Rough service at Selectric

Did you know, Selectric still sell beautiful, warm, dim, inefficient light bulbs?

Apparently the lightbulb industry have got around the ban on incandescent bulbs by describing them as “rough service” bulbs, which are designed for use in the building industry. The glass is slightly thicker than normal, but apart from that they’re just as good as the old ones.

Article about the workaround here in The Telegraph.

Lewisham Council is hiding library numbers

Gina writes:

“Calling all dedicated and hard-working volunteers in Lewisham’s so-called community libraries. Want to know how you’re doing? How many books you’re managing to lend? How visitor numbers are holding up?

Well, tough. As of October 2012, Lewisham council has decided to stop allowing access to the statistics which it used to publish on a quarterly basis, often before anyone even asked.

Now Lewisham tell us we can wait until the official government statistics agency, CIPFA, produces its report in December 2013 for the year ended last April. What they don’t tell us is that CIPFA only provides figures for the borough as a whole, not for individual libraries. So there will be no way of knowing – to give but one example – how many times Blackheath community library’s total of 13 books for teenagers made it off the shelves. Lewisham also fail to mention that CIPFA make a hefty charge for access to their publications.

Surely the council can have nothing to hide! Like, how are “community” libraries faring compared with the ones still being run by the local authority? Come on, Lewisham. You’ve handed over almost half your libraries to volunteers. Now let the people who are doing your work for you see how they’re doing.”

Talk to the hand

I love this sign. It’s got shades of Hanna-Barbera or Looney Tunes about it. Its remained on the front of that building through the many changes of tenant, pointing the way to redemption, with its oversized thumbnail, and elegant shirt cuff. Probably the best sign in Blackheath, (after the bridge weight sign of course).

The serif typeface around it appears to be Pompeii, which seems appropriate to the Roman Catholic Church…

The best pen

As selected in The Wirecutter, and sold in Blackheath Rymans for £2.99 (the Uniball Jetstream). Seems pretty good, even for a left handed scrawler.

Open House London this weekend

Open House London is a rare opportunity to see inside some of London’s most interesting buildings. It’s on this weekend. Some buildings require tickets or email requests to enter, but many are first-come-first-served. Such as the amazing looking Boone’s Chapel built in 1682 on Lee High Road, which I hope to check out this weekend! Great photo set here by @darryl1974 showing the interior.

Lewisham’s Open Houses.

Greenwich Open Houses (Severndroog Castle is a great option). My sightseeing trip from 2008 is now out of date since the renovations. The Quaker Meeting House in Blackheath, or Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich are also good options.

Boone’s Chapel site (now an architectural office).

Photo credit: Alex Mitchell on Flickr

Where do you want a playspace?

If you remember the fuss about the plan to put a playground on the Heath, you might want to go to this. There’s a “Blackheath Playspace Working Group” meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 17th September) at 7.30pm at the St Matthew Academy.

The Walkers Guide to the Heath

Neil Rhind (author of many books about Blackheath) writes:

I am hoping that the Blackheath Buglers can help the Blackheath Society on a small point of location. The Society is moving close (November) to the publication of a Walkers’ Guide to the Heath – three long walks, all plotted out drawing the ramblers attention to features, facts and history. There is also a timeline from the Romans to the present day. This is all being compiled by the undersigned and Dr Roger Marshall, a member of the Blackheath Society committee. as part of the Digital scheme to make the Society’s collection of about 15,000 images available on a web site with full public access.

One feature noted is a concrete “horse trough” at the south end of Montpelier Row. No animals drink there but it is used for floral displays. We believe that it was once elsewhere in the Village. Can anyone tell us where?

Free copy of the Blackheath walkers’ guide to the first person to get it right.

Their email address is:
office@blackheath.org