You can check them out here:

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/property-home/article/coolest-uk-postcodes-move-2025-s6tsshqsd

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/this-south-london-neighbourhood-has-been-named-one-of-the-uks-coolest-postcodes-to-move-to-in-2025-021725

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/meet-people-londons-coolest-neighbourhood-31170452

https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/24941637.penge-one-coolest-postcodes-uk-times/

https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/24944000.penge-deserves-spot-times-coolest-list/

https://secretldn.com/penge-coolest-postcode/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J52kQyde00Y

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As part of the exhibition Tim has erected and installed one silver and nine bronze ‘Manager’ statues in public view around Penge to form the 2023 Penge Sculpture Trail.

Here’s some clues as to what to look for and where….

Happy hunting!

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The PTB Easter Trail takes place on Saturday 8th April from 4:30 till 5:30.  The event involves local children, accompanied by their parents or guardians, wandering down the High Street (and some roads just off it) collecting special easter stickers from participating venues, which they attach to the trail map and at the final location, the Bridge House by Penge West, they will be presented with an egg to scoff!  The event is free and funded by the Penge SE20 BID.

There are two starting points, the Goldsmiths and the Alex to choose from, where you can pick up a copy of the sticker sheet and a map.  The map will also be available on here in a few days time.  Participating venues this year are:

Bridge House (finishing point)

Carpet Corner

Art of Glass

Aquar Dry Cleaners

Di Niros

Siam Nuad

Penge General Store

SE20 Cycles

Chez Yves

Taylor & Abel

Salvation Army

Himalayan Kitchen

Alexandra pub (starting point)

Nouvelle Hairdressers

My Party Store

The Post

Macks Chemist

Designer Drapes

Goldsmiths pub (starting point)

Body Lounge

Property World

Dew Beauty

Fun Cuts

Map:

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Get your tickets to see Baggy Bra from the 6-8th of April at The Bridge House Theatre in London: https://linktr.ee/baggybra And don’t forget to bring your old, baggy bras to donate to Against Breast Cancer!

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Over the following weeks, expect various venues across SE20 to feature offerings covering music, art, historical talks, childrens and OAP events, comedy, theatre, quizes, nature walks, poetry and more.

To see the full list of events head over to https://www.pengefestival.org/

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Ok let’s get the egg puns out of the way… Next Saturday, 16

The event starts at 4:30 where the children collect a sticker sheet and sticker from the PTB crew at the Goldsmiths.  From there the trail leads along the High Street to various local businesses where the children collect further stickers and add them to the sheet.  The event finishes at the Bridge House where the children will trade the sticker sheet for a chocolate prize (yes, it’s an egg).

Encourage your children to dress up with bonnets or other Easter themes, or as this is Penge, home of the Dinosaurs, a dino.

Maps will be available along with the sticker sheet on the day but feel free to use the Easter trail map22 (1)map above on your phone.

We are very grateful to the Penge BID for funding the event and the following businesses for taking part:

Goldsmiths

Designer Drapes

Dew Beauty

SE20 Dry Cleaners

Propertyworld

Rodeo Burger

Antonellas

Nouvelle

Taylor & Abel

SE20 Cycles

Penge General Stores

Siam Nuad Thai

Craft Metropolis

De Niros

Aquar Dry Cleaners

Macks Chemist

Bridge House

Revolution Records

Alexandra

Himalayan

Chez Yves

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Summer 2021 also saw the return of a number of fabulous events in Penge and Cator.  These are just a few:

• Penge Day, with the amazing Dinosaurs walking amongst us, live music and stalls, plus a SE20 Street Art Trail and Heritage Trail
• Pengefest, a German style beer festival with oompah band, beer and sausages, and stalls
• Paws in the Park, a dog show family event with competitions and stalls
• Penge Festival, including the Penge Fete on Royston Fields
• Live music at the Bowl in CP Park, numerous pop, rock, dance and classical gigs
• Performances and plays at the Bridge House Theatre
• Maple Road market, a small for now, market returned to its historic home, with monthly stalls

Next up, after the Halloween Trail, will be Pengemas in early December.

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Having recently registered the stage as an Asset of Community Value, the Crystal Palace Park Trust is now determined to reboot the ‘Rusty Laptop’- as it’s affectionately known by locals.

With your support, their first step would be to resurface the large stage floor area with a durable new timber decking and undertake essential maintenance works in the back-of-house structure.

This would allow the venue to form a striking backdrop to live music, dance and drama and make the space safe for the community to explore and enjoy as we work to define its future.

So please pledge to #BackTheBowl and help them fund a new stage and a new start, for the Rusty Laptop in Crystal Palace Park!

What they’ll deliver:

- Remove the current stage flooring, which is deteriorated and unsafe.
- Renew the 375 square metre stage area with a new, durable and long lasting Ekki timber flooring.
- Maintenance of the essential back-of-house services and facilities.

Why it’s a great idea:

The project will bring back to life an iconic yet unused space in the historic Crystal Palace Park, making sure that the surrounding communities can once again celebrate and enjoy a landmark on their doorsteps that’s unlike any other in London.

Over the past two years there has been huge support for the campaign to revive this beloved landmark and received strong engagement via public consultation, for ways in which the venue could provide improved facilities and a focal point for local residents and park users.

Steps to get it done:

Feb – May 2021 – Campaign launch and fundraising
May – June 2021 – Detailed design and specification finalised
Summer 2021 – Current stage cleared, new surface installed and maintenance works completed
September 2021 – Open House London and community events

The Concert Bowl itself is a striking, sculptural piece of public architecture; designed by Ian Ritchie Architects and nominated for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize.

The new stage surface will consist of 375 square metres of Ekki timber: a long-lasting and low maintenance marine hardwood, from FSC certified sustainable sources – as used on the community-led and award winning Hastings Pier restoration project.

This highly durable surface, with a lifespan in excess of 25 years, will make the stage safe and usable for many years to come.

Here’s where you can back the project

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The Bridge House offers intimacy as a theatre space. Now well-established as a Fringe venue, it also boasts decent lighting, good-quality sound and some mercifully comfy seats. The whole space is utilised in this show and on the way in, the audience is greeted by actors playing musical instruments as they set the tone for a friendly evening of story-telling and music.

The story starts on Christmas Eve, in the Victorian office of Ebenezer Scrooge. It is the seventh anniversary of his former business partner’s death and the ghost of said Jacob Marley returns to warn Scrooge he has quite a night ahead of him. Marley tells Scrooge to mend his ways, to reject making money at other people’s expense and get back in touch with his humanity. He also mentions that he will be visited by three ghosts. So follows Scrooge’s journey to himself as the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future take this businessman on a whistle-stop tour through his life. He revisits key childhood moments, views the Christmas of his contemporaries and ends up looking at his own bleak future. Terrified, Scrooge begs for a second chance. Happily, Dickens chose to give him one and ‘A Christmas Carol’ has a happy ending.

This production emphasises Community. From the warm welcome onwards, the audience is invited into Scrooge’s world. The set is reasonably simple but the lights and the sound combine to create a number of believable locations, as Scrooge is whisked from one part of London to another by the Christmas Spirits. There are a few songs and plenty of incidental music to support the action. The combination of guitar, cello and piano works well, with the original music by Ben Woods featuring just enough to add but not so much it drowns out the play. This is not a musical, it’s a show with music. Near the interval, there’s even a game of Charades involving the audience. This is a night out prepared with audience enjoyment and comfort firmly in mind.

Rachel Izen’s Scrooge manages the transformation in character credibly. However, perhaps the most impressive aspect of her performance is its androgyny. Her Scrooge is a believable man but, without too many of the traditional scowls, his humanity becomes visible. Izen’s is a three-dimensional, controlled performance that makes sense of Scrooge’s redemption. Ben Woods delivers with a clear love for Dickens’ language as his voice works the theatre space like velvet. Jamie Ross offers a decent Bob Cratchitt, though his real tour-de-force is a buoyant Scottish ‘Spirit of Christmas Present’. Saoria Wright slips effortlessly between characters, at least once mid-sentence. She also plays a mean cello.

This is an ensemble piece. The cast need to move precisely on a small stage and deliver their lines with similar accuracy as characters appear and disappear, sometimes in quick succession. This being a first night, there were a few fluffed lines and one or two slightly clumsy moments of stagecraft. However, this is an intricate production, as The Bridge House once again offers fringe theatre that is a cut above the rest. Director Guy Retallack will be tweaking and tightening for a few days yet. If previous experience is any guide, this production will mature, quickly, with age.

A timely reminder of the need for Community in a time of food banks and the Homeless on London’s streets, ‘A Christmas Carol’ is an enjoyable, musical production. The CEO of Amazon would certainly get something from this good night out at The Bridge House.

Jon Preston, November 2019

Tickets from https://www.bhtheatre.com/whatson/index.php

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