Blackheath Closed – for golfing?

Now, the Bugle knows nothing about golf (apparently this doesn’t count), and it may or may not be a terrible way to ruin a good walk, however on Sunday 6th July, the heath will be closed to allow a re-enactment of the 5-hole game of golf first played on Blackheath in the 1600s. There’s [...]

The Guilty Hair Cut

Chandler Wright Hair in Blackheath is good.
It’s very good. They cut hair well.

They offer you drinks and newspapers.
They have a huge vase containing Bird of Paradise flowers tastefully displayed in the front window.
But they charge at least £40 for a man’s hair cut. I realise that this makes them no different to the [...]

The Princess of Wales Pub, Blackheath

The Princess of Wales pub is definitely one of the better pubs in Blackheath, but only on weekdays. It becomes a seething hell-hole on sunny weekends, as anyone who lives nearby can testify.

They have a good selection of ales, and reasonable pub food, although they do insist on using white pepper, which, as Mrs [...]

My god, what an ugly statue.

I popped in to the Clarendon Hotel the other day, looking for the definitive Blackheath history book “Blackheath Village & Environs” by Neil Rhind. I thought I ought to get a copy if I’m writing this blog, as it would be good to have a better understanding of the history of Blackheath.
As it was [...]

David and Goliath

How is it that a tiny delicatessen in Blackheath right next to Starbucks doesn’t go out of business?
I thought I’d do a comparison of the two. I’d been into the Village Deli a few times. It is nice enough, but feels more like a cafe than a delicatessen. It’s nothing like Starbucks. [...]

Peculiar little estate agents hut to be turned into disabled lift?

A while back, when leaving the station, I noticed a planning permission form tied to the pedestrian crossing. It was a planning request to turn the funny little booth that currently houses “The Blackheath Property Company” into a lift, in order to make it easier for disabled people to get down to platform 1 [...]

O’Neill’s or the Three Tuns

O’Neill’s used to be called The Three Tuns. I can’t understand why chains insist on stripping all the local character from pubs. Some things however, are not so different:
It cannot be denied that [around 1850] the Three Tuns was not the most salubrious of hostelries. It became the haunt of the riff-raff [...]

The Other Blackheath…

By Flickr user Beppie K

Writing a blog on Blackheath (London), I spend a lot of time googling around, looking for photos, videos, and stories containing the keyword “Blackheath”. Whenever I search using Flickr, I always find loads of amazing images from Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia, so I just thought I’d share a couple [...]

Locale Restaurant, Blackheath

Locale is as bad as Chapter Two is good. Located just down a side road from the high street, near the dry cleaners, Locale bills itself as:
“the ideal neighbourhood eatery in the heart of Blackheath, serving authentic Italian dishes”.
Don’t believe a word of it. The place is a triumph of style over substance, [...]

Cookery Nook weird object of the month

My goodness, there are some strange items in the Cookery Nook… I was trying to decide which one to go for, then this one took my eye. A dog food scraper. Brilliant! Just what every dog needs. I’m sure this theme will run and run. Feel free to send [...]