Looking Back To When Outside Was A Thing... A Lewisham Treasure Hunt (Summer of 2018)
A quick heads up before you continue, the below is a post that was written about a year and a half ago but due to various priorities we were never able to launch our blog to publish it.
Due to the current COVID-19 situation, as a volunteer body we’re trying to continue to have the cinema be a creative outlet whilst we aren’t able to host in-venue screenings.
As such, we’ve launched our DC Journal and the below will hopefully be a fun read and give a little insight into the extra social element that’s a huge and wonderful part of being a Deptford Cinema volunteer.
Word of warning, the below is a telling of a social event that would be impossible during the current lockdown as it mainly took place outside and ended in a pub. In no way is this post designed to fly in the face of the social distancing we are currently practising, I simply hope you enjoy the telling of a silly day out from 2018.
Stay safe and look after each other and I’ll see you on the other side.
For me, a huge part of volunteering at Deptford Cinema is the social element. Getting involved means you are thrust into the company of other like-minded people and they are a pretty good bunch if I’m honest! Once every couple of weeks we try to organise a volunteer social to give volunteers a chance to get to know each other better and to generally do something fun and relaxing.
On the 7th of October 2018, our social was a treasure hunt that lead our intrepid volunteers to some local places of interest, culminating in a lovely pub garden for a spot of lunch. It wasn’t as straight forward as some may have hoped…
CLANS FORM
Our Sunday meeting had come to a close and sixteen DC volunteers formed themselves into four teams:
The Guilty Four - keen, cocky and full of bravado from the outset…
El Niño - eyes on the prize but possibly hampered by a stronger hunger for lunch…
Suspiria - excited for the adventure and social media savvy…
Bizarre Love Quadrangle (previously Triangle) - adept at spycraft and a willingness to deceive and climb any obstacle (more on that later)…
An example of a magnetic clue cache.
A HUMBLE START
We start at Deptford Cinema, staggered start times saw our teams leave over a twenty minute period after being told their first clue:
“Follow something that’s BABBLING and something that could be WIND, PEPPER or LUMBER and you’ll find your next clue in a garden of DECORATIVE function.”
The Ornamental Garden in Brookmill Park was their destination and within the garden their clue was hidden in a small magnetic cache, like so many more to come. Our teams converged quickly and the staggered starts evaporated but it would be the clue found in the garden that would later cause the most contention.
Bizarre Long Triangle crossing Deptford Creek (and proving it with a photo…)
LOVE OVER GOLD
“A mural named after the 1982 release by Mark, Alan, John, Hal and Pick is where we’ll next give you a tip. If extra points you seek, have your route cross both river then creek but beware of the precious time you may leak...”
Love Over Gold is a 1982 album by Deptford locals, Dire Straits, it is also the name of a mural celebrating this fact on Deptford Church Street (give it a visit if you can). This next location was straight forward for all involved but what about the extra points crossing Ravensbourne River then Deptford Creek?
El Niño ignored the possibility of extra points and headed straight for the mural, seemingly ahead of the pack, they were seen moving with haste back past the cinema speaking of “other teams” that were “following” them. Whilst waiting for around 10 minutes after this fact, we the organisers did not see any evidence of other teams. Paranoia had set in…
A TOUR OF DEPTFORD
Our teams soldiered on, solving clues that would lead them to Ferranti Park, St Paul’s Deptford, The Albany, Margaret McMillan Park and through the Walpole Road Underpass.
THE MAKING OF SOME AND THE UNDOING OF OTHERS
At the underpass the next clue caused chaos, the effects of which rippled into the final scores…
“Once through the tunnel follow the son of Thetis to the capital of the Dutch East Indies before finding a main road and a post topped with the 18th letter.”
Solving this clue would take our teams along Achilles Street, Batavia Road and finally onto New Cross Road where a selfie sent at bus-stop R would garner the next clue by text. The Guilty Four were the first to send their selfie and move on.
So The Guilty Four were ahead, but not by much. Sadly El Niño succumbed to that early hunger and threw in the towel and came straight to the pub.
At this point Bizarre Love Triangle had become a Quadrangle as they gained their fourth team member but arriving at the Albany alongside Suspiria meant the two teams were moving through the next couple of locations together. Bizarre Love Quadrangle (BLQ moving forward) implemented a campaign of smoke and mirrors that saw them solving the clue but taking an alternate route to the bus stop to lose their competition. Looking back over the day, this may have lead to Suspiria’s downfall.
Suspiria found themselves alone on Batavia Road looking for the letter R. This would continue for sometime before we decided to nudge them towards the bus-stop and the next clue...
“Board a mode of public transport that matches (minus a 9) A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection and Shaft or alternatively one that matches (again minus a 9) Deliverance, The Godfather and Silent Running. Braxfield is your point of debarkation.
Make sure you remember the names of the public houses en route, as that knowledge might garner you an extra five loot.”
A small selection of Rs that can be found on Batavia Road can be seen here, all of which were sent by Suspiria in the hope it would garner them the next clue…
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Names of pubs in hand (or so they thought), our teams disembarked the bus by Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery and located their next clue nearby.
A dilemma appears, do you race on or attempt to find the oldest grave? The Guilty Four, ahead of the other teams chose to search, smartly finding out the age of the cemetery (1858) they spent precious time locating a grave as close to that as possible.
This allowed BLQ and Suspiria to catch up and much to everyone’s surprise and in spite of a lovely tour taking in New Cross’s Rs, Suspiria were back in the game.
Suspiria were smart, they knew they wasted time finding bus stop R so no grave searching for them, straight to the Hilly Fields stone circle and onto the pub. Except, the courts mentioned in the clue threw them, they found some alternate courts, getting completely lost and ending up in Honor Oak Park via Crofton Park, taking a detour that would be the final nail in the coffin.
“Your next clue lies within a local stone henge of sorts, you’ll find them within a local park near some courts...
Within the cemetery, if you can spare the time, there maybe extra points for your boldness if you manage to photograph the oldest...”
The Guilty Four find an old grave.
BLQ utilise their acrobatic prowess to escape Brockley and Ladywell Cemetary.
Artistic clue requests from BLQ.
UP AND OVER
BLQ found an old grave, but was it old enough? They knew The Guilty Four were ahead and had likely searched the graveyard diligently, but BLQ started twenty minutes after them so the race was still on. A direct route it had to be, except there wasn’t an exit at the back of cemetery, no bother, up and over the wall and onto the final spot, Hilly Fields Stone Circle.
“My first is in simulation but not in mutilation,
My second is in intercontinental but not in coloration,
My third is the sixth prime but unlucky for some,
My fourth is lucky for many but also the sum of sins,
My fifth is in nontheatrical but not in electrical,
My sixth is in tectonics but not in conceit,
Find us in the garden...”
TO THE VICTORS…
El Niño after throwing in the towel were already at our final destination, the Ladywell Tavern tucking into lunch when The Guilty Four arrived first with an impressive time of 2 hours and 17 minutes after deciphering the postcode of the pub.
Hot on their tails BLQ appeared with unbelievably the exact same finish time of 2 hours and 17 minutes!
Suspiria came in third, clocking in a respectful 3 hours and 7 minutes after a few unfortunate detours along the way.
So it was all down to the extra points to decide between The Guilty Four and Bizarre Love Quadrangle…
The Guilty Four nabbed the win by finding the oldest grave (1859 compared to 1865) and naming all the pubs along the bus route (BLQ missed 2).
The Guilty Four may have won this day but their lack of photographic evidence for the extra points proving their river and creek crossings will be a chip forever on the shoulder of Bizzare Love Quadrangle, at least until our next treasure hunt through Lewisham…
Volunteers Reunited at The Ladywell Tavern
A slightly more adventurous volunteer social, but well worth it; fun was had, rivalries born, a lovely afternoon in the pub and hopefully a closer bond between volunteers created in the process. Ideas for the next hunt are already forming…
If you want to get involved in the cinema then there isn’t really a better reason then the creation of friends that comes with it.
Sam
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