Chapter Two Restaurant in Blackheath

I went to Chapter Two on Saturday evening. We were planning on going to the Buenos Aires Cafe, having loved it the first time we went, on the Phantom’s recommendation. However, it was fully booked.

Chapter Two’s menu is described as Modern European Cuisine. I’m not sure what that means, but I do know the food was great. There were six of us eating, so we had a chance to try most of the main courses available. The menu was fixed – 25 pounds for three courses. The service was excellent… in a way, a bit too excellent, as though the waiters had a better idea of what the customers should eat than they did themselves. Now, this may be the case, but it did border on intimidation at times!

Despite this, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the place. All other aspects of the service were impeccable – attentive but not too attentive. The food itself was beautifully served, deceptively small (but delicious) portions, and completely filling. The potato gnocchi was outstanding, which as a vegetarian, I don’t get to say very often… In many restaurants it seems to consist of sludgy lumps of undercooked potato sitting unhappily on a plate. Not here. The chocolate dessert was astonishing – soft chocolate fondant on the outside, molten on the inside, with a serving of plum sauce, and a kind white chocolate ice cream.

I’ll go again.

BNP in Blackheath

I read recently that the leader of the London wing of the British National Party has a flat in Blackheath. Richard Barnbrook – the only member of the BNP to be elected into the London Assembly has been in the press, due to an allegation of an affair.

Several posts in this blog have been about well-known Blackheath residents, but I don’t think this one will be remembered with a blue plaque, unless they start giving them out for “advancing the cause of fascism in the UK”.
Should you wish to hold your nose, and cross to the other side of the road if you spot him in Blackheath, you can identify him spouting rubbish here.

Photo credit

The heath looks like Glastonbury

The heath is totally covered in litter tonight near the pond. I hope the Princess of Wales pub helps fund the cleaning up – they must surely make a tidy sum over a sunny weekend.

Blackheath blogger’s bag bother

Two days ago, I was walking Mrs Bugle to her train before her night shift was due to begin, when we saw a handbag on the pavement.

What to do? Pick it up? Would it explode? Look for ID, and be accused of stealing a handbag if the police appear? Or maybe hand it in to a station, only to find out that the owner had been murdered or something, and the bag was now covered with the Bugle’s prints!

We were late for the train, so decided that if the handbag was still there on my way bag, I would try and do something about it.

At the train station we saw what looked like two policemen. On closer inspection, they turned out to be SouthWest Trains security people, but we mentioned the bag anyway. They said that if it was not in the station, then it was “outside their jurisdiction”. Fair enough.

So I walked back to the bag, and stared a bit more. Then I had a brainwave! A while ago I had stored the Blackheath Police “Safer Neighbourhoods” mobile phone number in my phone. Brilliant! I decided to call them. Voicemail – “If it is an emergency, dial 999, otherwise leave a message, and we’ll get back to you within days”.

Well, an emergency it was not, but people do not leave handbags full of stuff (by this time I had peeked inside) on the pavement for no reason… A handbag doesn’t just fall off the arm, does it?

So, I left them a message, feeling a bit silly, thinking that they would call back soon. Nothing. So I called the Blackheath Police landline, and was told that the number had changed. So I tried the new number, and got an answerphone. I stood and waited for a bit longer, feeling progressively more like a dodgy person up to no good in a darkened street approaching midnight.

Finally, after consulting Mrs Bugle again, and remembering that a friend in the police had criticised me in the past for not dialing 999 (“people call 999 for all sorts of things you know”, I think she said), I decided to call it.

Just as they picked up, the front door of the nearest house opened, and a very drunk or stoned (or both) lady wandered out – gravity seemed to be disagreeing with her. “Can I help you?”, she mumbled. “Er, there’s a handbag here”. “Can I help you?” she repeated. Oh god, this wasn’t going well. Then she picked up the bag, asked me if she could help me again, I said “No, I’m going home”, and as I wandered off, she said “Thankyou”.

So there you go, good civilians of Blackheath. I realise that the police do a good job on the whole, and that they probably had lots of shootings and things to deal with, but it just felt a bit frustrating.

If you ever want to try your chances with the police in Blackheath, the number is 07768178292. Or the land-line isn’t 02082848497… It has changed, possibly to 020 8721 2741.

And not a single link to Oscar Wilde. Oh, maybe just one.

Sightseeing near Blackheath

This creepy looking building is 9 minutes from Blackheath by train. 3 stops away from London takes you to Falconwood, where a fair amount of steep walking through forests eventually opens up to reveal this curious building. It is called Severndroog Castle, although it is more of a folly than a castle. It was the subject of a BBC Restoration programme, although it never actually got restored. The walk from the station takes you down a bland A-road, then down a forest path for a few minutes.

The forest opens up to reveal Oxleas Meadow, which according to a sign nearby, has a water reservoir beneath it.

At the top of the hill is a nice little cafe, selling teas, sandwiches, jacket potatoes and ice creams.

More aimless wandering through the forest (an A-to-Z really isn’t the best way to navigate when there aren’t any roads), and the Castle appears near the top of the hill.

It really is quite strange. It’s in a pretty terrible state, with cracks down the walls, and graffiti around what would have been the main entrance. I wouldn’t like to come and see it at night…

The upper windows have been shattered, and the lower ones have been blocked up, apart from the fake painted windows, which stare at you like blind eyes.

This plaque explains that the castle was built to:

“commemorate that gallant officers achievements in the East Indies, during his command of the Company’s Marine Forces in those seas, and in particular to record the conquest of the Castle of Severndroog off the coast of Malabar, which fell to his superior valour and able conduct on the 2nd day of April 1755”

The castle was built by Sir William James’ grieving wife to commemorate her husband. Her husband was part of the East India Company, which might explain why the place feels creepy…

The castle was opened to visitors last year, as part of the Open House event, and from the look of the open house website, it will be accessible this year on the weekend of 20th & 21st September.

Finally, take a look at this astonishing photograph of the castle by flickr user Short Sharp Shot. Most of his photos are taken around south east London, and all of them are great.

Blackheath Art

Don’t park here, or I’ll do strange things to plurals.

The face reminds me of Tim Hunkin‘s cartoons.

As seen in the alleyway behind Cookery Nook and others.

The Phantom’s Pagoda

Had some spare time today, so I thought I’d go and see the 18th century pagoda that the Greenwich Phantom wrote about so nicely in his blog. It really is worth a trip, even though it is a private house, so you’ll have to make do with peering in from the pavement.

There is a huge oval window on each of the two sides that can’t be seen from the entrance. This photo from the terrible camera-phone doesn’t do them justice. It must be a beautifully lit room on a summer evening.

It is quite tricky to find if you forget to take a map (oops), and eventually I googled my way to it with the help of these instructions. Here’s a map link if you’d rather do it the easy way.

Apocalypse Blackheath?

8.45pm – Two chinook helicopters making a terrible racket… Sounded like an invasion had begun. Circling constantly for about 10 minutes – seems odd – they must be too large to be used for tracking getaway cars?

UPDATE:  There’s more about this on the front cover of the May Edition of The Westcombe News.

Blackheath Farmers Market

I’d been meaning to write a post about the farmers market for a while, but a post on boingboing reminded me. It is a talk by Michael Pollan, and American journalist writing about the American diet (and Western diets in general). It is very funny, and makes some great points about how to eat well, and how to avoid illness through good food.

Watch it if you have time. If not, I’ll sum it up – go to Blackheath Farmers Market on Sundays! A great quote:

Whenever you go to the supermarket, imagine that you great-grandmother is accompanying you. If she doesn’t recognise what you are buying as food, then don’t buy it.

Your great-grandmother (I imagine) would be delighted with the farmers market. It is held every Sunday from 10am-2pm in Blackheath Station Car Park. There are delicious breads (the rosemary bread is the best), a weird and wonderful mushroom stall, general fresh veg stalls, eggs, butter, yoghurt, milk, chickens – all ready to cook and be eaten. It’s not cheap, but if you only buy what you need it is well worth it.

If you need any more convincing that farmers markets are the way to go – then try “Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate” by Felicity Lawrence.

When you’ve bought your food, you could try one of these lovely recipes.

Photos taken by flickr user Luz-del-la-luna, used under a creative commons license. And I think it should be “farmers’ market”, but it looks like a mouthful…

Blackheath mystery photo competition

You probably walk past it every day. It is quite undemanding, doesn’t really stand out… But where is it?

Answers on the back of a cider-stained copy of the metro please. All will be revealed in a few days.

A pack of weird green Japanese peas to the winner.