interloper now, myself :-S

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Dude, there's nowt wrong with moving to Peckham because you like it there! It's the 'blank canvas' thing that I object to.

[lozette.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do see what you're saying now. I'm just not very good at understanding concepts & stuff!

I feel bad though, because I vividly remember reading an article about Hannah Barry in a UK newspaper about a year ago and being all "yay go Peckham" about it. I'm not very good with reading into things and didn't understand the subtext.

[tansu.livejournal.com]

I also fucking love the code of "is said to have the capital’s highest concentration of knife crime, hairdressers and gospel churches"

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

Grr. Urge to kill... rising...

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Peckham, a run-down district of London with low prices and empty industrial spaces

HATE!

And I couldn't actually AFFORD the house I most wanted in Peckham so, er, WTF??

It's only a 'blank canvas' for people who've never been on a bus through there at rush hour...