853

Hello. I’m Darryl Chamberlain.

853 is the personal blog of me, a 35-year-old underemployed media type living in Charlton, south-east London. I’ve ranted and raved on blogs and message boards for many years but decided last year I finally could do with a a proper website on which to show off my words and my photos, and to have a few illuminating discussions.

I worked as a sub editor/duty editor/writer/reporter on the BBC News website’s entertainment section for over 10 years until March 2009, when I took redundancy to try to do different and new things. One of which was to look at new things to do on the web – provoking people and talking to people on my past blogs revealed a few interesting things and made me realise that there’s a lot that goes unnoticed in this part of London. So this is a mixture of news and opinion on local things, London things, anoraky things, media things, and whatever else takes my fancy. Especially while I work out new ways to earn a crust. Ahem. I hope you find it useful and/or interesting.

I’m also a member of Greenwich Green Party – which I promise won’t lead to me banging on endlessly with political or environmental diatribes, but it might help you understand where I’m coming from on a few issues. In fact, I’m the prospective candidate for Peninsula ward in the next council election. But this is a personal blog, not an in-depth exposition of party policy.

I can also be found on Twitter as darryl1974 and I post on the Guardian’s website as SuperClive.

853 was the telephone exchange code (along with 858) for most of Greenwich, Charlton, and Blackheath until 2000. The number stuck in my head.

Nothing here should be taken as being the opinion of any employer of mine, or of being any influence over its actions. To e-mail me, try darryl.se7 at gmail dotcom.