I tip my hat to the person or people who are making the outside of the old Blue Mountain Cafe in Forest Hill a visual feast.

If you haven't seen it, then just opposite The Hob on the South Circular is the old Blue Mountain Cafe that has been boarded-up for a number of years. The wooden boards over the windows have had handwritten notes stuck on with glue or stapled. The views are largely judgements about the behaviour of our fellow human beings against Mother Earth. Demonising companies like Shell and BP for their profits. You know the drill.

It has more than a sniff of a rant board. Sometimes it drifts into an "O Tempora!" style of observation. And lately, the more important missives have been framed with wood. Nailed on, no less!

This is all an impressive undertaking. I admire the passion.

I've got a sneaky suspicion that someone from here may be responsible. Anyone like to confess?

I have been injoying the views of this social commentator for several years now. I think this writer is a sage of our times.

why, oh why, oh why, do we need YET ANOTHER rant board in Forest Hill? Can't these people use se23.com like the rest of us.

I blame the parents/teachers/shops in East Dulwich/inventor of post-it notes who is solely responsible for all the evil in the world.

And another thing...What happened to the 'plants are evil' emergency system outside WH Smith. Think of all those people attacked by plants who cannot call for assistance. It's political correctness gone mad!

More rants available on request.

Michael - are you the person who got my thread on graffiti that should be listed, removed from this site? "Whatever happened to Slade" Accompanied a few years later by "whatever happened to Terry Waite" on a now demolished wall outside the Oval

BD - The light pours out of me

I have never asked for anything to be removed, but I did lead the bring back BaggyDave campaign.
I am still not sure that all people on se23.com understand sarcasm. Maybe I should quit my poor attempts at humour.

...well it rhymes with light

Many apologies Michael. As the thread was removed a long time ago (I also had an interesting comment about some old anti Thatcher graffiti) I cannot say who it was who took offence. It seemed like most of the posters at the time, but then there were only about five active in those days ("BD, how dare you put up a thread on political graffiti, I must write to my MP now")

Baggy Dave - I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real

I love the rants too, but it's a shame that space it still unoccupied (along with others in the area)
At least, while it's empty, it serves, some kind of purpose?

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the neighbourhood and have been having lots of fun exploring the more eccentric parts of the area. I recently came across the derelict cafe across the street from the Hob, which many of you may have seen.

What is the story of this place? It's like 12 Monkeys meets Soylent Green. Or maybe it could have been a disused set piece from Children of Men. What goes in in there? What great mysteries does the hoarding hide? Entrance to the Mole Kingdom? Eco-revolutionary sect? Frosty's secret lair (hater of all things Big Issue)? Any other ideas?

There are fantastic handwritten warnings of doom plastered all over the place; like something out of a fever dream. See photos attached of some of the better scrawls. My favourites are:

"Emergency in all but name it might seem like a fairy tale at the moment wait for oxides to build up in the sky"

"Nostradamus sometime soon standing room only concrete and tarmac"

"Uncharted territory who knows what might happen one scenario global warming could trigger more earthquakes by the shear weight of water releasing frozen methane at the bottom of the oceans a more lethal greenhouse gas"

I love it! Would love to hear the history of this place.

VictorianNoah - I've moved your post to this thread for more information.

I sometimes stare at the handwriting VictorianNoah and I break out in a cold sweat thinking that I recognise it as mine. Written in one of my fever dreams. And that I?ll gain consciousness for a second or two and all the memories of writing and sticking these notes up will all come flooding back like a tidal wave from the rising oceans.

A veritable muse of our times.

No-one ever seen the artist?

As an update to the ongoing Blue Mountain Cafe mystery, I ventured down to the nouveau Blue Mountain Cafe in Sydenham to see if anyone there knew anything about our famed Forest Hill Oracle.

They denied any knowledge, the wink in their eye told me that they new more than they were letting on.

I think they're covering something up. Something big. Any ideas?!

It really should be used not just left, plenty of people that want a shop if the rent was not so high. It could be split in to two shops allowing local people display work to sell. What a waste, just as forest hill is beginning to grow.

Brilliant.

I'm going to move to FH just to be closer to this rant board. SE22 has just got too yawn these days.

Is the rant board still there? i'm curious........

I crossed the road right in front of it this morning, so inspected it closely. Hadn't noticed the place, including its name, before this thread, and that's probably because it's now just bare chipboard again. Yes, there's the odd remnant of something scraped off... but there's nothing to see there.

Wouldn't it be lovely if somehow that little run of buildings actually sprang back to life? It's a bit dingy right now.

Went looking for the rant board today but sadly nothing was there. Was a little disappointed.

Ditto!
Bring back the rant board!!!!

I went past the other day and was delighted to see one remaining piece still in place.

It is on the left hand side. It is about A4 in size. Framed in wood with a plastic clear sheet to prevent weather damage. It protects a hand drawn picture (felt tip pen on paper) and captioned with “Carbon footprint and sink”. I make out that they have drawn a footprint inside what appears to be an old fashioned laundry sink. It is screwed to the chipboard with eight Phillips head (crosshead) screws. Two in each corner for good measure.

If you look carefully at VictorianNoah’s third picture in post #8 above, then you will see on the left hand side the corner of it. (Thank you VictorianNoah for taking those pictures and posting them in 2009. You have preserved an interesting bit of our local history. I still love your term, “…like something out of a fever dream.”)