Buon Compleanno Brockley blogs

It's anniversary time in the prolific world of Brockley blogging.

Brockley Central

Brockley Central is the local water pump where all matters relating to said parish are discussed by the good, the bad and occasionally the ugly.  To say it has put Brockley on the map would be an exaggeration - Brocca's village is shown on ye ancient manuscript of etc. etc. - but it has arguably shifted many people's mental geography. As a near neighbour I certainly didn't used to have such a sense of it being a distinct place - I am afraid I used to consider it just as that bit on the way to Hilly Fields. Or say 'you know, where Moonbow Jakes is'. Now it is spoken of as if Brockley was a third sibling of the great SE London twin cities of New Cross and Deptford (and Moonbow Jakes has been replaced by Brockley Mess).

Brockley Central is five years old today. I note that the very first post was on Valentine's Day 2007. I can only hope Brockley Nick was having a quiet day at work, otherwise it may have been the first time (but surely not the last) that his partner uttered the words 'you're not on that bloody blog again?'.

London SE4

But actually the oldest Brockley blog pipped Brockley Central to the post with a launch in January 2007 and is still going strong (if sometimes sporadically), having recently moved from the soon to be deleted Blogsome to Wordpress. London SE4  covers London art, culture and everyday life, but has lots of local SE London content. If you don't know it that may be because it is in Italian, but hey use Google translate if you don't speak it. Anyway the pictures are great. Check out her posts on The Montague Arms, a ghostly face in the Ashby Road snow or a Brockley suffragette meeting.

London SE4 found this flyer at the Museum of London for a meeting
 of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) held at the Presbyterian Church Hall in Brockley
 on March 25 1909. The meeting was held to welcome back Brockley suffragette Caroline Townsend,
on her release from Holloway prison where she had been imprisoned
 for a month for a 'votes for women' protest.