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The Lavender, on Lavender Hill

The council have received a licensing application from The Lavender, 171 Lavender Hill. They are seeking to extend the hours of playing recorded music, providing late night refreshment and the sale of alcohol until midnight Monday to Wednesday, until 1.00am the morning after Thursday and Sunday and until 2.00am the morning following Friday and Saturday.

The recorded music license is requested from 10.00am, alcohol sales from 8.00am.

It has been a long time since I regularly used The Lavender. Indeed the last time I can recall spending any length of time in there was the night after the riots, when I probably drank a bit too much while discussing the previous night’s events with a group of local traders.

As such, it’s difficult for me to make any comment, since I have little idea how the place has changed since its recent makeover. Having said that, it might some on the neighbouring residential roads might think it is a little too late for a school night.

If you want to make a representation you have until 26 June. Representations must relate to the four licensing objectives:

  • The prevention of crime and disorder
  • The prevention of public nuisance
  • Public safety
  • The protection of children from harm

The council’s licensing pages provide more information.

If you wish to make an observation you can do so by writing to:
Head of Licensing
Licensing Section
London Borough of Wandsworth
PO Box 47095
London
SW18 9AQ

or by emailing licensing@wandsworth.gov.uk

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Various polling station signs

Of course, more than half of you won’t bother (or are readers of this more sophisticated than the general population? I rather hope so) but today is election day and polling stations are open from 7am until 10am.

If you are a Shaftesbury resident I would be delighted if you’d vote for me (and my colleagues, of course) but I recognise plenty of people might prefer some of the alternatives on the ballot paper and that for democracy to have meaning there has to be diversity of opinion.

Indeed, some people have taken the time to email me to tell me they are voting against me, which is nice. Thankfully some other people have taken the time to email me to wish me luck and say they are voting for me, which is nicer.

However, rather than being bipolar about it all, I find the election process rather relaxing. It is one of those times you can relax and accept you are not master of your own destiny:

  • Whether it’s during the campaign, when someone else analyses the numbers and decides where you will be knocking on doors to delivering leaflets.
  • Or on election day, when electors will go to the polls and make their decisions based on whatever criteria they see as important.
    • Or even at the count, when election staff will carefully count the ballots and award victory or defeat accordingly.

Never is the candidate really in charge.

And that’s the really important point of democracy. For once the politicians aren’t the bosses.

Though I still think it would be very very nice if you voted for me.

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With just a few days to go before election day on Thursday I can’t help thinking that it doesn’t feel much like an election to me. There isn’t much of an election buzz. That’s perhaps because we tend to keep up a high level of campaigning throughout the year, so an election period doesn’t feel that much different. Or perhaps because I’ve not bumped into any of the opposition, save one time when a group of Labour canvassers tried to bagsy a council block because they’d “seen it first”.

It’s human nature to think things were better in the past, but looking back four years on this blog I was commenting that it just didn’t really feel like an election and we never bumped into the opposition. I referred to 2005 when we would all campaign on Saturdays in Clapham Junction, but they were a bit more set-piece (and actually a bit immature, on reflection). When I think about it objectively, 1998 really was the last election I’d routinely bump into opposing parties, indeed, one of the Labour candidates became a semi-regular drinking partner during that election.

Now it never happens and it makes for a much duller campaign.

Many turn to the comfort blanket of social media to brag about the overwhelming support they are getting on the doorstep, though that strikes me as buying a convertible because you are balding. Besides, I always wonder how they cope with the inevitable rejection on polling day: no matter how safe the seat there is always a sizeable minority who will think the other guy is better. It must be a painful discovery when the votes are counted and some people voted against you when somehow you’ve never managed to meet anything but supporters.

The reality (and this will be the reality for every party’s activists) is that campaigning involves spending a lot of time waiting at doors when no-one in, meeting a mix of supporters and opponents and knowing, statistically, that most of the people you meet won’t vote anyway. It is a strange way to spend your time, so if you come across an election campaigner in the next few days, at least spare a sympathetic thought for them.

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I used to be quite involved in Wandsworth Neighbourhood Watch in a strange, semi-detached, way as the cabinet member responsible for the council’s involvement in the scheme. Wandsworth Council is quite unusual in having taken on responsibility for running it from the police, and has traditionally had one of the strongest networks in the country. But that responsibility perhaps created meant focusing on the wood rather than the trees.

The council and police have recently highlighted a spate of burglaries in the ward, mainly in the roads between Lavender Hill and Clapham Common and while the police have done a lot to tackle that (fairly recently they made four arrests which combined accounted for a lot of the crime) they were also keen to see Neighbourhood Watches playing their part.

What struck me though, looking at a presentation they laid on, was how the north of the ward, the Shaftesbury Park Estate, had hardly any active Watches at all. I may have spent years being proud of the extensive Neighbourhood Watch network in Wandsworth, but had not noticed the decline on my front door.

It was a revelation for me. It’s been nearly three years since I had any responsibility, but even before, I’d never looked at the data mapped (which raises more thoughts on data visualisation that is for another time). Instead I’d focused on the overall number for the borough and the numbers per ward. Shaftesbury ward has always, and still does, fair well when compared to the rest of the borough and therefore never came to be a priority. Instead I focused on trying to innovate—by trying to create better networks and offering enhanced training—and work on those areas that were underrepresented—ward with high proportions of social housing have tended not to be involved.

The accepted wisdom has always been that there is a stronger sense of community in the Shaftesbury Park Estate and, therefore, an assumption that things like Neighbourhood Watch would thrive. This seems not to have been the case.

Naturally the lack of Neighbourhood Watch does not mean a lack of community, either on the Shaftesbury Park or elsewhere. It may well mean that community networks perform the same functions without the formal status. I do, however, think Neighbourhood Watch can act as a proxy measure for a sense of community, and while the correlation is not absolute there is a correlation.

I did wonder about how we could turn that around, but that is also something for another time: I have to practice what I preach, which means starting, or at least trying to start, a Watch in my own street, but as a council service and with the council elections imminent it raises all sorts of issues regarding purdah that make it inappropriate for me to do anything until June.

That does not, however, prevent others from starting, and if you are in Shaftesbury Ward I’m happy to offer whatever support I can (just get in touch). You can get further information from the council’s Community Safety pages and the national Our Watch website.

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The Thirsty Camel off-licence on Lavender Hill

I am incredibly grateful to Thirsty Camel on Lavender Hill. I often feel guilty about not posting enough on the blog, but they are doing their utmost to give me a regular stream of posts. It’s like they are specialists in knock-off cigarettes, underage booze and giving something to local politicians to write about.

That small intersection of people who read this blog and pay attention may have noticed that—despite losing their licence at a recent review—Thirsty Camel continues to trade as normal. They have appealed the previous decision and trading can continue as before until the appeal decision; however clear-cut I might think the case is, this is quite right, there has to be protection for businesses to make sure councils get these decisions right.

The business is, however, covering all outcomes and has applied for a new licence for the premises. While this is legally a new and separate application, it is made by someone connected with the current licensee and I cannot help but have concerns about it. I know the council’s trading standards team will be looking at the application very carefully.

The application is for the sale of alcohol from 8am until midnight on Sunday to Thursday, and from 8am until 2am the following day on Fridays and Saturdays.

If you wish to make a representation you have until 2 May. Representations must relate to the four licensing objectives:

  • The prevention of crime and disorder
  • The prevention of public nuisance
  • Public safety
  • The protection of children from harm

Given the premises track record of selling counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes and underage sales I consider the first and last items on that list are relevant to this application.

The council’s licensing pages provide more information.

If you wish to make an observation you can do so by writing to:
Head of Licensing
Licensing Section
London Borough of Wandsworth
PO Box 47095
London
SW18 9AQ

or by emailing licensing@wandsworth.gov.uk.

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The Thirsty Camel off-licence on Lavender Hill
Thirsty Camel, otherwise known as Best One, on Lavender Hill. Picture from Google Street View

Best One on Lavender Hill, which trades as Thirsty Camel, has seen its shopkeeper lose his licence to sell alcohol. The review took place after the store was found to be selling counterfeit tobacco and had previously had a licence review after selling alcohol to underage customers which resulted in a temporary licence suspension.

The start of the council’s press release gives the impression it may have been a fairly open and shut case:

A Battersea shopkeeper has had his licence to sell alcohol revoked after thousands of pounds worth of counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes were found hidden in his storeroom.

Trading standards officers found nearly 700 packets of contraband tobacco when they searched the Best One store in Lavender Hill. Nearly a third of the packets were fake while the others could not be legally sold in the UK and were smuggled into the country.

The case raises a huge number of points. One of which is that, however noble efforts to reduce smoking are, there are serious risks in plain packaging: which would make counterfeiting easier.

It also highlights the importance of regulation in some areas. I know some businesses feel the council’s various enforcement arms can be heavy handed—especially when most abide by all the necessary laws and regulations—but in cases like this there has to be protection for both the consumer but also competing businesses who, by virtue of abiding by the law, are disadvantaged by those who are not so upstanding when it comes to their business practice.

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If Fitness First is the new frontline, where is the frontline?
If Fitness First is the new frontline, where is the frontline? Photo by Kate Meacock

I have, at times, banged on about the Claphamisation of Battersea, with new arrivals and Yorkshire based supermarkets showing no consideration of the area’s history or geography.

In my idler moments I’ve also wondered whether the excellent Love Battersea is perhaps just a little too mainstream and, just maybe, whether there should be a more radical splinter group—a Battersea People’s Front[1]—for those who are more vocal in their demands for Battersea’s place on the map.

Fitness First in Battersea, thinking they are in Clapham Hill in Kent.
Anyone know where Clapham Hill is?

Seeing pictures like the above taken outside the Fitness First on Falcon Road leave me more convinced than ever that the BPF has a place. That this is a year after they put up their ridiculous Clapham Hill hoarding and had the error pointed out to them leaves a rather bitter taste. Apparently, they think “a play on ‘Clapham and Lavender Hill’ is nice!”

Not only are they mistakenly placing themselves in Clapham, they then compound their sin by making up a new place they think is in Clapham (but is actually in Kent) and defend it with a hubris that only Sainsbury’s could match with their ‘Clapham St John’s’ near Wandsworth

I was thinking that we should have a two minutes hate[2] directed at Fitness First (and feel free to tweet them) would be a good starting point. But would two minutes be anything like long enough?

  1. Such naming would, of course, leave the People’s Front of Battersea name available for those who feel the BPF is too tame.  ↩
  2. I recognise that the title of this blogpost should have been ‘we have always been at war with Fitness First’ to keep the 1984 theme, but even I felt war was a little strong.  ↩
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Battersea Mess and Music Hall
Battersea Mess and Music Hall: no longer Lavender Gardens’ local

The closure of Battersea Mess and Music was one of the sadder business closures I’ve seen in recent times. Businesses come and go, but there’s something about a pub that creates a little more attachment: perhaps because they so often are the location of happy memories. I’m not alone in that sadness either, with plenty of people asking me if I know anything about the closure, and perhaps more importantly, the future of the building.

I briefly considered what options the council might have in protecting the premises. Coincidentally I was in a meeting the day after it closed with Brandon Lewis in which he discussed the options local authorities have in protecting pubs, either making the pub and ‘asset of community value’ or an ‘article 4 direction’ although I’m not sure either would achieve the desired results in this case—it was already too late to make the premises an asset of community value, since they had already been sold, while an article 4 direction adds another planning hurdle, but offers no protection against, say, a return of a problematic Walkabout style venue on the road.

In any case, while I know little about the plans for the premises, what little I do know gives me some confidence the Mess will reincarnate in some form.

The premises have apparently been purchased by InnBrighton Ltd, who having a growing portfolio of London pubs including Battersea High Street’s Candlemaker, and looking at their pubs elsewhere, it looks like they have a similar style to that exhibited by Antic at the Mess. A blurb in Hospitality and Catering News covering the opening of The Candlemaker suggests:

InnBrighton believes that the successful 21st century pub is a real life social networking space that is original, inspirational, comfortable and memorable, and is proud of the cultural and ecological ethos that underpins all its commercial objectives.[1]

The question is what happens next. I understand they plan a major refurbishment, but do not know the details, nor their intentions for the various spaces in the pubs (although elsewhere they do have performance spaces). Although I’ve contacted them[2], I’ve had no response, although that might be simply because they’ve not fully worked up their plans.

However, the bottom line seems to be that a good, local pub will return to Lavender Gardens. The next challenge is making sure they don’t pretend they are in Clapham, but embrace being in Battersea.

  1. As someone who started drinking at, um, eighteen in the 20th century I thought a successful pub was about good beer, and the social networking naturally followed, more evidence that I’m well past my prime.  ↩
  2. And some two weeks after my attempts to contact them I’ve still not had a response, so assume none will be forthcoming.  ↩