It is, as the words on the wall tell you, not far from the scene of the famous song.  A London poetry bookshop will be opening within weeks at Old Paradise Yard, which is about 10 minutes’ walk from Waterloo station, the man behind the project, Paul McMenemy, has confirmed.

After a crowdfunding that went close to raising the £5,000 target, the bookshop is intended to open early in August at l’lecktik art-lab, one of a cluster of creative buildings at Old Paradise Yard, next door to a park that adjoins Lambeth Palace. It is hoped that poetry events will take place there during the day, as well as in the evening.

L’klecktik, a pleasing – if tricky to spell - cafe/gallery venue with space to sit outside, is already home to Silence Found a Tongue, a very popular and relaxed open mic event run by David Turner and Lizzy Palmer that is closely linked to McMenemy’s Lunar Poetry magazine. For instance, Turner conducted one of his regular Lunar Poetry interview podcasts with guest James McKay at the open mic night on Tuesday, asking McKay, among other things, about his forthcoming Edinburgh Free Fringe show, and for reminiscences about spoken word’s traditional home at the Banshee Labyrinth.  

On the night that I bowled along with Write Out Loud’s gig guide editor, David Andrew, there were three featured acts, and more open micers that you could shake a stick at – should you want to, of course. It’s a south London night, and proud of it. John Wheeler set the tone for the evening with his tale of the fearful north London cabbie who expects to see things crawling out of the river Wandle: “I don’t go south of the river, mate – can I take you to Hackney instead?”

Silence found many tongues, as it turned out, and the crowd just kept swelling during the evening as more people arrived. The audience and readers included the hosts of other London open mic nights, such as Jake Wild Hall, of the Boomerang club held at the Rutland Arms near Hammersmith bridge, Steev Burgess, of Clerkenwell's Y Tuesday, and Alain English, from Vauxhall’s Paper Tigers, a near neighbour to Silence Found a Tongue.  

Another host was the final featured act of the night, James Massiah, who is founder of  The A & The E, a platform for the discussion of the arts and philosophy, and who curates regular poetry and music events across London. His spot – and the night - ended with a brief, open-floor philosophical discussion about self-interest, a different way of bringing things to a close.

It was less than a year ago that Write Out Loud attended the launch of the monthly Lunar Poetry magazine, and wished it well. A year on, Lunar Poetry is celebrating its anniversary by opening a bookshop - it doesn’t hang around. At the start of the evening David Turner, whose energy and physique is reminiscent of a young Paul Weller, exclaimed: “We’re going to open a bookshop … it’s behind this curtain!”

Soon all will be unveiled. Will this tempting spot become a hip, poetic place to hang out? You kind of hope so, with the proviso that it also somehow remains true to its no-nonsense, sarf London locale, epitomised by the distant bell and cry of an old-fashioned rang and bone man halfway through the evening. There will always be those that will help it to do so, like Mishi Morath, a regular on the London poetry scene, who proclaimed himself “proud to be a poet, proud to be working-class!” He added: “The problem I’ve got, I don’t understand poetry. I know I write it … but I haven’t got a fucking clue.”

That kind of attitude might have some north Londoners, such as those that feature in the Private Eye cartoon strip, raising their hands in horror. But for those who nevertheless want to venture south, the forthcoming bookshop – and Silence Found a Tongue -    are very reachable from Waterloo station. Terry and Julie could find the place easily.    

 

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Background: Write Out Loud interviews Paul McMenemy