Hillaballoo

Brockley Central has just done a nice post about Hillaballoo…

http://brockleycentral.blogspot.com/2008/07/hillaballoo-interview.html

Hopefully that will attract a few people from Brockley.

Come for a free taster session which starts at 11.30am and finishes at 12.00.

Meet the instructor near the Kitto Road/Erlanger Road entrance of the Park.

Regular sessions will start in Telegraph Hill Park from the end of July. For more information see:

http://www.opengym.co.uk/

The latest entrant to the Hillaballoo line-up is Tea Leaf Arts. This a new gallery & artists co-operative in the old building that is being redeveloped on the Brockley Cross bridge.

http://www.tea-leaf-arts.com/TeaLeafArts/Welcome%20to%20Tea%20Leaf%20Arts.html

Graphic Designer Paul Hardman has created a lovely poster for Hillaballoo. You can download it from this link http://www.box.net/shared/mrhx8roso4 

Thanks Paul!

On Hillaballoo, Carol Vigurs is organising an arts and craft fair in the Narthex hall of the Community Centre. If you know any people who might be interested in taking a table, do let them know and ask them to contact Carol for details. There are a few spaces left and it would be great if they went to local artists and makers.

Carol’s myspace is: http://www.myspace.com/artsandcraftsse14; email address: vigurs@googlemail.com

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.  

One of the activities on Hillaballoo day was this survey, which will inform the possible creation of a local time bank (Telegraph Time). If you didn’t get a chance to do it then, you can do it online here:

http://ourhillsurvey.com/

Inspiring people are signing up to be interviewed in Inspiration Cafe, taking place in Cafe Orange, and they will be inviting your ideas to help power up their projects.

Cafe Orange also plans demonstrations by their art and craft tutors, as well as exhibitions of digital photography and art, about views of the Hill old and new. They will also organise a children’s activity - chalk drawings of the view.

Around lunchtime, willing volunteers will be asked to grab a rake to help clear the pond in the lower park. When it’s clear as a mirror, we can take a photo of our reflections in the water.

Activities for younger children are to be offered by Oak Hill Nursery.

There will be face painting.

Vanessa is organising a knitting workshop - all ages and levels welcome.

Helen Moore and her band, Nouvelle Croix, have agreed to perform in the afternoon.

The Telegraph Hill Centre will be open and a display about their work put on.

There will be a Name the Landmark competition.

You will be invited to have a go at drawing clouds and shadows.

Help spread the word to people outside the hub of Hill activity. Invite your friends from afar. All welcome. Remember to bring your own sketchpads, cameras, picnics and games, music or activities to share.   

If anyone wants to help put up posters or hand out flyers, you can find the poster on this link filexoom.com/pupload/view/23437 You have to wait a moment for it to download. You’ll find the poster image at the bottom of the screen. You can print it out colour or B&W. Even just one or two on a tree would be a real help.

Gilson Pereira suggested that we could try to link up with the hills either side of us in the old ‘optical telegraph’ chain, in order to send some kind of sign to each other. The other links in the chain were:

- Going towards the Admiralty, Telegraph House in West Square, behind the Imperial War Museum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Square. The house is lived in by Dr Alan Borg, the ex-director of the museum. His house incorporates the structure from the telegraph in his roof. I met him recently when he said he was very interested in the history of this telegraph, and sent me a paper he’d published about it.

- The link in the other direction is Shooter’s Hill, the highest hill in London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooter%27s_Hill . Does anyone know anyone who lives there or if there is a local society that might be interested? There is the Shooter’s Hill Camcorder Club who meet on the top of the hill, and might be able to set up a webcam or similar digital video connection http://www.shootershillcamclub.co.uk/

I’d be really pleased if someone is interested to pursue these ideas and set up a 21st Century way of recreating the old telegraph.