Good thing Thursday’s Location, Location, Location didn’t stray from Charlton Church Lane into Floyd Road…
How did such a high-profile road become such a tip? It’s been that way for years.
Discuss.
48 thoughts on “Is Floyd Road the worst street in Charlton?”
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The Charlton Champion 
It is indeed the worst road, so much rubbish and so much dog crap on the footpath too. Was it ever a nice road to walk down?
It is full of dog poo and badly maintained properties
To be fair these photos were taken on bin day, but dog mess is a big issue – but hardly anybody on Floyd road owns a dog, one owner I know on the street hates the mess and never lets their dog mess on the street. I have noticed it is people walking through from other areas with their dogs who let them defecate on the street. I strongly believe if some fines were dished out to these culprits it would help the situation, I would also point out that these are all photos from the top end of the street which does sometimes get quite littered. If the council cleaned the sodding road – NOT JUST after a football match – but regularly it would help. Also I saw a lady dump paint onto the footpath right outside her home – like the rain would take care of it!?…so you can never account for people with total lack of respect for the community or indeed the maintenance of their property. (if they are in a position to improve it themselves, most people would love to, but are either not homeowners or landlords).
Those pictures were taken at 10.45am on Thursday.
I’ve seen it look as bad on Saturday, which isn’t bin day.
I think I know who the lady you refer to might be, though – gets abusive when challenged.
Still the photos are of one side of the top of Floyd Road, where the green bins cannot be stowed away in an outside area, so therefore they are kept out everyday, which i agree looks awful, not to mention it creates a hazard to pedestrians. On the opposite side people can store the green bins in their front garden. so it is not a fair reflection of the whole of Floyd Road, which winds down to Harvey Gardens. it’s selective photography. Also photo outside Seabay is the result of residents in the flats above – who choose to dump their rubbish in and around the public bin, as they have no green bins. A solution to this problem would be to notify the problematic homes that fines will be issued to residents who leave rubbish out on non-collection days. And take away the green bins for homes where they have multiply occupancy tenants and do not have storage areas for these big green eye-sores. This works in other London boroughs, where the bins are only put out on collection day, if my friend from another Borough, leaves her bin out on the wrong day, she gets a letter of warning immediately, stating she will be fined for persistent littering. So it requires the lazy council to hold these slack landlords accountable for their disgraceful mess and start a systematic policy of issuing fixed penalty fines. It really is simple, thanks Darryl for highlighting these selfish filthy residents.
Dog shit is a problem elsewhere too – Wellington Gardens and Victoria Way spring to mind.
I have my own views on how to deal with the problem, but they’re neither practical nor legal.
Some lovely period family homes, a stone’s throw from the station… I don’t get it!?
Ewwww…. very scummy.
But that is Charlton for you. Rubbish like that is everywhere.
People don’t give a stuff! That’s about the long and short of it.
Is it really Sarah? What road in Charlton do you live in? Is it exactly like Floyd Road? I know no other road in Charlton quite like it.
It did used to be a lot worse. In the 1970 and 1980s the fish and chip shop was a little community centre which tried to get things done – but it was an uphill task. It has been started following demonstrations in Charlton Church Lane against lorry traffic with input from the local church. I remember visiting tenants in privately rented houses in the top end of the street – they were in a really, really shocking state with no work done by the landlords for many many years – and tenants were helped to take legal action to get the most basic repairs done. One house was, notoriously, falling down for years and was propped up with scaffolding. Money had been made available for an adventure playground on a vacant site opposite Jennings House – but constant problems meant it never got built. I could go on about it for hours.
It looks to me like a big part of the problem is the large percentage of rented properties where clearly neither landlord or renter have any pride in where they live. The road is a real eye sore.
Yeah, you have picked the grottiest bit (fair enough). I think that piece of street is nearly all rented and as Pirate says, no-one has got any pride in where they live. There are also loads of kids often hanging around on the corner — they don’t intimidate me, but they do frighten some people and just add to the shit ‘micro-atmosphere’ there.
Will the new Sainsbury’s on the corner make any difference? There are some lovely period properties on Floyd Road – as said previously, it’s a crying shame that landlords have allowed properties to become so run down.
Maybe – a bit more footfall as people walk to the shop might deter miscreants.
How can the landlords be forced to change things, though?
They probably can’t. It would have to be private owners slowly turning the street around…?
It’s private owners who have left the street in the mess.
I suspect Rejory means owner occupiers
Agree with so much of this article and the comment that it is only one end of Floyd Road. There are so many really nice parts of Charlton from the parks to the village to the big properties which suggest wealth in the area at different periods of history. Unfortunately the whole area between the station and the football ground gives the impression that Charlton is a bit of a dump. Part of the problem is having an inner city football club which promotes an economy in its immediate surroundings made up mostly of takeaways. There are a few solutions though – Greenwich Council should give permission to the football club to upgrade the stadium as they have wanted to in the past, incorporating a block of flats on one side. Since these would be private ownership properties, it might lead to more people playing a part in tidying up the neighbourhood. Another would be for the Council to take some action against the more unscrupulous private landlords forcing them to clean up their act or be responsible for cleaning up their surroundings. The third would be for the community in this area to get together in the same way as various parks committees and other organisations have done in Charlton. Finally the football club could also help in some way. This is one of the main approaches to their stadium. It’s the road they sing about on the terraces. Couldn’t they brighten up the road in some way?
The reason I say these things is that I brought friends to Charlton and we walked all around the area one evening and unfortunately Floyd Road was in this same state on a Saturday night, in the summer, outside the football season. It gives a bad impression to visitors.
Floyd Rd is by any measurement the worst road in Charlton. Its filthy generally and the properties which must have looked great when they were built, look drab and uncared for. I wont even park there and would rather risk getting a ticket when I go to the post office by parking on a yellow line. I do however think that Charlton Football Club could, and should do more, to pressure the council to do something about Floyd Rd. I am not a football fan but if I was a visiting fan, I would wonder ‘where the hell am I?’ It does not represent the best that Charlton has to offer.
There are reasons why it’s the worst street in Charlton, and I’m not sure they’re much to do with the residents’ tenure. As kellycannon points out, the houses on the south side of the street are converted into multiple flats, but have no front garden space for bins. The bins end up on the street, people leave bagged rubbish out on a Sunday because the binmen arrive at stupid o’clock, and by the time the foxes have been it’s a tip. I’m not sure what the solution is. Maybe enforced bin sharing with the (front-gardened) properties opposite, perhaps collective bins behind a gate in the alley, or a return to daily collections … it certainly requires the sort of imagination and vision not always found in council cleansing departments. If some of these properties are owned by SE7’s own notorious slum landlord, effecting change from that direction will be hard work.
I live in Floyd Rd, & I have to say I am shocked at one of the comments saying that the Rented occupiers have no pride in themselves / their flat, we live in a house that has 3 flats and we all work together to make sure our bins are okay / our flat/house is maintained, The councils really need to give bigger bins, as one small bin is not enough for three different households, & I really agree that more could be done. But please don’t tar us with the same brush!
Just like to clarify my point about private owner/occupiers. Having rented on short term lets before I can say that I had less investment in the area and surroundings than as an owner occupier. That was my point – no way intended as a dig to renters!! It’s unfortunate (but understandable) that areas with a high proportion of rented flats can have slightly less of a cohesive neighbourhood feel than areas with a higher proportion of those who have indebted themselves heavily to the banks for the ‘privilege’ of living in a particular street/neighbourhood!!
yeah I agree, I’ve lived all around Greenwich, and this is the first time i’ve lived in a more ‘neighborhood’ area as other places have been kept clean etc by the concierge, & i’ve never felt more at home than living here, with the small local shops and lovely cafe, Transport links, Floyd Rd is a lovely place it’s just a shame a small majority ruin it for everyone else!
As I said above my close knowledge of Floyd Road is of many years ago – and things have hopefully changed a bit. Then the rented properties were managed by commercial agents who would fight the smallest bit of expenditure all the way – and put rents up as high as they could at every opportunity. Going further back I remember a friend who had known the area pre-Second World War claiming that these were slum houses built for several families. They might look like single family housing – – but she says the internal layout shows that from the start they would have had a family living in each room, which would have been common anyway in that era. When you get round the corner Harvey Gardens was built by Harvey’s metal works to provide decent housing for their workers.
The real problem in Floyd Rd (where I live) is fly tipping. At the Floyd Rd-Charlton Church Rd Junction people leave sofas. beds. mattresses and all sorts of rubbish. The pictures pick up on it at the bottom end but the top end is the worse. We also get a lot of litter from the off licences on Charlton Church lane. Further more 1 green bin for each building, which has about 3 flats in each is really is not good enough on the Councils part. In my flat once both myself and my 2 Neighbours have emptied the bin from our flats the Green bin outside are full, we are lucky enough to have a front garden to keep our bins in but not everyone on the street is so lucky as us, which means people walking through Floyd Rd kick the bins over through the night and the foxes come and tear the bags apart, so blaming the residents is not really accurate.
I’m not sure that it’s quite credible to say that the state of any road has nothing to do with its residents? The bin situation is obviously a huge issue. Why don’t the residents get together to find a solution so they don’t have to live in a tip?
Hi, thanks for the reply. In November I spoke with the Chair of the Charlton Society and discussed the problems in Floyd Road. He then went to the Charlton Society Management Meeting and they have agreed to hold a public meeting for Floyd Road residents to raise their concerns and as you suggest, get together and sort this problem out between us.
Thomas – Fair enough, thanks for explaining. As I walked by this afternoon I saw that someone has kindly left a grotty old armchair and other crud on the pavement on the right as you look down, illustrating your point well.
@Gemma, I completely accept your comments and I am saddened that you do your bit and others don’t. I agree with others comments about the rubbish and its causes – probably foxes. Perhaps those of you with an interest in the road could approach Greenwich council to put those large bins at a strategic point in the road where people can put their rubbish. I appreciate you must be very frustrated.
Some really interesting comments on this, for instance I had never appreciated the problems with the lack of (a) bins for multiple occupancies and (b) space to store the actual bins. Regarding the space that is constantly used for flytipping old mattresses and armchairs etc (the bottom picture), could this space not be used to store either extra wheelie bins or larger metal bins (the sort you get at campsites)?
The state of the road can be appalling so fair play to Gemma and Thomas et al for doing what they can. I sometimes think Charlton fans sing wistfully about the mist rolling in from the Thames as it makes Valley Floyd Road harder to see.
it’s by far the worst street in charlton…….i myself have found a novel way to approach this…….6 pints of stella and then i do a ‘hopscotch’ type of jig down the road dodging the turds,bins and fly tipped rubbish.
my record so far is 3 bins hit,a sideboard hit and 3 turds trod in !
This is ancient history, but you might enjoy it – and it puts Floyd Road into perspective. My mother was born in No 33 in 1916. Her parents had moved there as the area was almost countryside, compared to the East End, where they came from. Perhaps I ought to write down the stories she told of her childhood there. Later, in 1939 my parents moved to No 44, opposite the older folk. As was said earlier on the blog, the houses were designed for two families, and Mrs Wren lived upstairs in 44. In 1940 my grandparents house, No 33, was demolished by a bomb, as were Nos 57 to 59, I think. Everyone survived in the shelter, my grandparents, my parents, my sister and the dog. I was born after the war ended and Floyd Road was seen as a bit of a dump then, however Ransom Road (round the corner, under the arches, was seen as worse. Nice to have someone else to look down on. Highlight was the great Charlton footballer, Sam Bartram taking the shop on the corner to sell sports goods. It didn’t last long. We were re-housed by the council in 1964. Getting a council house was going up in the world. I’m sorry to see the old street in such a state, when other roads around are being refurbished and looking decent to live in.
I’m thinking of buying a flat in Vaillant House.. walking down Floyd Road was probably the one single bad thing about the whole experience involved in the viewing the flat!
Who lives there? Or are they largely empty and being squatted?
Also – anyone live in or know what it’s like to live in Vaillant House?
Thanks for any comments 🙂
I have lived in Charlton for over fifty years.Floyd Road has never had good name.Now it looks worse than ever.There is no need to leave Wheelies on the footway.Very degrading.The council does not put out any enforcement orders. to people who do this. Not a very good example for visiting footbal fans to see. What a dump.
I’m a private tenant on Floyd road and have complained about littering to the council numerous times without response. I’ve also seen cars coming to drop whatever their household rubbish consists of, usually late at night, by the entrance to cedar place so don’t think residents are wholly to blame. Of course it wouldn’t be hard for the council to stop that kind of fly tipping but they seem disinterested unless there’s a football match on the next day
I guess that we’ll be part of an attempted solution as we’re buying on Floyd Road. Indeed, one of the reasons we have bought on Floyd Road is because of the amount of regeneration that has crossed Charlton Church Lane and into Floyd Road. A couple of very nice, modernized, flats just sold and our new place is further down near the stadium.
Having had Charlton season tickets, we knew the state of the road in advance; but, we didn’t have as deep an understanding of the “mess” until completing the reading of this blog. The comments on council limitations for bin sizes resonates. Ugh. There are better solutions, but they take both a little money and a lot of community pride. That can come from owners and renters.
I used to live on Floyd road and I still have property on the road, I tried for years to get the council to take ownership and do something. I did manage to get them to install litter bins but they did not last long! The council need to spend money to replace the pavement, build areas where bins can be stored, deal with the problems of the business on Charlton church lane who are using Floyd road as a dumping ground and finally get cleansweep to visit more often. The residents of Floyd road are limited in what they can achieve without the support of the council.
I would imagine that some sort of homeowners group has attempted to solve the problem in the past and that something has stuck a spanner in the works?
Hi. I know I am entering this debate a bit late, but it’s 10 months since the last comment and the road hasn’t got any better! I lived on Floyd road for some years (1999- 2005) and a group of us did get together to write a collective letter to the Council about the state of the road (I think Andrew (above) might be the same Andrew who was involved too) . They were not interested. Our argument was that Charlton Church Lane is swept daily and Floyd Road only once a week. Thier justification was that our road was not a main road and therefore only needed weekly sweeping. We tried to argue back that actually there is loads of pedestrian traffic on the road and the kebab shop and chip shop on the corner don’t help. We still have our flat there and I wouldn’t like to think of myself as a slum landlord (!); we have lovely, professional tenants. When the group of us got together on the road to complain, we all had the same feeling; they are such nice flats inside and yet the road is abysmal. We’ve tried to do our bit with a window box and restoring the original wrought iron fencing, but I know that we are just one flat. I would more than happy to be involved in any sort of campaign, I think I could dig out my original letter from the council on the matter and I am much more persistent these days….Please get in touch!
We’ve been on Floyd Road since April. The 5th picture from the top, on this posting, shows Cedar Place. Just above where the spot of rubbish is located is now a placard telling people not to fly tip, and that’s exactly what happens. The week long, post-match, rubbish that blows up and down the street is nasty. CAFC should take an interest in those occasions more than it does today, but it has its own problems above and beyond the state of its immediate surroundings (e.g., keeping the team from being relegated).
Sainsbury’s has been threatening to come in at the corner of Floyd Road and Charlton Church Lane. The latest we heard from them was April 2014. A stronger corporate entity will, most likely, push out some of the local convenience stores and reduce the loitering that occurs in front of them. That loitering encourages groups to toss their rubbish in the streets, including a large plastic can of paint by a group of teenagers early in the AM last Friday evening that has spread itself all over the place and added to the general mess.
As far as I can tell, it’s the post-match day carnage, loitering and littering groups of teenagers and some of the other “colourful characters” that draw in those with no investment in the community, easily accessible tipping spots with no CCTV coverage both at the corner of Cedar Place and the back alleyways just below Charlton Church Lane that are to blame. We’ve met a number of lovely people who have lived here for 20+ years, in council-allocated homes or in private rents who take pride in living here but feel overwhelmed by the general trash situation. If there are local people pushing their rubbish on to their local street because they enjoy living in such filth, I haven’t met them.
A few simple changes may help:
* Closing off the alleyways at the top of Floyd Road and Charlton Church Lane
* Installing CCTV in the notorious tipping spots
* Requiring residents to put their bins out on Monday mornings, instead of Sunday evenings
If Sainsburys does come in, I’d suspect that many of the off licences/convenience stores will see a loss of trade. Although difficult for these local owners, that will also reduce the number of loiterers whose rubbish flies down the street. This will also tamp down the interest level of teenagers and other itinerants – how many teenagers hang out next to a Sainsburys?
Lastly, it does seem that additional discussions with council and CAFC could help improve the clean-up of post-match trash. The week-long mess is a bit much and adds misery onto the already challenged tipping concerns, knocked over bins, and other miscellaneous trash brought on by those who frequent the corner of Charlton Church Lane and Floyd Road.
Has the issue now been resolved? Have you seen any improvement over a year later? Thanks
Haley – I’d say the the overall area has improved, but it’s not rectified. Post-match days (note that this is plural) are messy, and the spot on Cedar Place remains a magnet for rubbish (regardless of the signs indicating that one is not supposed to put it there). The council does send people around to clean up the streets more frequently, but fecal matter from dogs also remains part of the never ending battle everyone has to deal with in large cities and communities with lots of people in close proximity. The dogs are typically on a walk from people who don’t live on the road.
Champs-Elysee in Paris is a long way from Floyd Road, and they still have to deal with such things on their street as well. We’re not immune from the effluence of remodelling work or the odd mattress awaiting pickup outside the doors of homes either.
In short, it’s better but it’s not perfect.
Dear Philip and all,
I have written previously on this as I really tried to clean up the road in 2005, partly because it looked awful and partly because we had a small baby and rats living under our floorboards… The rats went and we still own the flat and it’s still where we call ‘home’, but my husband’s work gives him accommodation so we live elsewhere at the moment. I emailed our lovely tenants about this and below is their reply;
‘I think because the most of the people keep their rubbish outside all week but the collecting day is only Monday. So you can imagine what is happening with the rubbish if it stays all week in the road. We keep ours in the black bin in the front and carry the recycling bin into the garden. That’s absolutely fine for us we just leave it outside on Monday morning – the collecting day. The other reason I think is because of the Off licenses around. Before we posted a letters to some of our neighbours and said to them to keep their rubbish inside not on the street. After that it worked for a bit but now is again awful!
We really keep our spaces very clean but I can’t say that for the other neighbours.
Please let me know if I could do something.’
I am happy to share my old letters to the council and their replies. I think there needs to be a better system for storing rubbish from the houses and the road needs to be swept daily: Charlton Church Lane is, surely it wouldn’t be that difficult for them to come around the corner. I have put this to the council before and I think they did a few extra sweeps and it did make a difference, but they just stopped, maybe I wasn’t grateful enough!
Thanks, Megan
Yes, it would be better if people didn’t put bags of rubbish on the pavement; but, yes, sometimes they do. And, yes, sometimes people leave their bins out on the pavement for days at a time. Unless there’s a law against it, I’ve always chalked up to either laziness or people being away. With so few owners around it doesn’t create community around the area as the other side of Charlton Church Lane does. We have met some wonderful people who have been in their places for decades, however; so, it’s not all bad. But, again, not perfect either.
After tonight’s match, it will be a few days until the council comes by to clean and it will be dirty for a time. The company that runs the majority of the homes on my section does a fairly good job at keeping the fronts looking good and the tenants aren’t as transitory as they are on the upper section of the road (e.g., the part closer to Charlton Church Lane).
We’ll see how the off licences fair over the Summer months as Sainsbury’s settles into their corner. As I understand it, the amount of activity gets less each year. Yes, that provides for a lot of the mess as well.
The baby wasn’t living under the floor boards, obviously.
Genius.