The second Crystal Palace International Film festival which opens on Sunday (September 15th) has attracted more than 600 entries.

More than 80 of the films submitted have been chosen as finalists for the festival – including films which feature famous names such as John Hurt, Keith Allen and Jean Reno (Leon) as well as familiar faces such as Phyllida Law and Australian actress Sigrid Thornton whose films include ‘The Man from Snowy River’ and ‘The Getting of Wisdom’.

Neil Roy of Harlequin Productions says the entries from Australia in particular have been of an incredibly high quality. Entries have also come from as far afield as Cuba, Japan and Venezuela – as well as two which were made a bit closer to home – in Crystal Palace.

One film is Hit/Run, shot entirely on an iPhone 4 which is the first film at Horror and Sci-Fi night 1  The other, which is not in competition, is ‘Jewrosis’ a light-hearted music video shot in Crystal Palace Park which closes the International night on Tuesday 27th.

This year’s festival has been extended to fit extra films in – but even then some well-made films failed to make it to the final shortlist.

The programme of events (admission is free except where stated)  is as follows:

Sunday 18th: Documentary at Westow House and Feature film and documentary at Patrick’s

Monday 19th: UK premiere Taita Boyes (Venezuela) at Westow House
and Documentary at Patrick’s

Tuesday 20th: Horror and Sci-Fi night 1 at Westow House

Wednesday 21st: Short film night 1 Westow House

Thursday 22nd: Various documentaries, Patrick’s

Friday 23rd: The Killage (Australia) UK Premiere Phoenix Centre £5 admission

Saturday 24th: Horror and Sci-Fi night 2 Antenna Studios £5 admission.

Sunday 25th: Student film, Westow House

Monday 26th: Animation, Westow House

Tuesday 27th: International film Westow House

Wednesday 28th: Short film night 2 Westow House

Thursday 29th UK premiere of ‘Boy Wonder’ (USA) Westow House and UK premiere of Face to Face (Australia) Patrick’s

Friday 30th Comedy shorts, Phoenix Centre followed by awards night with the Transmitter awards presented by Mark Steel.

£5 admission. All film shows start 7.45pm.

Venues are:

Antenna Studios, top of Bedwardine Road, accessible on foot from Westow Street via Haynes Lane

Patrick’s bar, Westow Hill; Phoenix Centre, to left of Sainsbury’s on Westow Street

Westow House, Westow Hill corner of Crystal Palace Parade.

Further information contact the Crystal Palace International Film Festival

A Crystal Palace Jewellers was hit by 20 looters who drove up in three cars and Blockbuster Video trashed by hit-and-run criminal opportunists in the Upper Norwood Triangle area overnight.

Police have issued photos of two individuals they wish to talk to in connection with the matter.

Jeweller Darryll Norwood was woken at 2.15 am today (Tuesday) to say his Crystal Palace Jewellers premises at 76 Church Road was being broken into.
At Blockbuster Video one well-known local trader was among a group of people who tried to stop individuals who had begun congregating outside the store from breaking in. But eventually he and the others realised they were outnumbered and moved to the other side of Westow Street.

At Church Road one of the cars the looters used had been parked on the corner of Belvedere Road opposite when a police car, on its way from Charing Cross to the riots in Croydon, passed and stopped.

“Local residents told the police about the car and stayed with it until it was collected” said Darryll. “It seems some of our stock was in it but we don’t know how much” he added Looters also left blood at the scene on a window and one of the cabinets.

One passer-by suspected of being involved was stopped. Police decided the passer-by had had nothing to do with the shop looting but held him on suspicion of possessing stolen credit cards.

Asked what he thought of the looters Darryll replied: “Scum.”It was planned; opportunists driving round looking for places to do – nothing to do with the riots.”At Blockbuster one observer, who asked not to be named, said “A whole bunch of guys including a well-known local trader were outside Blockbuster. “One guy was saying ‘Don’t make it any worse. Don’t be aggressive. talk among yourselves, see what’s happening’. As the numbers grew they weren’t going to hang about. The trader and the people with him crossed to the other side of the road.The looters were walking away with stuff in Blockbuster Video bags.”

Windows were also smashed at Streets Ahead estate agents on Westow Street and the former tractor shop premises in Church Road.

TIMELINE

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The market will be open as usual at 11 am but instead of closing at 5 pm as usual will be open until 8.30pm that evening with participating stalls offering 10 per cent discounts to anyone with special ‘flyers’ issued which announce the event.

A wide range of goods from art to antiques; furniture to fashion; books, music and homeware can be found at the market off Westow Street, Crystal Palace where the normal opening hours are Sunday, Tuesday and Friday 11 am to 5pm; Saturday 11 am to 6pm.

View of Church Road 1904. The gate on the right has now been replaced by Nightingale Court. From John Coulter’s Norwood in Old Photographs

In his book ‘The Great North Wood’ J Corbet Anderson says that no old church or ancient building of any kind has been found within the wide area known by the general denomination of Norwood.  Alan Warwick, author of ‘The Phoenix Suburb’ says in a smaller work of his: “The truth is that Norwood has no real history before the beginning of the 19th century.” A map of the 1800 Enclosure Act for the borough of Croydon shows the area we now know as the Triangle as just common with the exception of two buildings on or near to the site now occupied by the Holly Bush pub on the corner of today’s Westow Hill and Westow Street.

In the 1850s two individuals moved into the area that would, much later, recall their early days in Norwood. Mrs. Elizabeth Louisa Dee published her ‘Memories of Norwood since 1852’ around 1909. Mr. William Farmer, editor and proprietor of the Norwood Review started his recollections in 1888 in an occasional column in the Review entitled ‘Bygone days in Norwood’.

ANERLEY HILL Mrs. Dee recalls how from Anerley station – at that time the only rail station in Norwood – there was nothing on the right hand side up Anerley Road but rough ground and fields from the station and Anerley Gardens until one reached the White Swan. On the left there were only fields until one reached Anerley schools then the wooded slope all the way up to the top of Anerley Hill until, on the site of the Cambridge hotel, stood the large iron gates of Aubin’s school which extended to and included St Aubyn’s Road right down to Stoney Buildings.

CHURCH ROAD TO ALL SAINTS CHURCH Aubin’s school had been founded by Frederick Aubin and his mother who first took charge of six boys. By 1852 Mrs. Dee, whose father-in-law worked there, recalled: “Many boys were employed there in the cultivation of vegetables for their own consumption, others were taught by competent workmen to make their own clothes or boots whilst others were taught the trades of painters and glaziers. “Everything that it was possible for the boys to do for themselves they did here but, the ground becoming very valuable later in consequence of the building of the Crystal Palace, the school was transferred to a farm at Acton, near Hanwell, my then father-in-law and his fellow employees going with the boys.”

After Stoney Buildings there were three or four very old cottages, which only had a ground floor with very long gardens. “They were very straggling and only wooden houses painted or tarred but of the houses themselves not much was to be seen on account of the lovely creepers and ivy. Next to them was the White Hart pub.” The tea gardens of the White Hart were on the other side to the left where Mr. Farmer kept a bookshop now W H Smith and Sons. The gardens were very beautiful. The signpost stood in the middle of the road capped with a large board with a white hart painted on it.

On the other side of Church Road from the top of Anerley Hill were “about three houses in the valley, almost hidden by trees then Mr. Edward’s nursery and shop. Mrs. Edwards was a Miss Sheldrick, daughter of our landlord and a friend of mine. It is now Mr. Walter Taylor, florist. At that time all rough ground extended to the top of Belvedere Road where some houses built like almshouses and called Spring Grove were situated. Some still remain.”

Mrs. Dee tells her readers she will not attempt to describe the main Church Road but will point out a few familiar spots: “Amongst the houses standing in their own grounds were Rose Cottage, then two at the corner of Fox Lane which have been brought out and enlarged with different windows. These were also Mr. Sheldrick’s, standing quite in fields then.  The next one I remember quite well was a four roomed cottage, very large rooms but only a ground floor, with what they called a lean to, a kind of out-house attached to the house at one end with a loft over it. The front of the house was covered with a most beautiful fuchsia which, when it was in bloom was so attractive that everyone stopped to admire it. It had two windows on either side of the street door.” There was also a very large garden growing both fruit and vegetables, she recalled. “The house…stood where Newport Villa now is, but not so near the road. Another house I remember was the one before you reached the Queen’s hotel (not built then), falling right back from the road. By the side of this gate was this inscription: Street, Sharp and Hetley, Dr Frederick Hetley.”

(ITALICS: William Farmer recalled the industrial school, then a row of little white cottages; Stoney buildings; a large detached house called Woodside then occupied by Mrs. Forsteen and afterwards by the Rev H Nelthropp and two wooden cottages next to the White Hart. A butcher’s shop on the corner of Westow Street and Church Road was kept by Mr. Rogers and next to it Rutland Cottage “a pretty country-looking building with creepers growing up the walls and palings and trees in front” which belonged to a Mr. and Mrs. Turner who let furnished lodgings and were “a rather peculiar couple given to quarrelling and fighting.” Between Rutland Cottage and the Queen’s hotel most of the present houses were there with the exception…of Silverton, Windermere, Argyle and Beaufort Lodges. The house immediately preceding the hotel known as The Cottage was a very pretty place with well-kept gardens and an abundance of foliage about it. There Dr F Hetley then resided with his mother, a dear old lady beloved by everyone. The Queen’s hotel, though not so nearly as large as now, was a most imposing building effectively arranged in three sections and commanding extensive views of open country back and front. Beyond the hotel came two or three detached villas and a little wooden cottage afterwards occupied by Mr. F Heron, late of the Crystal Palace.” Between there and All Saints church were the fields. William Farmer recalled the footpath, which was closed during haymaking time. “These fields were very popular with the numerous visitors and invalids who came to Norwood as also with the residents and on fine days many persons might be seen sitting about reading or doing needlework while the children played about, gaining health and vigour from the refreshing breeze. A footpath led to Beulah Hill passing a row of little thatched cottages and coming out nearly opposite Leather Bottle Lane. At the exit stood a baker’s shop kept by Mr. Wright, father of the builder now residing on the same spot.”

On the other side of Church Road he recalled that from the Crystal Palace hotel to Belvedere Road was a house called Cintra, occupied by a solicitor named Elmslie; “a house in which Dr Haughton lives; Swiss Villa now a florists; the other angle of the almshouses (now shops) with rails and garden in front; Izod the chemist and the Alma Tavern.” There were only two houses between Beaulieu, the residence of the late Mr. Welch; and Fox Lane. The old white house known as The Grove still remains as does also the other, the vicarage. The latter has yet the same occupier The Rev J Watson. Where the row of stately mansions now stands there was then only the fields and meadows attached to The Grove. There was one other residence, a little cottage just opposite the Queen’s hotel occupied by a plumber named Vinal. At the top of Fox Lane where Dr Hetley’s house now stands there was a one-storey rambling old house inhabited by a Mr. Gittings and his son. It lay behind a high fence and little of it could be seen except the roof. Two or three villas had just been built below this and then all was open fields and hedges till you reached the bottom of the hill where was Hayes farm, better known as Ruskin’s farm from the name of the occupier – a wooden house in which Mrs. Apted and her daughters lived and worked, and still occupied by some of the family and a nursery garden kept by Mr. Fox after whose ancestor the lane was named. Opposite the house of the Apted’s was Thorn Cottage, a rural dwelling, picturesque and interesting, as the occupiers were wont to keep numerous domestic pets. In this cottage for some time there resided a Mr. Strange, an enterprising London publisher, who obtained the right to cater for the workmen when the Crystal Palace was building. He was allowed to erect large temporary premises in the grounds in which he provided meals for the workmen of various nationalities.” END ITALICS

Mrs. Dee recalled: “The vicarage, now slightly altered, was on the other side of the road. Crossing the road again to church fields now called Upper Beulah Hill at this end there was an old waggon wheel meant for a stile. It was a short cut to avoid passing round the church to Beulah Hill. I remember quite well the beacon fires being lighted in the church fields when peace was proclaimed after the Crimean war.” Across the footpath and turning to the right “we reach in a very few moments, on the right hand side of the road, a few cottages. The first one, built out to the path with a half circular window…all the front doors faced the church with nothing but fields between them. They had long gardens with only a path between each garden to divide them, looking like allotment grounds, for vegetables were chiefly grown on them. All the houses had creeper up the front and a small flowerbed close to the house. The first one had a few apples, nuts, sugar sticks and bull’s-eyes in the window, and was occupied by a woman the name of Dyke. A little farther away there were three more cottages with the fronts to the road all built with a ground floor only, and detached, each with a lot of ground at the back. The last had a fairly large shed built away from the house and, plainly seen from the road, was a dairy kept by Mrs. Matthews who sold butter and milk, eggs, pork (fresh or salt), lard and almost any kind of vegetables and fruit in its season. Mr. Matthews had been the driver of the ‘bus from Lower Norwood to London for 40 years. He was an old man when I first knew him and his son, who lived a few doors off, took his place as driver. The old man attended to his garden, killed his pigs and was always ready for a chat while you waited to get your greens cut, your potatoes dug, parsley or mint gathered etc.

“A little further on was a baker’s kept by a Mr. Wright, then the Beulah Retreat, a funny little straggling cottage…All on one floor it was kept as a beerhouse by Mr. Isaac Smith who afterwards kept the Eagle public house in New Town when the Beulah Spa Tap was finished and opened by Mr. Preddy.” Next to the Retreat was the ‘Rectangle’ and only a little way down from it was Mr. Day’s forge and blacksmith shop and a very pretty old cottage where he lived almost behind the Beulah Retreat, close to Harold Road.

“Now we will cross the road and stand at the top of Leather Bottle Lane. The view then in 1852 was most glorious. Looking over the few scattered houses to the left and right nothing was to be seen but cornfields and when the sun was shining on them they were so beautiful. On the left was the Beulah Spa. I never went into the grounds until 1858. Then I lived in the first cottage with two floors. The top house built with bricks was occupied by John Tanner, gentleman (as he was always called). This was one of two storeys. Then there was the one house in the middle of the garden with only a ground floor, next two houses attached adjoined by one unattached. They were all wooden houses painted black or else tarred, then two brick cottages. The one that I lived in was known together with the rest as Martin’s Cottages. Mr. Martin (our landlord) lived next door in a double fronted house with steps leading to the front door. He was also conductor of the ‘bus from Norwood to London. There were a few more brick houses but very much scattered and the Old Leather Bottle beer shop. Opposite where I lived in Leather Bottle Lane there were two houses not facing the road but looking down the lane. When I lived there we used to get over a ditch at the bottom of our garden into the Spa grounds, which at that time were all in ruins. The beautiful rosary running wild, the camera table (part of which I have in my possession) was falling to pieces. My husband Thomas took a piece of it, polished it, then drew the outline of Sir Charles Napier’s bust from a picture published in Bow Bells.

“To return to Beulah Hill I cannot attempt to describe it minutely as I have some parts of it. There were not many houses to be seen. They all stood in their own grounds mostly hidden by hedges and trees. Some little distance past Harold Road we come to a very quaint shop where almost anything you wanted was sold. It had a lot of outbuildings and was occupied by Mr. Howard the Norwood Carrier. Now cross the road a little obliquely and you come to two houses built out to the path with large bow windows at the corner, leading to Mr. Pringle’s nursery, then the Crown pond and on the other side of the road at the top of Crown Hill there was a shop kept by Mr. Rose who I understand was one of the oldest residents in Norwood and brought the first Mrs. Rose there, a bride on horseback, sitting on a pillion in front of the bridegroom through the Great North Wood to her home on top of Crown Hill.

(William Farmer, in another Bygone Days in Norwood column, recalled: “Continuing from Mr. Wright’s shop only two houses broke the line of fields to Crown Hill. One the cottage and stabling of Mr. Howard, the famous Norwood carrier, the other a cottage in a fruit garden where strawberries and other fruit might be bought and eaten in rustic arbours. Howard, with another carrier called Keen who resided in Westow Street, were then our principal means of our getting down the various supplies from London. Nearly opposite the baker’s was the Beulah Spa hotel that, after various vicissitudes, had hydropathic appliances connected to it by Mr. Sowter who for many years carried it on successfully as a hotel and hydropathic establishment. Close by is Westwood, now the reference of the Rev C H Spurgeon. It was formerly known as Beaumont and prior to that Beulah Spa Villa. On the other side of Beulah Hill “there were then, as now, a number of old houses with ample grounds and gardens. Perhaps the most interesting of these is The Priory, then occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Hayes and their daughter… At the time of which I am speaking none of the houses in Grange Road were built, the road itself being a semi-private one, entered by large old gates. On Grange Hill there were three houses and an entrance to the servant’s department of Admiral Carey’s mansion. The corner house facing Thornton Heath and commanding a lovely view of the valley and hills beyond was a young gentlemen’s school kept by the Misses Fletcher who afterwards removed their pupils to Brighton. The next house was occupied by a family called Nugent. The only other house was a wooden structure at the bottom of a garden, abutting close upon the servant’s apartments of Admiral Carey, the residence of a Mr. Morrison…who refused many offers of Admiral Carey to buy the place).

CROWN HILL TO GIPSY HILL

Mrs. Dee told her readers of the trip down Crown Hill. On the right hand side down to the junction of Elder Road “there was nothing but fields and woods to the Convent which was a very different building to what it is today. The other side there were a few houses falling back in their own grounds, then a row of very poor looking cottages, very much in want of repair. Two of them had nearly all the windows broken and of course they were called ‘haunted houses’.

After the convent wood there was one large field called Billy Wood’s field, four cottages until you reached the corner of Oxford Road then Bernard Villa in which a Mrs. Clarke lived where at the time of Mrs. Dee’s book three houses occupied the same ground. There were no houses then until one reached the Lion, the landlord of which was a Mr. Bond. Built by Mr. Masters who also built the Crystal Palace hotel at the corner of Church Road. The site of Essex Grove and Rockmount Road were then fields. Then came Essex Lodge “now altered into two houses, then occupied by Mr. Truscott, where we got milk before nine in the morning at one penny per quart.” More fields until one reached two cottages called Central Hill cottages “which have been enlarged but are not much different in appearance abut upon a narrow lane through which cows were driven down to their sheds.” Then came Effingham Lodge “much the same except for the absence of a very large tree which nearly hid the house from view”, Franklin Cottage was the property of Mr. Franklin who had a little shop with a high window adjoined where he used to sit mending boots and shoes “a typical cobbler, very little, thin and bent, with spectacles and leather apron fringed at the corners.” Then came a field “which is now Harold Road” two houses called 1 and 2 Rushmore, Central Hill Lodge “just the same now as then”, a young ladies seminary “that is not altered at all”, Rose Cottage, Cedar Cottage and then, on the corner of South Vale, a large high flat looking house including coach house, stables and garden. This “barn of a place” was pulled down and three houses built in its place, a ball being held in the original building the night before its demolition commenced. “Two lodges marked the commencement and end of the frontage of Scotland House now 23 Central Hill; to the other corner of South Vale. Then came the Baptist chapel and two houses owned by Mr. Bligh “Not much altered now, excepting the top storey has been made higher”, Mount Pleasant – “did not look very pleasant with high brick walls and a large iron gate always kept locked”; some very rustic cottages with lattice porches only one storey high; the Mission Room and then, on the corner of Westow Street, was a chemist shop owned by Mr. Ravis “with a long garden in front and a low wooden fence all round a gate at the corner with a path leading to the front door, the gardens each side being distinctly triangular. The shop itself had two very high bay windows, one in Westow Street, the other in Central Hill.”

Up the other side of Central Hill from Elder Road were the strawberry gardens at the end of Elder Road. After passing Salters Hill there was Bloomfield Hall, the residence of Mr. Joseph Tritton now that of Sir Ernest Tritton his son; Ainsworth’s school for young gentlemen (afterwards Pope’s) at the corner of Angels Lane, now Roman Road then open common right up to the top of Gipsy Hill.

ITALICS William Farmer recalled that between Salter’s Hill and Gipsy Hill there were Bloomfield, Mr. Pope’s school and Kilburn Villa. An anonymous correspondent of Mr. farmer’s said that some 60 years previously – around 1828 – Salter’s Hill had been known as Hamilton’s Hill after the family which had occupied Bloomfield before the Trittons lived there. END ITALICS

Sources: The Great North Wood by J Corbet Anderson (printed for the subscribers 1898); Some Glimpses of Norwood by Alan Warwick (Norwood Society 1961); Memories of Norwood since 1852 by Elizabeth Louisa Dee; Bygone Days in Norwood folder. All four items are available on request from Upper Norwood reference library. Thanks to Jerry Savage of UNRL for his help.

(Note: In 2008 Leather Bottle Lane is now Spa Hill, Fox Lane is now Fox Hill.) To be continued…

(First published in Palace Mag Jan 08)

In the third of our series of articles looking at Palace people and their jobs, we spoke to Jakob Kaye, managing director of Crystal Palace’s very own Antenna Studios. Tucked away, as it is, in Bowyers Yard (directly behind Westow Street’s Pizza Hut), Antenna Studios isn’t the most accessible of businesses in Crystal Palace. And yet, with its laidback vibe and rundown charm, this small studio is well worth wandering off the beaten path for, especially if you’re a fan of music; be that rock, metal, pop, country, folk, rap, hip-hop or reggae. For managing director and out-and-out music devotee, Jakob Kaye, life couldn’t be sweeter. Here he tells The Palace Magazine why it really is all about the music…

This place is amazing. Talk us through what you do here…

We’re basically a set of studios orientated around music. We have two recording studios, which are mainly used by local bands and a multi-purpose gallery studio, for things like yoga, art and dance classes. In the rest of the building we’ve got the guitar and skate shop, which is run by two friends of mine, Johnny and Dylan, through their Dojy Limited company, and we have a third studio which is currently being rented out by a hip-hop producer.

When I first took over the building it was completely empty and derelict. Everything you see now has just been built up organically over time, with us trying to make the most of the dead spaces. Next year it’ll look even better. So how did Antenna Studios come into being?

When I finished university I was working behind the picture frame shop on Westow Street, basically making picture frames and trying to get by, while still pursuing my love of music. I was playing in a band [Jakob plays the cello] with a songwriter at the time, just around the corner from where I live. We were always rehearsing so it just seemed to make sense to set up a little studio business – there’s nothing like it around for miles, and I knew there would be a demand for it. Almost instantly it started attracting really interesting kinds of people like Johnny and Dylan. It’s more than five-and-half years now since I first got the keys.

Meeting the rent is our main challenge every month, but we’re getting there.

You’re about to launch a record label. What can you tell us?

People have been suggesting I set up a record label for years because we’ve got all the facilities here. I was just a little reluctant because a product company is a completely different ballgame to a service company. But I bit the bullet a little while ago and I’m just going to be promoting as many people as I possibly can. My aim is to make it a community label and I’m hoping to get funding from the Arts Council.

What do you mean by community label?

The label will be run like a commercial label, but instead of the profits going into the bank like a normal business, they’ll go back into the community. I plan to split the profits half and half, so each of the bands I represent, as well as the people working to help put the label together, get fifty per cent, and the other half will be put towards giving people who can’t afford to record music, the chance to record. So basically it’s a nonprofit label.

What kind of artists are you looking to sign?

We’re looking for all sorts of music and all sorts of artists, even from other countries. Hip-hop, reggae, funk, acid jazz… everything. I want the label to celebrate the diversity of this area. I’ll be signing bands un-exclusively, so if a major label wants to pick them up then they’re not tied to anything. It’s literally just a step in the ladder for them, a platform to work off if you will.

When does the label launch?

Our official launch date is May 1, but it’s going to be a slow grower until we receive the Arts Council funding. Realistically we’re looking more towards the end of the year.

So how can local budding musicians get involved?

Anyone who’s got music, it doesn’t matter if it’s recorded here or elsewhere, should get in touch. They just need to give me a call and we’ll take it from there.

Would it be fair to say you’re doing your dream job?

I wouldn’t say it’s a dream job, rather it’s a dream come true, especially now that we’ve survived the first year. I still have to deal with the paperwork though, which nobody ever wants to do.

You were born in Crystal Palace. Is that why you decided to set your business up here?

Absolutely. I’ve lived around here all my life and I’ve always been attracted to the local music scene. I love it around here. Crystal Palace is one of those places where you know people wherever you go, it would be heartbreaking for me to leave it. It’s such a nice area and with all the regeneration that’s going on, it’s getting better and better all the time. People really seem to like what we’re doing here as well, which is great.

Speaking of regeneration, which direction would you like to see Crystal Palace Park go in?

Ultimately, I would love to see the Crystal Palace rebuilt, especially if it were able to sustain itself, generating its own electricity, that sort of thing. I think that would make [original architect, Joseph] Paxton proud. It would be really amazing to have it back. It was such a beautiful piece of architecture and so revolutionary. I’d also like to see more festivals in the park. I feel it would really bring people together, and get them to use the park more.

One last question, what piece of advice would you give to other would-be local entrepreneurs?

My advice would be to follow your gut instinct all the way. Everyone will have ups and downs; you’ll have a really great stage and then something will hit you. But making mistakes is part and parcel. I’ve made so many mistakes and I’ll probably make tons more yet, but you’ve got to believe in what you’re doing and just go with your gut.

For more information about Antenna Studios including their opening hours, services and latest record label news, call Jakob on 020 8653 5200, or visit: www.antennastudios.co.uk

First published Palace Magazine April 07

Father Demetrios Economou is soon to be retiring from the Greek Orthodox Church in Westow Street after over 30 years of service. He is the founder of the Museum of Faces and Masks, in the Greek island of Lesvos. His work was included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1999 and his studio was part of the South East Open Studios 2004. It was also featured in the worldwide Artiade of the 2004 Olympics. He won Silver Medal, 1998, International Vitrina of Contemporary Art, Florence; Gold Medal, 1999 International Art Biennale, Florence.

What brought you to England and the priesthood?

I arrived in England in February 1974 as a priest in Southampton and painted icons in the church as well as supplementing my income by painting icons at local restaurants and churches it took me all over England and Greece. Later I would study art and then teach others myself. Then with the Croydon Greek community purchasing the former Presbyterian church I was invited to become its priest.

You had a blank canvas when you took over the Presbyterian Church. Where did you start?

In order to attract Greek orthodox community I started by painting the large picture of the Virgin Mary (pictured left) this would be the first thing to hit people as they walked in. It is a very big icon in the Byzantine tradition and would make the Greek community feel at home.

I then worked on painting the twelve apostles on the icon screens. Then I painted the icons along the walls. Damp caused problems on the western side and these eventually had to be replaced using painting from ex-Father Georgious from Croydon and Mr. Zoovelos from Athens whose wife is one of the best icon painters in Athens

With falling church congregation how have you managed?

Since I started the congregation has gone up from 500 to 2000. The church covers a large catchment area of Croydon and Bromley with Camberwell being the nearest Greek orthodox churches. This is the main reason why I am retiring as its too much work for one priest and now its time for a younger person to take over. As it is important to get out and visit members of the congregation where ever they may be.

I am also the headmaster of the Greek School, situated in the church hall. The school teaches Greek language, history and religion. It is open on Saturday 10-1 we teach Greek language, history and religion

I will continue with this post until the end of the summer term then I am looking to move back to Greece and continue to exhibit my works.

One of the reasons I use symbolic art is to teach people about God using less conventional methods. Less and less young people are coming to church so using this method I can go into schools and teach using logic and philosophy and explain the Trinity through concrete facts.

Do you have any famous works we would recognise?

I made the statute of the British Brigadier Stephen Saunders in 2003. The unveiling took place in Vorres Museum Athens in the presence of top politicians and the British and American Ambassadors. I received a letter of thanks from Prince Charles, which I am very proud of.

Are there parallels in what you do as a priest as to what you do as an artist?

What I try to do with my art is to show a deeper dimension to your own being and to show the unity and the connections with the creation and creator.

My philosophical, spiritual and cosmic outlook, informed humanity and metaphysical insights take the viewer on a soul-searching journey, opening windows to Nature, God and the Universe.

What are your proudest moments as a priest and as an artist?

As a priest: my community put on a big celebration to mark my retirement at Camberwell Church Hall, which was attended by over three hundred people. There was music, presentations and talks and it made me very happy.

As an artist receiving the Gold Medal for my spiritual art at Florence. Unfortunately spiritual art is not appreciated as much in the UK as it is in the rest of Europe.

It sounds like you will be just as busy in retirement as you are now

Yes, I still want to work part-time as a priest and get more involved in preaching. Also setting up an exhibition will mean I will get many people in to see my art and I will be able to explain the symbolism and messages behind my work. I also want to get involved with the Foundation for Hellenic Culture in New York and promote the true meaning of the Olympic Spirit.

What are your thoughts on spiritual development of this country?

Society at the moment is based on technological development not spiritual development. Therefore, there has not been spiritual development for some time. Young people do not go to church. We must reach out by other means. A shepherd does not wait for his flock to come to him. Therefore, we must look at other ways to reach out to people and educate them not just through the church, that’s why I use art as a starting point.

We wish Father Demetrios a happy retirement.

The Greek Orthodox Church Westow Street

Services 11.30 – 12.30 Sunday before or after guided visits possible.

Greek School Saturday 10-1 Covers Greek Language, History ad religion

First published in the Palace Magazine Mar 08