Five pamphlets from the superb Past Tense of South London.
I do love a good old pamphlet read, especially so if it has a transpontine theme. Sure, books are half decent but there’s something accessible about the format of a pamphlet that captures my attention.
I think it goes back to the old fanzine days, where I always had half a dozen on the go. It looks like I’ve substituted football for transformative South London psycho-geographic politics.
It’s quite a niche market but thank the chuff that Past Tense are there for us.
To be honest I initially went to the Past Tense site just to pick up the latest Kennington Park pamphlet. As the title suggests, The Birthplace of People’s Democracy tells the story of Kennington through the eyes of working class history.
I start clicking and then click, click, click some more.
Oh - I seem to have five items in my basket. Whatever, that’s £20 bloody well spent.
So here we have other publications exploring in detail my particular patch of South London.
Let’s start in Brixton with Through a Riot Shield and a look at the 1985 Brixton riot. It’s a tried and tested old story, but one which always seems to find some new perspective in which to understand it.
The Killing of the Elephant and the Destruction of the Castle is also very close to home. I can’t say I miss those hellish days of navigating two bloody awful roundabouts as I cycled from Stockwell up towards Farringdon.
But in its place now is something very different. The Elephant has lost its working class soul with the social cleansing of the Heygate and what was to follow further down the road as you head towards Walworth.
One quote that always sticks in my mind was when the old bastard Wolfgang Moneypenny was interviewed by the much missed South London Hardcore. He came up with the classic line of:
“I was born of Elephant and Castle.”
South London Forever etc. Comrade
The transpontine lens then widens slightly as we come to Last Orders for the Local - Working Class Space and the Marketplace. There’s a similar theme of capital taking over working class areas and replacing it with absolute shite.
It’s a bit of a broad brush in which to paint this picture but some of my South London landmarks have been transformed by middle class tossers in recent years.
We’re talking the lovely Lido, le Velo, and even days out at The Oval. These are still amongst my fave places ever but once the Bright Young Things start to take over, then, much like marketing, they turn everything into shit.
And finally, to top up the Past Tense online basket, We Remember Wat Tyler. He’s a figure I really should know a lot more about. A Past Tense pamphlet seems like a half decent starting place.
Forward ever, backward never.
