Author: Darryl Chamberlain

Council wants to see public transport for Charlton Riverside arrive soon

Darryl Chamberlain
Flint Glass Wharf
One of the planned development schemes: Flint Glass Wharf, next to the Thames Barrier

Greenwich Council says it is working with City Hall to bring new public transport to the Charlton Riverside sooner rather than later so new homes are not delayed.

A report to senior councillors says that developers are keen to start building in the area – but getting infrastructure in place is an issue.

Some 7,500 new homes are planned – although City Hall wants this bumped up to 8,000 as part of its new London plan. For comparison, there are currently 8,900 households in the SE7 postal area. However, nothing has been built so far, and a planning inspector threw out the first scheme – Rockwell’s controversial development off Anchor & Hope Lane – earlier this year.

In recent weeks, developers have applied for permission for two new housing schemes on Eastmoor Street, to add to the five major schemes that are already in the planning pipeline.

“In the medium term, [the council] is working closely with the Greater London Authority and TfL to bring forward public transport improvements in the early phases of delivery at Charlton Riverside,” the housing delivery action plan report says. The report has been prepared for a meeting of the council’s cabinet next week.

“There is significant developer/landowner interest in securing early permissions, and early public sector intervention/investment will ensure that the implementation of these permissions is not slowed down by infrastructure requirements.

“The issue in Charlton Riverside is mainly one of infrastructure coordination and timing of delivery, with development values across the area sufficient in the longer term to support delivery of necessary physical and social infrastructure.”

Burnt-out car on Eastmoor Street
The Charlton Riverside as it currently is

Those expecting dramatic improvements to the area’s public transport are likely to be disappointed, however – one of the major development schemes, Hyde Housing’s proposals for 1,350 homes by the Thames Barrier, suggests funding an extension of the 301 bus to Woolwich Crossrail station; nudging residents who live in zone 3 to take a train to work from zone 4. A new east-west road – essentially extending Bugsby’s Way – is planned, with councillors hoping in the long-term to see the Greenwich Waterfront Transit, a souped-up bus to North Greenwich, to run along the road.

The two recently-submitted plans are for plots, behind the old Victoria pub – itself the subject of plans for redevelopment.

Evelyn House
Evelyn House: Kite not included, presumably

Firstly, the housing association Optivo plans 67 flats – all for affordable rent (usually about half market rent) – on the site of the old Beaumont Beds warehouse, in a block of up to seven storeys tall, with seven parking spaces for wheelchair users. It is calling the development Evelyn House. Its red brick and rounded corners, the planning blurb says, are a nod to the Victoria up the road. It looks like the small cash and carry warehouse between the old pub and the new development is due to remain. (See the application and comment / read the design statement / search 20/2186/F on the council website< if these links don't work)

Aitch Group scheme
The Aitch Group development and Penhall Gardens

Secondly, on the next-door site – closer to the Barrier – developer Aitch Group wants to build 192 flats in blocks of up to ten storeys on land bounded by Eastmoor Street, Westmoor Street and Mirfield Street, currently in industrial use. 65 per cent of the homes will be private, 10 per cent for shared ownership, 25 per cent for affordable rent (as above). A public courtyard will be provided in the middle. Again, blue badge parking is provided only, although Greenwich Council told the developer “a car-free scheme cannot be supported until local infrastructure is improved” – a reflection of the issues described above. (See the application and comment / read the design statement / search 20/1924/F on the council website if these links don’t work)

The five other schemes planned are:

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Charlton Bakehouse planning to open up in The Village

Darryl Chamberlain
Samanthajane office
This could soon be a bakery – if council officers approve

The team behind Charlton Bakehouse, which has been delivering to doorsteps across SE7 and beyond during the pandemic, are hoping to set up shop in a former estate agent in The Village.

A planning application has gone into Greenwich Council to convert the former Samanthajane office by installing an extraction system including an odour control system and silencers. (See the application and comment or search for 20/0517/F)

With Charlton Village blighted by shop closures and in its possibly its lowest-ever ebb – and with no sign of a plan to revive its fortunes – the proposal is likely to gain a lot of support.

The application actually first went in before the lockdown – but as with other local businesses, word spread about the Bakehouse while people were stuck at home.

It still offers free deliveries on Tuesdays in SE7 and on other days in SE3 and SE10 from charltonbakehouse.com. We recommend the cinnamon buns.

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Water pain: Roadworks to close Charlton Church Lane for a week

Darryl Chamberlain
Charlton Church Lane
No chance of a 380 on Charlton Church Lane next week

Water main works will close Charlton Church Lane just south of the junction with The Heights for up to a week from Tuesday. Traffic will be “diverted via Charlton Road, Victoria Way and Wellington Gardens and vice versa” (that’s nice of them – Ed) while buses will naturally face more inconvenient diversions. The news has only been published in the back of an hardly-seen freesheet, so we thought you might like to know here.

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St Luke’s Church roof vandalised by metal thieves

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment
St Luke with Holy Trinity, Charlton
St Luke with Holy Trinity has been targeted by metal thieves

The roof of St Luke’s Church has been vandalised by thieves who stole a small quantity of metal, smashing up parts of the roof and leaving ancient timbers open to the elements.

Recent heavy rain revealed the extent of the damage, with water pouring into the church. Volunteers now face the hard work of patching up the damage, which is believed to run into thousands of pounds.

The damage comes a year after Charlton House’s summer house was targeted by lead thieves – an attack which followed another bout of vandalism a year earlier.

St Luke's Church gutter
Damage to the church’s valley gutter

Churchwarden Rick Newman told The Charlton Champion: “We’re not sure when the theft occurred in the days before it came to notice with the first rain in weeks and water pouring into the church. In ripping out galvanised metal from the central valley gutter and some ancient lead that ran the length of the south gutter, the thieves have broken countless tiles and exposed roof timbers to the elements.

“The lead in the south gutter had been anchored in place by the parapet. In order to steal the lead, several of these parapet blocks were smashed by the thieves. One massive block was toppled into the churchyard, causing further damage.

“Much of the metal was worthless. As scrap, the small quantity of lead would be worth a couple of hundred pounds at most; the cost of repairs will run into many thousands. Remedial work will require extensive and expensive scaffolding to say nothing about the cost of replacing tiles and masonry.

“Meanwhile, part of the churchyard has been cordoned off as a precautionary measure as parapet stones have been loosened. Temporary covering has been put in place as far as possible and we can only hope the weather is kind to us.

St Luke's Church south gutter
The work will cost thousands of pounds to repair

“The work that results from having to put right the extensive damage falls to volunteers. They would far rather be giving their time to things that are about building up and serving community at times of great need, rather than giving time to repairs that should never have been necessary.

“We are hopeful that most of the cost of repairs can be covered by insurance, but that results in ever increasing insurance premiums for all and a community unsettled by the actions of the few who seem to have no regard for others. Whether you regard St Luke’s as part of our local heritage or the house of God, or both, it is an important place for many who feel upset and unsettled by this crime. We pray for those responsible.”

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Pizza developer tries again for takeaway and flat at Charlton’s Victoria pub

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment
Victoria pub plans
The latest plan for the Victoria

Developers have returned with new plans to turn Charlton’s derelict Victoria pub into a pizza takeaway with a three-bedroom flat alongside it.

Proposals to turn the pub, famed for its sloping floor, into a Domino’s Pizza outlet and build four flats behind it were thrown out by Greenwich Council officers last year because the new flats would “appear as an incongruous addition which would fail to preserve the character and appearance of the locally listed host building and Thames Barrier and Bowater Road Conservation Area”.

Previous plans for student flats have also been refused.

Now the Gillingham-based Zaan Group – a Domino’s franchisee – wants to covert the pub into a takeaway and add a smaller extension instead. The pub is locally listed but has been unused for over 20 years, and has been damaged by fires.

“Given the poor structural condition retention of the building requires creative thought and use. This is an isolated building that does not relate to any existing use in the area. Therefore, new uses are required,” a submission from architects Cook Associates says.

Victoria pub plans
No getting away from badly-parked cars

“The A5 [takeaway] use will generate little footfall traffic as most orders will be by phone or online, for delivery by scooter and electric bike,” it adds.

“This proposal brings back into use a locally listed building that has fallen into a poor state of repair and which is rapidly becoming an eyesore. This scheme follows previous planning refusal for the site for student units and a larger extension containing more residential units than the single unit now proposed.

“The extension of the commercial ground floor area to A5 creates a viable and sustainable use which ensures that the original frontage and shell is restored and preserved which is the desire of the local authority. The alternative re-development option available to the applicant for this site remains to serve a Section 80 demolition notice on [Greenwich Council] to demolish the existing public house.”

The new plans have emerged as developers take forward schemes for flats on the sites behind – including the Beaumont Beds warehouse – as part of the major Charlton Riverside development scheme.

Members of the public can see the documents and submit comments on the Greenwich Council website.

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Developer wants to turn former Charlton Conservative Club into bedsits for 49

Darryl Chamberlain
Google image of the Charlton Conservative Club
The old Charlton Conservative Club (image: Google)

A developer has applied to Greenwich Council to turn the old Charlton Conservative Club on Charlton Church Lane into 26 bedsits, accommodating up to 49 people.

The club closed seven years ago and permission was given in 2015 to demolish the rear hall to provide a two-bedroom flat and a three-bedroom maisonette together with a new block of three two-bedroom flats, and construction of a terrace of four two-bedroom houses on land at the back of the property. Work began but was never completed.

While the club had little to do with the political party in its later years, the application came the same day as the Conservative government announced plans to tear up the planning system to make it harder for councils to refuse new developments.

The plans for what the developer is calling “co-living units” will, however, have to go through the existing system. “The proposal is a form of residential accommodation aimed at providing affordable and high quality accommodation in the form of co-living arrangement,” planning documents say. “With the average house price in Greenwich at a value of £554,000, co-living which is a house in multiple occupation, offers an affordable alternative of living accommodation whilst retaining the luxury. Therefore, this a growing trend and co- living arrangement caters for young professionals who struggle to afford London’s increasing property prices.”

Planning documents refer to 30 rooms with 19 double rooms, 3 accessible double rooms and 8 single rooms. The developer says there “will be a concierge presence 24 hours a day”.

Full details can be seen on Greenwich Council’s planning website, reference 20/11666/F, where residents can submit comments.

The application comes hot on the heels of plans to demolish what is left of the Charlton Liberal Club, which closed in October 2018, two years after its main building was converted into flats. Developers want to replace it with a three-storey building containing eight flats.

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Demolition begins at Morris Walk Estate as developers target autumn 2021 for new homes

Darryl Chamberlain
Morris Walk estate - Lovell image
Morris Walk Estate is finally coming down

Demolition crews have moved in to the Morris Walk Estate on the Charlton/Woolwich border, starting a year of work to dismantle the 1960s blocks before work can start on 900 new homes.

The estate is being redeveloped in conjunction with the Connaught Estate in Woolwich, which has largely been rebuilt by developer Lovell as Trinity Walk. The company hopes to start work on the new homes at Morris Walk in autumn 2021.

Built in the mid-1960s as part of a long-delayed slum clearance programme – Morris Walk was one of the streets destroyed – the estate was constructed using prefabricated parts built at a factory in Norwich and taken by train to Charlton, where lorries would take the parts to the estate. Two flats were put together each day. The first tenants were housed in December 1964, and the estate was finished by the autumn of 1966.

The distinctive blocks were seen as a success at the time, but within a year of the estate being completed severe condensation started to blight its 562 homes along with rodents and poor soundproofing. A gas explosion at Ronan Point – built using similar methods – across the river in Canning Town in 1968 led to more worries about the blocks, and they were refurbished in the mid-1980s. Plans to demolish the blocks were announced in 2006. Delays have reset the project since then, with discord between the council and Lovell. Demolition was due to begin two years ago.

In 2014, outline planning permission was given for up to 766 homes – a quarter for social rent and 10 per cent for shared ownership. Those plans envisaged tall blocks to the north with houses and maisonettes to the south. However, a new masterplan is being prepared and detailed plans will have to be approved by Greenwich Council before work can begin. A consultation is due later this year.

Chris Wallace, the construction director at Lovell said: “The demolition work is a very complex procedure which has to be carefully planned due to the height and layout of the estate, the vicinity of the rail lines and proximity of the local community. As usual, health and safety is our key priority and we will communicate to the local residents on a regular basis.”

The start of demolition comes after the Ministry of Defence and police apologised to neighbours for setting off explosions in the derelict estate in June.

Both Greenwich Council and Lovell said they were not responsible for allowing emergency services to carry out exercises on the estate, with conflicting accounts over what happened. Lovell has now blamed a “miscommunication” between it, the MoD, police and council.

The MoD said: “We regret that the conduct of this exercise caused disruption, particularly as the activity took place late in the day. The Ministry of Defence continues to be extremely grateful for the support from the local community for critical exercises such as this, and we apologise for the inconvenience it has caused.”

The Metropolitan Police said: “The Metropolitan Police Service were advised of a military exercise due to be held on the 23rd June at the Morris Walk Estate. The MPS regrettably did not foresee the impact that this would have on the community. We apologise for any upset or distress caused to the community by the Military activity during their training exercise.”

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