South London Hardcore

Let us take you on a tour of Tooting. We start at the Lido and end up at the Broadway, by way of the Common, an athletics ground, two hospitals, a school, a bingo hall and flagship chicken shop.

We've spent the weekend at Elefest, the Elephant and Castle festival, taking in history, art, films, music, food and more. Our roundup of the festival includes interviews with founder Rob Wray, guerrilla gardener Richard Reynolds, muralist David Bratby and Incredible Edible Southwark.

For the first meeting of the South London Book Club we've read The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark and non-fiction Do You Remember Olive Morris? (available from Lambeth Libraries).

Pollarding, fruity foxes and South London's latest Asset of Community Value are among the topics that crop up in our latest Local News round-up.

This week we put up blue plaques for Elizabeth Burgwin, who introduced free school meals at the Orange Street School in 1894, and Ginger Baker, drummer with Cream, Blind Faith and many others, who grew up in New Eltham.

This week we took a trip to the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, enjoying the selection of taxidermy, musical instruments and alpacas. We also looked at the history of the place and discover it was built on tea, was home to an important theatrical figure and played host to some famous occultists.

It's raining cats, dogs and Brutalist architecture... This week we took a trip to Catford and talked about it's history, geography and famous locals, including Ben Elton, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and a load of musicians.

Sam Jeffers (Fridge) and Stephen Graham join us for our Elliott School playlist, which includes Fleetwood Mac, Hot Chip, Burial, The XX, The Damned, The Maccabees, Four Tet, Jeff Beck, Matt Munro, The Bee Gees, DragonForce, Adem, Basquiat Strings and Cleaners From Venus.

We've picked 12 statues around South London of cultural and historical significance. Our list includes emperors and philanthropists, a cosmonaut and a tennis player, and a dog that caused riots.

David White, Ricky Miller and Michael Gosden make up small press outfit Avery Hill Publishing. We talk about their South-East London roots and their work with local comic creators (including SLHC regular Owen Pomery). Check out averyhillpublishing.com for their marvellous and reasonably priced work.