Anyhow, a Charlton Champion chum took her son there on Sunday… and found it deserted. We’ve had anecdotal reports that the BMX track isn’t being used as much as it could be – others simply don’t know it’s there.
We do know there’s an established BMX club that uses it, but it’s hard to shake off the feeling that it’s becoming yet another poorly-promoted local facility.
But what do you think? Did the BMX track live up (or down) to your expectations? Will the Easter holiday see a surge in kids on bikes heading for the track? And with the skateboard park looking like becoming a reality in Charlton Park, what lessons can be learned from the BMX track? We’d like to know.
Ripe for development: Charlton’s riverside at the Thames Barrier
One of the developers behind the redevelopment of Charlton’s riverside is promising “affordable homesteads for ordinary people alongside the river Thames” as part of a plan to create 5,000 new homes on what is currently industrial land.
Richard Upton, deputy chief executive of U+I, says the company will soon be in control of enough land to create a “small town” by the Thames.
Upton’s statement pre-empts a Greenwich Council consultation on a new masterplan for the riverside, which has been postponed until after the mayoral election.
His comments appear in Historic England’s Conservation Bulletin (see pages 26-28), in a special edition devoted to the challenges London’s next mayor will face.
Under U+I’s previous name of Cathedral, the company was responsible for the Movement development next to Greenwich station as well as the redevelopment of the Eltham Coronet cinema site. U+I is also behind Deptford Market Yard, next to Deptford station, and owns the Morden Wharf site to the west of the Greenwich Peninsula.
It’s the first official confirmation that U+I is involved in the plans for Charlton.
Upton writes: “In Charlton, U+I will soon control sufficient land to create a small town spanning 6 million square feet and providing 5,000 homes. The site is brownfield and light industrial in nature, but we’ve delved into its past and from this, we’ll create a future that makes it unique. The grimy industrial routes actually reflect the patterns of paths and hedgerows from the 17th century. Lovely. I promise you we will bring history and parochial distinction alive.
“Charlton will once again provide affordable homesteads for ordinary people alongside the river Thames.”
It also looks like architectural practice Farrells is also involved in the scheme. The article also features a timeline of the Charlton riverside’s history which is credited to Farrells.
This looks very like Anchor & Hope Lane… (picture: Farrells)
Earlier this year, founder Terry Farrell told the Evening Standard he wanted to see a series of low-rise lift bridges for pedestrians and cyclists across the Thames at locations including Rotherhithe, Greenwich Peninsula, Charlton and Woolwich.
The story was illustrated by a mock-up of such a bridge – which appears to be at the end of Anchor and Hope Lane in Charlton. Last year, TfL identified Charlton as a site for a potential crossing in a speculative list of 13 possible or planned links across the Thames, although it said the idea was merely “conceptual”.
Separately, plans to create a secondary school on the riverside could come to fruition much earlier than planned, with proposals for the two-year-old Royal Greenwich University Technical College to become an 11-18 school, after the college had trouble recruiting students at age 14. A little-publicised consultation took place earlier this year.
Keen readers of the council’s Greenwich Time paper will have spotted that this week’s front page story was about how the council has given permission for a start-up company to trial its grocery-delivering robots in Thamesmead. This is the latest announcement under its Smart City strategy, and the publicity has played heavily on futuristic self-driving cars and robots.
There’s a lot more to the Smart City strategy that the council published last year than that, though, which is worth a read if technology infrastructure and planning is your thing. The document spends very little time talking about shopping robots and concentrates more on whether Greenwich borough will have the right digital infrastructure for the future, along with whether the council can make more use of open data and internet-enabled sensors on council premises.
You might have missed, meanwhile, that the council would like to know more about your experience of using broadband services in the borough.
There’s a survey here, open until April 23rd, and it’s probably in the long-term interests of anyone struggling with connectivity to fill it in so that the scale of any problems are known.
Back in 2013, we reported that Charlton was supposed to have London’s fastest broadband – is that still right? How is your internet connection? Do you run a business dependent on internet connection or work from home in Charlton and how do you get on? What would you tell the council about the digital future that it hasn’t asked?
Thorntree Primary School will be hosting a pop-up bike market on Wednesday 16th March between 3pm and 5pm, and Charlton residents are welcome. Run by Peddle My Wheels, the bike market is focussed on recycling unwanted or unused bikes, and at getting people enjoying cycling and the health benefits that comes with it.
So if you have a bike gathering rust in your shed or garage, or you are fed up with buying brand new bikes for your kids that they grow out of within the year, or both, then why not come along.
08:00-09:30 – Adults drop off bikes for selling (bring photo ID please!) and we tag them with their details. These are added to the selection of bikes we bring.
09:30-15:00 – A mechanic checks every bike and makes minor repairs where necessary and then sellers contacted with valuation.
15:00-17:00 – The market opens for people to buy bikes. We accept credit cards and cash (we will stay an extra hour upon request to accommodate working parents with children in after school club).
Next day – sellers notified of sales. Payments will be made within 2 working days of sale via bank or PayPal transfer.
Unsold bikes can be collected anytime on the day or we take them and sell at other markets (25% commission charge in these instances). The bike can be dropped off, and bought, in the lower playground, at the junction of Pound Park Road and Thorntree Road (just opposite the deer enclosure at Maryon Wilson Park).
Co-ordinated by the Friends of Thorntree Association, the bike market is not a fund-raising event but a few parents have already indicated they will make a donation if their bike sells. FOTA is raising funds for new school equipment so if anyone else who sells a bike wishes to make a donation it will be gratefully received. And thanks are due to Thorntree Head Ms Fenwick for letting FOTA and Peddle My Wheels commandeer a section of the Lower Playground for the day!
This video gives a good overview of how the markets work and the benefits involved:
In case you weren’t in the area yesterday, Charlton Athletic fans held a mock funeral procession along Charlton Church Lane and Floyd Road ahead of their match against Middlesbrough. It’s the latest in a serious of protests against the management of the side by absentee Belgian owner Roland Duchatelet and his chief executive, Katrien Meire.
Please join us in the first of the Charlton Society’s ‘HAVE YOUR SAY’ sessions. The aim is to strengthen the community’s influence over Greenwich Council’s planning and environmental policies.
The starting point for the session is Charlton Village – still the heart of Charlton. Our guest speaker will be Clare Loops, the council’s planning policy manager.
To kick off the Council’s consultation process, we’ve asked her to tell us about its draft Charlton Village Conservation Area Management Strategy.
And that’s just the start! After Clare’s presentation, questions and a short tea break, we will split up into four groups for the ‘HAVE YOUR SAY’ session.
The groups will discuss not only the Village Conservation Area proposals but also what we like or dislike about Charlton as a whole, what’s special or unique about it, and how we see its future – from Shooters Hill to the River Thames. And don’t forget: this is a future that must take into account the avalanche of change happening all around Charlton.
Comparing notes together at the end of the session, we believe we can begin to lay the basis on which the community can help shape Council policy.
We look forward to seeing you at Charlton House.
The event’s open to all, and runs from 2.30pm to 5pm on Saturday 19 March.
The Conservation Area Management Strategy’s something all councils have to do with their conservation areas – they update them, take bits out, add new areas, and set requirements for what you can or can’t do if you own a property in the area.
This plan sees the council expand the area around Charlton Church Lane, Lansdowne Lane and Hornfair Park. You can find out more about what the council wants to do in this draft document. (The full, final document is released on Monday 21 March, so don’t take this version as gospel.)
If you’re at all interested in the history of Charlton, an accompanying document sets out the history of the area, and just why the area around Charlton Village is so special. It’s a hefty tome, quite different in tone from the usual council documents, and well worth a read. You’ll find a draft of the Character Appraisal here. (Again, a final version is released on Monday 21 March, which will supersede this one.)
With the hugely important new Charlton riverside masterplan due to come after the mayoral election, the Charlton Society hopes Saturday’s event will start to get local people properly involved in the discussions about the area’s long-term future.
The Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival held their first meeting in the reborn White Swan in Charlton Village on Wednesday 24th February. An excellent turnout with lots of enthusiasm and imagination in the room put us firmly on the road to make the festival a reality. Films and venues were suggested and we now have a number of venues keen to host a film screening including St Georges Garrison Church, Charlton Park Academy and Shrewsbury House.
Greenwich Council have offered the big screen in General Gordon Square and have arranged a meeting to discuss how they can help further. We are looking for all interested members of the Charlton and Woolwich communities to take part in what we intend will become an annual event.
If you are a film buff, a film maker, interested in community cohesion and celebration or would like to volunteer in an interesting venture then please come to the second meeting of the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival at the Woolwich Equitable pub, General Gordon Square, Woolwich on Wednesday 16th March at 7:30pm
We went to the last meeting and were very impressed by the turnout, ideas and enthusiasm on display. This could be a great event for Charlton and Woolwich: we hope more local venues, groups and businesses get on board.
The Charlton Champion 