"It's one day a year. Can't you live with it?" During the opening weekend of the Robot Zoo exhibition at the Horniman Museum, a pedestrian on Sydenham Rise was hit by a vehicle and she died of her injuries.

Not at the Jerk-Off Day, though, so relocating it wouldn't have saved her life, would it? Not sure what your point is. Unless you think nothing should ever happen at the Horniman cos that would mean some cars in the vicinity and someone might get run over by them. Shall we move the whole Horniman?

"Maybe that's why it's called the Jerk Festival"

"....Jerk-off Day"



Would love to see the wit and humour displayed in reaction to parking problems at any "Gourmets and Foodies Celebration of the Faggot" Do grow up!

After all, it's not as though all those Chelsea-tractor driving types from the "Other Side of the Hill" whose little Tarquins and Jemimas have taken a liking to the Beach don't ever display a certain blindness to the highway code on a daily basis, all summer long, is it gingernuts? Or perhaps they're just a more 'appropriate' type of 'jerk' for the area?

Red67: I do sympathise a bit - have you tried rounding up stray traffic cones and placing them strategically to emphasise the point?

The obvious sexual pun is much underrated, m'dear. Especially when the Jerk-Off is at the Horny-man.

Outside of WH Smith there is a beautiful erection that points to different places around The Hill. I think it's called a Fingerpost. One of the fingers points to the Police Station, another finger points to Library & Pool and then there is the finger pointing towards Horniman Museum. Anyone seen what's happened to it?

Some Jerk-Off has pulled the finger and broken it. (BTW, I think these fingers are made of metal, so it was some effort.) They have broken it so that on one side (when you are reading the post standing from the north or when you are waiting to cross the lights, going towards the Laundry) then you'll see that all that remains is "Horni". Tee Hee!

Of course, when read from the other side it just says something like "useum". Quick! To the Interweb...does Useum mean anything?

Which hill is this, Mary? I haven't come across any Tarquins or Jemimas in Sydenham.

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/...msg-295210

On a line from central London to 'burbs, Sydenham is on the same side of the hill as us, isn't it? And since the hill is also a ridge, this would cover anything south of us as far as Crystal Palace

... sorry, that should have been 'anything south of us as far westwards as Crystal Palace.

Laugh about the sexual innuendo but not many years ago when I tried to access the Horniman website whilst at work, I was refused access as it was considered 'inappropriate' and put on a 'list' for having tried to access porn in work time. Unfortunately our pc department ( how true) at that time did not have a sense of humour or a particularly useful filter system.

I think the Jerk Cook out Festival ( note correct name) is a fantastic event and shouldn't really do anyone any harm however parking is an issue that needs to be addressed. It is probably one of the few events attended by a considerable proportion of the black community so I do think some comments of shoving it over to Peckham Rye could be considered unfortunate and could be misinterpreted.

I don't mind 'living with the extra traffic' and the roads being more crowded if people are considerate. What I object to is when 'jerks' park across a driveway so that if you want to leave, you can't... or if you've been out and come home during the event, you can't get back into your driveway or parked anywhere nearby.

Having said that, the event itself is great - and my mouth is watering in anticipation.

The festival should stay in FH, it is still of a size whereby it can be contained within the gardens and the parking issue is not something that is ever going to go away. Plus, as you all seem to be well aware of it you can do something about it by placing cones and directing attention to the needs for access.

Good point about chasing off the only things that actually bring people to FH. Can't have it both ways.

One more thing on traffic cones:

In the areas around football grounds on matchdays, and sometimes for other large events, the local police put up rows of cones along the road to prevent parking in residential roads nearby.

Is there some way that our local police teams could liase with either the Horniman or the organisers of the Jerk Cookout to do this for particularly badly affected streets around here for this one day in the year?

A nice idea, as just had to ask someone to move their car parked right across our driveway.....

Traffic more or less gridlocked round the top of Kirkdale/Sydenham Hill. But it was nice when a young woman knocked on my door and asked whether she could park in front of our house. I said yes, of course. (I'd already taken the precaution of putting wheelie bins on the road outside our actual drive.)

Apparently some 8000 - 10,000 people are attending the chicken jerk event with the park full to bursting having spoken with the museum.

Cars are parked all around the surrounding residential roads as far away as Forest Hill road, what is worrying though is the speed that they are being driven at by some of those attending. With all the young children and cars moving at speed it won't be long before a serious accident happens. Parking has been a problem in previous years but never to the extent today.

Surely the Hornimans Museum should have made an effort to have informed local people about the event and which has been advertised on places like Twitter and Facebook hence the high turnout.

I've never known so much traffic come through here even during the rush hour traffic peaks. What is amusing is watching drivers trying to park and reverse on the hill. ha ha ha ha

Police and traffic wardens are in roads around the museum ticketing people on double yellow lines. Honor Oak Road is virtually gridlocked. Horniman park is gridlocked with people - hugh turnout. But people seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the crowds.

Perhaps next year we can suspend the red route for a day and allow people to park on one side of the South Circular, in bus lanes from the Harvester to Sainsburys.

I'm glad this event happens only once a year, but I'm glad it happens.

I was a lot more enthusiastic earlier than I am now! This is so much more better attended than last year. An attempted quiet Sunday at home has been completely disrupted by people;
a) knocking on my door asking if they can park across our driveway even though the car was in it. (5 people). Polite but not really wanted.
b) another two cars parking straight across it without asking and being difficult when asked to move.
c) Gridlocked traffic, horns blazing . cars trying to do u turns in the tightest of spaces and lots of effing and blinding arguments out in the street as cars try to pass each other in what is really a narrow street,
d) Rows between attendees and neighbours as people try to park on the pavements.

It seemed from what I could tell that cars just kept driving round and round for some time looking for spaces. One guy who knocked said he had been driving around for an hour. I also agree with the comments about speeding cars today as people seemed to get angrier and more fed up.

I think such an event is a good idea for the reasons I gave earlier, but if this is to continue then the traffic generation and parking needs to be urgently addressed by the Horniman. I do know the Xmas concert also attracts a huge amounts of traffic but not on this scale. I am also aware of ads on the Underground promoting 'plenty of free parking in local streets'- not this Festival but the museum in general.

I don't know if the Council car park on Perry Vale was particularly promoted or even widely used but if not then its a shame and it should be next year. I didnt really notice public transport being promoted either. Perhaps this event needs to be ticketed from now on and numbers controlled, with as Michael suggests, some temporary suspension of the red routes or double yellow lines and chargeable parking spaces. This might reduce the number of cars attending however nothing is ever foolproof. There is also the question as to whether the Horniman are planning anything else on this scale in the future- it must be bringing in some cash for them hence would be attractive. Personally after today I would want to see some controls.

We can't have it all, and living so close to such a fabulous space has a price, but the local area cannot cope with these sorts of traffic numbers as evidenced today and if numbers are growing then its great but surely some action is needed for next year.

had an absolute nightmare getting back to my house today after a day out.

After an hour in the car with a fed-up 1 year old and 4 year old, I was looking forward to getting home but was then gridlocked by the combination of "Jerks" who were causing extra traffic - not just volume but selfish parking, and roadworks on EVERY approach.

Great to have a popular event here, but we must get people to come on public transport for goodness sake!

Anyway, hope the food was worth it

and what a nightmare it was! Cars parked illegally and dangerously on corners, double yellow lines and on the pavement - nearly knocked me over! Traffic was terrible.

Sounds like we were lucky. We went out for the day and got home (Taymount Rise area) at about 17:15. There was a fair bit of traffic and one guy who pulled up next to us at the lights by the station was ranting about being gridlocked for an hour but we weren't delayed by more than a minute or two.

Our road was rammed with cars but I didn't see any driveways blocked. There were cars on double-yellows and half on pavements but that was the worst of it where we are.

I'm glad to deal with it for one day a year but wouldn't be keen on more events like it across the year without some attention to traffic and parking issues.

To be honest, I can see the organisers of the Jerk Cook Out event looking for a bigger venue anyway. It looks like it could upscale already and then the Horniman would definitely be too small.