What’s the oddest thing that’s happened to you in south London?
Yesterday, while out with my four-legged pal in SW9, a stranger asked the oddest question I’ve ever had while walking the dog. Peering down at the little Jack Russell as he passed by, the man stopped to ask: “Is that a dog?”
The canine in question was Reggie, aka the Below the River mascot – pictured above right outside one of our favourite caffs in Brixton Market with his Kentishtowner pal, Pepper. And as you can see, he’s pretty dog-like. OK, so the aforementioned passer-by may have had some chemical enhancements fuelling his afternoon, but the surreal exchange made us laugh so much that we threw it to the Twittersphere – figuring any fellow locals would appreciate the tale.
And many did. In fact, one Camberwellian even suggested we should start a “Brixton sayings” strand on Below the River. Not a bad idea, we thought, but why not cast the net wider – with an “only in south London” angle on all sorts of happenings. Simply because there were some pretty good examples to get us going. Where else, for example, could you imagine the Lambeth Country show – a spectacular fusion of reggae, camel racing and vegetable carving – take place but in this part of the city? And what about the excellent Brixton Rec chicken-in-the-sauna legend – a story which has, we reckon, a uniquely local ring about it. A few months ago, too, the author Paul Moody, in his piece for us about south London boozers claimed that south London pubs were “wilder” than those on the northside. Really?
We’re not believers in any north-south divide – we have our pals at Kentishtowner, after all, and were only up that way at their Under the Overground event last night) but wondered if there were weird and wonderful things unique to various neighbourhoods – north and south of the river. Perhaps there’s mileage in the idea of #onlyinbrixton, #onlyinpeckham, #onlyinkentishtown, #onlyincamden and so on. What do you think? If you’ve got a colourful tale about something that you think could only happen in a particular postcode, let us know.
Words: Kate Burt
