Guerrilla garden update

I'm happy to be able to report some progress on the saga of the 'guerrilla' garden on the Edward Street roundabout. If you remember, in a fit of excessive zeal Glendale staff pulled all the tops off the wild flowers earlier this year, leaving the bed 'tidy' and bare except for the young sunflower plants. As a result of the hoo-ha that it created, questions were asked in council meetings, newspaper stories were published, and the council and Glendales reiterated their claim that they had done the clearance because they were intending all along to replant the bed. 

Weeks came and went, the sunflowers continued to grow tall, flowered and gradually died off (seed heads are probably ripe for picking and drying right now  - anyone?) and many of the flowers that had been so unthinkingly beheaded sprouted back out of the ground for a second attempt.

Today I passed the garden and noticed that two boards had been stuck in the ground, one at each end of the bed. 

If you click on the picture you should be able to see a bigger version - and you'll read that Glendales is offering two different planting schemes for the beds, option one using low-growing shrubs such as lavender, hebe and so on, option two having low-growing conifers.

If you have an opinion on what you would like to see planted here, you are invited to give your feedback to lewisham@glendale-services.co.uk by 30th November at the latest.

Wavelengths redevelopment: turning up the heat

Exciting news: work has finally begun at Wavelengths to convert the old library space into a 'modern purpose-built health and fitness leisure centre'.

I'm sure those who use the gym will be delighted to know that they will soon have a myriad of new machines on which to run, cycle and row while watching TV; there's also new rooms for classes (much needed, who ever thought a strangely-shaped room full of pillars would serve as such?!) an 'indoor cycle studio' (room full of bikes for those who want to 'spin'), a new health suite with sauna and steam room, a cafe and a 'soft playroom' for kids.

Above you will see the rather unhelpful diagram that's included in the newsletter being given out at Wavelengths. Perhaps you think my words harsh, but not only is it difficult to tell how the plan above fits on the existing building, the decision to divide it into phasing also seems pointless considering that 'phase three' is now being carried out at the same time as 'phase one' while 'phase two' hasn't begun yet. Confused? You will be!

The fancy rendering above is helpful if you need to know exactly how the new machines are going to be laid out, likewise if you haven't ever seen the inside of a gym and aren't sure what people do in it, take a look at the 'fly through' video. Just don't expect to learn much about how the changes fit with the Wavelengths layout.


In the small print of the leaflet you might have missed the bit about the fun pool being closed - apparently they are carrying out 'essential refurbishment works' but there is scant information as to what this involves.

Will the flumes be brought back into use, or are they being taken out altogether to stop them gathering any more dust?

What about the plastic palm trees set in concrete - will these forlorn items remain after the refurb? Thankfully I haven't had to look at them since the fitness pool was built, but I presume they are still there, propping up the faded 80s vibe of the place.

But regular fitness pool swimmers can't have missed the immediate impact of this closure - the fact that the water in the fitness pool is now stifflingly hot. I thought I was imagining it, but it seems that other swimmers have been complaining it's too cold and so the temperature has been turned up.

Naturally we have to share the fitness pool while the leisure pool is closed for its mysterious three-month refurbishment but I don't understand why the temperature has to revert to that of the leisure pool during this time. Many people use the fitness pool for exercise or training, and it is way too hot to be able to keep up a good pace safely.

Of course it doesn't help that the showers are now once again resolutely cold - on my latest visit the contrast from the hot pool to the freezing showers made me feel like I was rolling in the snow after a Swedish sauna. Perhaps we need a few birch twigs to add to the experience.

Let's just hope that with more people using the pool the pressure might push the management to get those bloody showers fixed once and for all.

Save Lewisham Hospital A&E

In case you haven't already seen this, please read and respond to the campaign to save the accident & emergency facility at Lewisham Hospital.

It is not just the A&E that is at risk - if it is closed, other units such as emergency surgery, critical care and so on are also in danger of being lost.

The suggestion has been put forward by the special administrator who has been appointed to take over South London Healthcare Trust (of which Lewisham Hospital is not a part). The intention is that Lewisham's A&E and the healthcare priorities of all who use it should be sacrificed to save a failing trust.

I can't even begin to comment on how hugely cynical and short-sighted this proposal is, without my blood starting to boil.

For the sake of my own health I will direct you to the various links below that explain it all in clear, concise detail; for the sake of your future health and that of the whole of south east London, I suggest you sign the petitions, contact your MP and attend the meetings.

Save Lewisham Hospital 

Transpontine

Heidi Alexander's petition

Black history month - local events

There's plenty going on in and around Deptford over the next few weeks for Black History Month - tomorrow's event at the Deptford Lounge caught my eye in particular. Deptford's maritime history is very much in focus at the moment, what with plans to build over the remains of our royal dockyard at Convoys Wharf, and the threat that the anchor on the high street will be sent back to Chatham, eliminating the last visual reminder of Deptford's considerable boat-building heritage.

Tomorrow night historian and novelist S I Martin will be talking about Deptford's black maritime history, and he will be accompanied by singer and spoken word performer El Crisis. It promises to be a fascinating evening.

I saw El Crisis performing this song at the Deptford Lounge some time ago - I think it was at the opening or some time around then - and it brought tears to my eyes.



Deptford Lounge 

18 October 7-8.30pm
Deptford’s black maritime history: S.I. Martin and El Crisis
Deptford’s black maritime history explored by S.I. Martin.

19 October 4-5pm
Bessie Coleman: story and paper plane mobile craft
Chatterbooks special for ages 8-11.

20 October 2-3pm
African Batik craft
Come and make your own African inspired pattern.

27 October 2-3pm
African landscape craft
Come and make an African landscape scene.

29 October 2-3pm and 3.30-4.30pm
Half Term Tour - Stories from Many Nations
Alison Blunt, internationally acclaimed musician and storyteller, presents stories and songs from many nations.

3 November 2-4pm
Black History Month Sing Out!
You can be part of a barnstorming sing-out performance at Deptford Lounge.

8 November 7-8.30pm Chibundo Onuzo and Noo Saro-Wiwa: Author event
Chibundo Onuzo and Noo Saro-Wiwa share the platform at Deptford Lounge to discuss their new books.


Moonshot Centre (Fordham Park)

27 October 12noon–9pm Moonshot family fun day
IRIE! Dance Theatre invite you to step back in time to the Moonshot Centre in the 70s and 80s.


New Cross Community Library 

30 October 3.45-4.30pm Half Term Tour - Stories from Many Nations
Alison Blunt, internationally acclaimed musician and storyteller, presents stories and songs from many nations.

Full listings and more details about all these events can be found on the council's website.

Deptford High Street improvements - save the anchor!

You may recall at the beginning of this year that Lewisham Council was awarded funding for high street improvements and published some proposals of what changes it intended to implement.

As well as addressing the paving, layout and lighting of the street, there are also a number of other significant changes that the council wants to implement, including parking and traffic flow on the high street.

The original plans for the south end of the high street at Deptford Broadway seem to have been modified somewhat compared to the new visualisations that are included in the leaflet that the council is delivering locally.

Oddly, although the council says it wants to remove the anchor and the low wall around it (ostensibly to remove the focus for the street drinkers) the new renderings show a nice little planted area with a lovely low wall. Looks the perfect place to meet your mates for a can of Red Stripe and a fight. Right outside Peacocks, oh sorry I mean the 99p shop.

Apparently the council is 'trying to find' a new location for the anchor (massive hint: how about that unfinished and uninspiring square outside the Deptford Lounge which currently has no focus whatsoever if you don't count the hoarded off corner? You're welcome, the invoice for the consultancy fee is in the post).

If you feel strongly that the anchor should stay somewhere in Deptford, I recommend that you fill in this online survey which includes a question about what should happen to one of Deptford's most well-known landmarks. 

Traffic is to be restricted to one way only (I assume from the junction at Giffin Street) which might reduce some of the motoring fuckwittery that is regularly experienced down there, but I'm not holding my breath. The council also says that it's going to replace the current high street parking regulations with bays where drivers can park for half an hour only, so I assume this means there will also have to be enhanced parking enforcement.

Other measures include the employment of 'an experienced events and town centre renewal manager who will work with local businesses over the next two years to showcase Deptford’s potential'.

There are plans for a series of special events, 'refresher courses' (not sure what in) for existing market traders and shopkeepers and to work with local artists/designers to 'create a more attractive look' for the high street.

The council is also offering support to up to a dozen under-25s who want to start up their own businesses and market stalls. They will get six weeks’ training and a pitch on the market in the lead-up to christmas. 

You can find out more about these plans (and inevitably 'have your say' for what it's worth) at a drop-in event being held at the Deptford Lounge next Wednesday 17 October from 4pm-7.30pm.

Evelyn Assembly Saturday 13 October

Evelyn Assembly is holding its annual voting event this Saturday from 11am - 2pm upstairs in the Deptford Lounge on Giffin Street.

Attendees will be able cast their votes for the local groups and organisations they think should receive assembly funding - 17 in total have applied and they will be represented at the event, providing information about their projects and what they want the funding for.

If you want to vote, you will need to arrive by 11.45 at the latest.

There's also dancers, free face painting, a balloonist and local musicians, as well as free refreshments. Not to mention the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the ward's elusive councillors.

Meanwhile the council is seeking your opinion about local assemblies - for your chance to win £100 in 'high street vouchers' (I take it that's not the opportunity to buy 100 items in Poundland or 101 in the 99p shop) you should fill in the online survey here.

Finally the leaflet also promises the opportunity to 'sign up to have your say on the changes happening around convoys wharf in Evelyn ward'.

 

Albany sells off its back garden for housing

Do you enjoy sitting out in the garden at the back of the Albany Theatre enjoying a meal or a cup of tea in the sunshine? Perhaps, like me, you often wander along Idonia Street and take pleasure in watching the birds flit among the row of mature trees that stand along the edge of the land bordering Octavius Street.

If so, my advice is to make the most of it.

Last month the Albany finally made public the deal it struck more than a year ago with developer Cathedral Group to sell off this little green oasis for residential use, and announced that plans for the land will be put out for public consultation later this year.

According to the press release on the Albany's website:

The Albany and Cathedral Group have entered into a partnership to kick start an investment and development programme which will secure a vibrant future for the Albany as the leading arts venue and community hub in south east London. 

As we celebrate our 30th anniversary on Douglas Way this year, a lack of capital investment in our building over the previous 30 years has restricted the ability of the Albany to fulfil our potential in delivering a full range of events, activities and community uses. 

As part of the investment programme, a residential development will take place on land to the rear of the theatre, providing necessary finance to help facilitate the development and expansion of our operation, knitting the Albany further into the heart of Deptford. 

The proposed development will fund a programme of major external and internal improvements, ensuring the Albany can continue to innovate and remain a leader in arts provision by creating a new, reinvigorated and sustainable local arts complex with expanded facilities. Plans for the residential development will be brought forward for public consultation in the autumn of this year.

These plans have been in the offing for more than five years now, but apart from a vague mention at the Albany's last AGM and a couple of paragraphs in the accounts and annual report for the 2010/2011 financial year, the Albany has been playing its cards very close to its chest.

As far back as 2007, architectural practice Project Orange was working on potential designs for the site, and at that time the proposals were pretty depressing. Almost the entire area of the site was taken up by residential units, apart from a large extension for the Albany Theatre of course, and a tiny 'garden' between the old and the new units.

The grey building on the right is the carriage ramp development which was given planning permission earlier this year, but which has not yet started construction. The green and yellow blocks behind it are the original proposal, with the Albany to the left for scale.

A plan view shows the existing land at the back of the Albany comprehensively built over.

However since I downloaded these images a year or so ago, it seems there has been something of a revision to plans, with the Project Orange website now showing these renderings of the Albany Housing 'in progress'.

I'm assuming that the dark grey circular shaped things are trees, it seems from the information on the Cathedral Group site that these trees are actually protected, so at least some of them will be retained, and the layout certainly looks a lot more permeable than the previous proposal.

Here the black and white block on the right is the carriage ramp development, the two new blocks - still a considerable height and higher than the flats on Idonia Street - at the rear of the Albany.

It's good that the Albany's management and trustees are planning for the future and that they seem committed to improving and expanding the facilities on the site. But I am sorely disappointed by the path that they have chosen.

The sell-off of this green space right at the very heart of Deptford risks undermining any good the Albany might achieve in securing the future of the theatre, and it seems to me that they have taken the easiest route to getting the cash they need without considering what impact their actions will have on their immediate neighbours and the local community.

Campaigners across the other side of the high street are fighting the temporary loss of green space which is threatened by construction of a shaft for the Thames Tunnel, but it seems to me that the Albany's backdoor tactics are far more insidious and harmful.

The area is already going to change dramatically with the construction of the eight-storey block next to the carriage ramp and redevelopment of St Paul's House on the high street. The loss of even more green space does not signal an improvement to me.

Deptford Green School open days

With the new Deptford Green School now up and running, head teacher Peter Campling is inviting 'the whole community' to visit and take a tour around the school.

Leaflets have been distributed around the area inviting people to turn up any weekday from now until Wed 10th October, from 9.15am to 10.30am for a tour of the school and a presentation by the head.

If weekdays are not convenient, they are also opening the school on Saturday 6th October from 10.30-11.45am and on Tuesday 9th October from 6-7.15pm.

There's a warm-and-fuzzy-feeling video on their website if you want to find out more about the teaching and the school itself, and it certainly looks like the new building has some great facilities. I was particularly taken by the rooftop, open-air classrooms!

Things have clearly changed somewhat since I was at school, since teachers now have job titles like Leader of Learning and Leader of Teaching. However I notice that there's still a trend for kids to try and mark out their individual style by the way they knot their ties. Some things are enduring.

Paynes & Borthwick wharf

I've been meaning to write about Paynes & Borthwick Wharf for some months now, ever since I was down in Twinkle Park at about 7am on a Saturday morning and was remarking on the almighty racket coming off the site as the builders hammered on, impervious to local residents.

As a few people have commented, the new buildings on the east of the site, which is right next to Twinkle Park at the bottom of Watergate Street, have grown quickly in recent months. The main tower can be easily picked out from the various high points I've visited in the last few days, including the top of the Seager Distillery Tower, Point Hill, and One Tree Hill in Greenwich Park. That being said, it is still massively overshadowed by the ugliness of Creekside Village and the bulk of New Capital Quay, and if the Convoys Wharf towers get built as proposed, it will be stumpy by comparison.

View from Twinkle Park

As far as their marketing material goes, United House and LaSalle Investment Management clearly believe that Deptford is still a hard sell, even for riverside developments next to 17th century listed buildings, so they have relocated it to West Greenwich, SE8.  

A press release says the development "will provide 257 high specification one, two and three bedroom apartments and 10 live/work units in a landscaped setting with views towards Canary Wharf, Greenwich and the City. The mixed-use regeneration scheme will also feature 38,000 sq ft of art gallery, restaurant, commercial and retail space and a total of 150 underground parking spaces. 

"Paynes & Borthwick will comprise 203 residential units for private sale and 44 affordable homes which will be managed by Hexagon Housing Association. The development will include a new residential tower rising to 16 storeys and the sympathetic conversion and sensitive restoration of the existing warehouse buildings which will retain their original facades. 

"The master plan for the project has been agreed by the Boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich to advance the regeneration of this area of London, which has been designated a Creative Enterprise Zone by the Government."

Naturally in their site rendering the developers have taken the liberty of including Twinkle Park, just to make it look greener and more attractive than it would do if it was just a load of buildings with green roofs. It's not an outright invention of course, but it does seem galling that they are using a lovely little green space which has been created by and is maintained by the community in order to sell private flats. Not least because the park is already becoming badly overshadowed by the high buildings. 

As developments go, it's not a bad effort. The owners were obliged to retain the facade of the old wharf building, on both sides of the structure, and although they've stuck the usual double-height glass box on the top, set back from the facade so that the planners will let it ride, it's not offensive by any stretch of the imagination.

The new-build blocks are relatively dense, but by dint of the site plan, the architects were prevented from creating anything as monstrous as the blocks on New Capital Quay, and they have actually included two relatively low-rise blocks between the new build and the renovated facades which should make the public plazas a little more attractive.

Two low rise blocks - view from the river

Twinkle Park on the right hand side, looking along the retained facade

With 150 parking spaces for just 250-odd apartments, the tiny roads that lead down to the site are likely to suffer both in terms of increased traffic movements and overspill parking. And although the developers are promising an art gallery, restaurant and commercial and retail space, whether this will be filled or will just stand empty for years is anyone's guess.

You only have to look at the sad, boarded-up ground floor of Wood Wharf, and the shenanigans over the Seager Distillery Tower art gallery to know that it's not going to be a straightforward transformation into the 'Creative Enterprise Zone' that is being touted.

View towards the river

View from the road, looking west

Seager Distillery development

This weekend as part of the Open House event, Seager Distillery Tower's 'viewing area' was open to the public, rare access to great views which many local bloggers and residents seem to have taken advantage of. Apparently residents of the tower have access to this area, which must be fun when there are fireworks or storms to watch - bet it was full for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies! - but yesterday was rather warm in the full sunshine.

Although it has great views, they are only on three sides of the building, and in reality it's little more than a small glass box. There's a balcony outside with railings and everything, but no access to it. That being said, it's the best place from which to see the tower, as you can ignore its priapic proportions and grim grey exterior.

Looking south, the magnificent Dawson Heights estate in East Dulwich loomed on the skyline like some kind of ghostly castle. I made a mental note to take a trip down there one day and have a closer look, it's quite tucked away and the topography of the area make it practically invisible from the main roads of the area. You really have to seek it out.

The view south

The open access also provided a welcome opportunity to chat with a couple of members of Galliard staff, who gave quite an insight into progress on the development.

Perhaps you remember a year or so ago when the developers applied for permission to relegate the proposed art gallery to a poky site on Brookmill Road because they had a hotel operator lined up to open a four star 'boutique' hotel in the old building facing the main road?

I've noticed that very little seems to have happened to the building since then, and apparently there are two reasons for that. Not only did it take a long time for the council to grant permission for the changes to the building (Quote: 'they are not the easiest of councils to deal with' - hurrah! I would have been worried to hear that they are a walkover) but also our chap confided that the hotel operator has now pulled out and as of this moment in time they have no other operator in place.

Given that they missed the obvious Olympic deadline, this news hardly surprises me. And considering there are several other hotels nearby, not to mention more in the pipeline, I would be somewhat gobsmacked if they managed to attract another operator willing to back a four-star boutique hotel on the A2 in Deptford.

I look forward to hearing what plans Galliard has for its showcase building now.