It’s that time of year when I usually bash out a Brixton Buzz piece all about the brilliant Lambeth Heritage Festival, which starts in September.
Not a lot changes each year. There’s some slight variation in the events, with the centrepiece always being the Heritage Launch Day on the first Saturday in September. This is something of a coming together of the local history tribes in the borough.
I had a quick shifty through the online brochure ahead of the 2026 event. There are some wonderful new additions, such as a cycling event tracing the route of the Effra.
There are also some half decent options around my old Sunny Stockwell patch, with an artist walk as well as looking at the industrial history of Vauxhall.
What is slightly different this year is that charges seem to be creeping in. The Heritage Festival always proclaims itself as being free but some of the prices for the poncy walks can border on the £12 to £15 mark. This doesn’t seem that inclusive for a borough that is not exactly known for its affluence in some parts.
Also changing this year is that I very much doubt I will be bashing out a Brixton Buzz piece. I felt a little sad reading through the heritage guide, feeling rather nostalgic for a personal past that once was. I’m too busy making new memories right now, but once transpontine, always transpontine.
Which brings me around in a rather clumsy way to a most peculiar incident on the Robert Elms show earlier this morning.
As part of his long running Notes and Queries section, one geezer rang up asking for some more information as to why there is a very large pink and blue banner at Champion Hill that simply says Transpontine.
Some things really don’t need an explanation, Comrade.
Elms was intrigued by this. He often likes to retell and rewrite history as to how he invented the word transpontine. He’s a fantastic broadcaster but sometimes he likes to believe his own myths and legends.
Anyway, the Dulwich Hamlet caller seemed a little clueless. We all have to start somewhere etc. But if you need to ask why there was a transpontine banner at Champion Hill then I suggest you embed yourself within the Rabble and have some chats with some of the old faces.
Some other fella called up around an hour later to explain away why this rather proud pink and blue banner is being paraded around Champion Hill. He explained how Dulwich is a club with radical roots, no arguments here.
A very tenuous connection was then made, saying that those radical roots include the fan base having a rather unique and left-of-centre taste in music. This seemed a little odd.
The absolute SHIT THE BED moment was when the caller then had the balls to say that the music enjoyed by many at Champion Hill is similar to the tastes enjoyed by Robert Elms.
It was even suggested, possibly jokingly, that the transpontine banner is actually a reference to Elms himself, who tends to eulogise over the word.
What an absolute load of hairy old bollocks.
A more sensible suggestion then followed regarding the Transpontine blog. The same caller said that the author behind the wonderful Transpontine is also responsible for the banner.
Hmm… and if you know your history, etc.
Once again that’s not entirely true. I wouldn’t like to go 100% with the exact facts but my understanding is that the transpontine banner is all down to Wolfgang Moneypenny.
Moneypenny was the original transpontine social libertarian. He walked around Champion Hill as though it was his own fiefdom. Once again he was someone who liked to believe his own myth and legend, but unlike Elms, he wasn’t afraid to take the piss out of himself.
Every belligerent dictator needs their own colours and call to arms. For Wolfgang this was a massive FUCK OFF banner that simply said Transpontine. I remember it appearing around Champion Hill in 2012. This was when Wolfgang was at the peak of his South London crusades.
A few years later it all went a bit south, so to speak, when the Toilet’s Opposite stand got sponsored by a fucking poxy estate agent. Wolfgang threw a sulk, switched allegiances to Streatham Rovers, before buggering off over to Northern Ireland. The old bastard.
I really should have called up and told Elms all of this. But then I know how delicate he gets when someone speaks most mild profanities on air.
History is always written by the victors, etc. If Robert Elms wants to claim that the transpontine banner is a self-proclaimed eulogy to himself then so be it. The truth is somewhere under the paving stone, the beach.
