Hillaballoo

The Lewisham Localities Fund has agreed to give some money to the community to organise another summer event in 2008. This will be on July 19th, the first day of the school holidays. The weather will be sunny. It will. Some of the activities will be responding to the community survey. The camera obscura was so popular that we’ve already booked this. More news to follow.

I’ve just been contacted by Lewisham council to warn me that I should be liable for a fine of £75 per poster for all the Hillaballoo posters we put on trees. That could come to about £7500. The reason we put up so many posters? Because someone kept ripping them down. I thought it was mystifyingly antisocial behaviour. It turns out that that someone was the council, acting on complaints. It’s a shame that nobody (the council or the complainers) thought to contact us via the details on the poster so that we could start being law abiding. The law is the Clean Neighbourhoods Act, which is news to me, even though I’m a pretty avid news reader. I wonder how many other charities and community groups are being threatened with fines out of ignorance? Apparently, the lawful option is to flyer every house. But to my mind it is a far less acceptable practice, because it wastes far more paper, and puts litter into people’s houses. Anyway, I’m getting away with a caution. And the positive outcome is that Lewisham will help us have a community noticeboard so that we don’t have to deface the poor trees anymore.  

Well, it wasn’t quite the picnic we were expecting. Several planned activities didn’t happen because of the rain. However, it was really enjoyable and lots of people turned up. The camera obscura was a hit. For photos see the link to Flickr on the right. Upload your own too.  

Please put your comments on this site. Ideas for future events are welcome.  

Please bring donations of art materials (especially card, heavy paper, thick felt pens) - for the art tent.

Useful items to bring include picnic tables, chairs, big umbrellas or tents, plastic sheeting, and a recycling bin or two.

If you are a musician/group and feel confident to do a spot without amplification, you can pitch in following the performance by Nouvelle Croix in mid-afternoon.   

You can help support art activities, such as drawings of clouds and shadows, and the skyline, and portraits of dogs & people.

The event is unfunded, but is costing some money, so there will be a donations box.

Please upload any photos to the Flickr group ‘Telegraph Hill Visions’.

A new contributor has signed up, perfectly suiting the mood of Hillaballoo. Liz Akers from Vesta Road runs a national charity called Team Nice, which has an anti-social behaviour campaign called Niceties Tokens. Liz is planning to run a stall giving away free cakes and with fun games, hoping to get new recruits to Team Nice. Here’s the blurb about Niceties Tokens:Being nice costs nothing, so why is that Londoners so rarely take the time to see and acknowledge the people who share their city? On public transport, in the supermarket, walking down the street, we often hang our heads and avoid eye contact… we can be slow to acknowledge our fellow Londoners as people… just like us…

But we can change, we can make London into the open and friendly city it should be, and that is what Niceties-Tokens is all about.

For more, see http://www.team-nice.co.uk/index.php

I reckon Phil Nice ought to be the first in the queue to join up!

It’s 42 days until Hillaballoo. It’s time to start publicising it so the whole community in and around the Hill knows about it. We will be at the Farmer’s Market next Saturday, on the Telegraph Hill Society table with flyers and ideas. Help with spreading the word would be much appreciated. Here’s how:

Give out some flyers or put up a poster - pick up a few at the Market, or from 152 Waller Road, or email bridget.mckenzie@flowassociates.com for an e-copy, or download one from http://filexoom.com/pupload/view/23437

Send out an email or a listing in a newsletter or blog, using this text:

Hillaballoo is an event celebrating views and visions of Telegraph Hill. Take part or share your own arts and community activities. Or simply enjoy the view and the Amazing Camera Obscura with your picnic and your friends. Saturday 21st July, Top Park and Cafe Orange, Kitto Road, noon til late. See http://hillaballoo.wordpress.com for more.  

The publicity will be helped greatly if you can dream up a brilliant contribution of your own, however small, and let us know as soon as you can.

Finally, put the date in the diary and tell your friends.

The Park Users Group has been offered a large amount of bulbs by the park management company. But, what to do with them before they sprout? Any ideas? Post in comments to this website or contact Sylvestra on park@thehill.org.uk

More news about the Park: The Users Group applied to Lewisham for a grant to celebrate Abolition 200. The proposal was to organise a planting ceremony in the Park, to result in a display, a plaque and plants to remind us of the slave trade. Children from Edmund Waller School would learn about slavery and about the plants and agriculture in West Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. They would select suitable plants and contribute in other ways. The proposal was accepted so watch out for more news about the event. If you want to contribute, contact Sylvestra as above.  

Photo by Gilson Pereira

Last July, after the last day of school term, there was a great party in the Top Park to celebrate year 6 moving on to secondary school. The date of Hillaballoo, 21st of July, is the day after the end of term. So, it might be an opportunity to celebrate the moving on of this year’s 11 year olds. Any ideas for a celebration activity as part of Hillaballoo?

…and it’s getting brighter. I saw Julia King yesterday at a ‘Make your Mark meet-up’ in the Albany Cafe (see this link for more http://makeyourmark.ning.com/ ). Julia is the new development manager for the Cafe. She said that they’d had a brilliant workshop with Catherine Shovlin, for staff and trainees to get a vision for how the Cafe could be better for regular users and to attract more people. They explored colours, moods and views and came up with a plan. They’ve also been busy painting and changing the furniture and they are hoping to make a garden in front of the Fabric of Society mural.

It’s great that Cafe Orange can be part of Hillaballoo. Julia has the inspired idea of running a project for the trainees all about the view towards Docklands before Canary Wharf was built. This will lead to an exhibition. She’s keen to hear if anyone has photos, knowledge or ideas about this.

Two of the trainees are going to start having a stall at the Arts & Crafts/Farmer’s Market, so they will be part of the day too. An open day at Cafe Orange is planned for the 4 June. Good luck with the plans, Julia and everyone else in the Cafe.  

When the weather is fine enough, there’s a bit of a tradition that families go up to the Top Park on Fridays from roughly teatime until bedtime. You can take your dinner as a picnic and share it, or just go up to play after you’ve eaten. Bottle of wine. Football. Hide and seek. Sunset. Home after dusk for a late and thankfully sleepy kids bedtime.