It’s 40 years since Charlton Toy Library was founded by a group of mums who met on a regular basis with their children. Since then, it’s moved into Charlton House, added an outreach service to support vulnerable families and overall has helped thousands of children and families across the borough of Greenwich. It provides a place to stay and play for children, but also offers toys, books and baby and safety equipment for loan.
Now Charlton Toy Library is inviting the community to celebrate its 40th birthday this Sunday, 17 July in Charlton Assembly Hall. There will be entertainment, children’s crafts, music and much more. To mark the occasion Charlton Toy Library is raising £4,000 to offer free membership, services and food vouchers to 120 families.
Guests include Leo Fletcher, the mayor of Greenwich, and Chris Mason, local resident and BBC political editor – no doubt taking a break after a busy few days.
The party is open to all, and will run from 10.30am to 1pm – with the all-important cake-cutting at 11am. And to support the fundraiser, visit: cafdonate.cafonline.org/20933.
Residents in a group of streets near Charlton are banding together to take part in an arts, crafts and jumble trail this Saturday afternoon.
Locals will be setting up stalls in their front gardens to offer handmade items, henna tattoo painting, artwork, bric-a-brac, clothes, plants, toys, books and much more.
There will also be a solent auction at St Richard’s Hall on Swallowfield Road, raffle and food bank collection point. The local police safer neighbourhood team will also be there.
It’s easy to miss, but the complex by the river, on the Charlton-Woolwich border, is the UK’s biggest site for artists, makers and designers, with over 550 studios. Saturday will be your chance to meet them and buy their wares.
You’ll be able to see painting, drawing, fashion design, carpentry, photography, print making, picture framing, stained glass making, graphic design, film and video and much more besides.
This week’s rail and Tube strikes will wreak havoc with travel around London. The official advice is to not travel, but if you need to go, here are your options…
Trains from Charlton – strikes on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, restricted morning services on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
The only trains from Charlton station will run at 12 and 42 past the hour, stopping at Greenwich, Deptford and London Bridge only. First train at 0742, last at 1742. Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Waterloo East, Westcombe Park and Maze Hill stations will be closed. There will also be no Thameslink services through central London.
Coming back, trains will run half-hourly from London Bridge to Charlton from 0804 to 1804. Similar half-hourly services are running on other lines, so you could travel to Lewisham or Blackheath and make your way back from there. (The last train of all is an Orpington service stopping at Lewisham, which leaves at 1806.)
Heading towards Kent, trains for Dartford will leave Charlton every half an hour from 0819 to 1749, calling at all stations except Woolwich Dockyard, which will be closed. There is a further train at 1816, which also won’t call at Belvedere or Slade Green. There will be no trains into Kent from Dartford.
Morning services will also be distrupted on non-strike days, with no trains expected before 0730 – check before travelling.
Tube from North Greenwich – strikes on Tuesday
No service expected from North Greenwich – or a very limited one at best. Jubilee Line should be fine on other days but extremely busy. Be warned: there is a Queen show at the O2 on Tuesday evening.
Elizabeth Line from Woolwich – strikes on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Elizabeth Line trains from Woolwich and Abbey Wood will operate at a reduced frequency as they are affected by the National Rail strike – check before travelling and be prepared to queue. Trains will run from 0700–1800. Check:National Rail Enquiries, RealTimeTrains
Docklands Light Railway from Woolwich Arsenal and Lewisham – no strike
Services will be running, but will be extremely busy. Stations shared with the Tube system (eg Bank, Stratford) may be closed on Tuesday.
London Overground from New Cross/New Cross Gate – strikes on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Affected by National Rail strike. About half of all services expected to run from 0700 to 1800 only.
Thames Clippers from Greenwich, North Greenwich and Woolwich – no strikes
Normal service, but boats will be busy. Queen show at the O2 on tube strike Tuesday will swell crowds in the evening. Services run from Barking Riverside now so Woolwich passengers won’t have first dibs on seats. Check:Thames Clippers Twitter
Buses – no strikes
They are accepting paper National Rail tickets, if you still have one of those.
Bikes – no strikes
– The Woolwich Road cycleway to Cutty Sark Gardens (be aware a small part west of there is closed), then using Cycleway 10 (the old Quietway 1) from Deptford to Waterloo may be an option if you are on two wheels.
– Alternatively, you could carry on along the Thames Cycle Path to Rotherhithe station, then turn left onto Brunel Road, which connects with Cycleway 4 to London Bridge
New Greenwich Council leader Anthony Okereke, centre, with regeneration cabinet member Aidan Smith, left, Jo van den Broek in the digger and Pocket executives
The developer Pocket Living has broken ground on its new blocks at The Heights, where 48 new flats are now being built on part of an old council car park.
New Greenwich Council leader Anthony Okereke helped launch the development alongside newly-elected Charlton Village councillor Jo van den Broek and Aidan Smith, the new cabinet member for regeneration.
Pocket, which has funding from City Hall, plans to sell them all the flats for 80 per cent of market value to people earning under £71,000 within the borough of Greenwich – meaning they tick the official definition of “affordable”, if not the dictionary definition. The company says it has 650 people who live or work in the borough who are interested in buying, and has previously said that a typical buyer would be earning about £40,000.
The blocks will sit opposite existing houses on The Heights
However, while plans to build houses on estates on Lewisham Road and Kidbrooke Park Road were scrapped, the plans for The Heights stayed in place and were passed at a planning meeting early last year. The only objector to speak was Van den Broek’s predecessor as Labour councillor, Gary Parker.
Okereke said: “Our borough is growing fast and we need homes that suit everyone, so schemes like these will be important as we tackle the housing crisis. We know demand is high for homes in Greenwich and we’re doing everything we can to deliver housing for all, and projects like this will help first time buyers get on the ladder and keep local people living, working and enjoying our fantastic borough.”
Nick Cuffe, the chief operating officer of Pocket Living, said: “Our latest research, which polled over 1,000 Londoners aged between 25 and 45 years old, found that the biggest obstacle to non-home owners is ‘house prices being too high’ at 51 per cent, while 30 per cent claim they can’t afford a mortgage and 27 per cent are struggling to raise a deposit.
“As the cost of living continues to rise it is vital that we deliver innovative housing solutions to unlock homeownership for the next generation. As such, we are proud to be delivering new homes in Greenwich and working with a council who shares our ambitions to get more Londoners on the housing ladder.”
The development is scheduled for completion at the end of next year. It is Pocket’s first in the borough of Greenwich and follows two schemes in the borough of Lewisham; at Marischal Road, off Lee High Road, and at Arklow Road in New Cross.
Margaret Marchant’s garden is among those on the trail
Got green fingers? This month you can have a nose around some of Charlton’s best-kept gardens and pick up some ideas for your own back yard – and it’s all for a good cause.
The Open Gardens Festival 2022 raises money for the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice by opening up gardens in Charlton, Blackheath, Greenwich, Eltham and Lee over two weekends – with the first gardens on show this weekend, 11-12 June.
In Charlton, there’s a particular cluster of gorgeous gardens around Heathwood Terrace and Kinveachy Gardens, while others are on show in Hasted Road, Charlton Road and Wyndcliff Road.
And there are plenty further afield too, including chances to visit the Gloucester Circus Gardens in west Greenwich and the almost-secret Westcombe Woodlands off Maze Hill.
One of the local gardens featured is pictured above – it belongs to Margaret Marchant, whose garden will be open this Sunday. Where is it? You’ll just have to find out…
Open Gardens Festival 2022 runs from 11-12 and 25-26 June – to visit one garden costs £5, a whole weekend costs £14, and £20 gets you access for both weekends.
The 53 service is due to be cut back to Elephant & Castle
Government cuts mean bus route 53 is set to be cut back again so it no longer runs beyond Elephant & Castle, Transport for London has announced today.
The one-time trunk route from Plumstead, Woolwich, Charlton, Blackheath, west Greenwich and Deptford is one of a number of victims of a swathe of cuts which are planned to help solve TfL’s cash crisis, which has been caused by the scrapping of government funding and the effects of the pandemic.
Some of the capital’s best-known routes – including the 11 through the City and West End, the 12 serving Peckham and the 24, London’s oldest unchanged service from Pimlico to Hampstead Heath – are due to be scrapped altogether while others are set to be shorted or changed.
Now TfL plans to swing the axe again so the service would only run from Plumstead bus garage to Elephant & Castle, meaning passengers would have to switch to route 453 to reach central London. TfL, which is chaired by the Labour mayor Sadiq Khan, says there is less demand for buses in the area north of Elephant & Castle and that only 3 per cent of passengers would be affected.
The service would run at least every 12 minutes, TfL says. The N53 night service to Whitehall is not included in the package of cuts.
The 53 ran as far as Whitehall until two years ago
TfL’s financial problems began under the mayoralty of Boris Johnson, when he allowed George Osborne – then the Conservative chancellor and more recently the editor of the Evening Standard – to scrap its annual government grant of about £600 million.
This meant that TfL – unlike transport operators in other major cities – was left reliant on passenger fares for about half of its income.
But Johnson’s financial model began to unravel at the end of the 2010s when passenger numbers went into decline, and collapsed altogether when the pandemic forced people off the network.
Since then TfL’s future has been in question, with the organisation reliant on a number of short-term bailouts and the government – which has a policy of “levelling up” regions outside London – insisting on deep cuts. If a new deal is not agreed by June 24 then TfL will run out of money altogether.
Another service serving Greenwich borough, the 47 between Bellingham and Shoreditch, which runs along Creek Road in Deptford, would no longer run north of London Bridge under the proposals unveiled today.
Other cuts affecting SE London complete withdrawal of the 12 between Oxford Circus and Dulwich, serving a heavily bus-dependent corridor through Walworth, Camberwell and Peckham. Another route in Peckham, the 78 between Nunhead and Shoreditch, would also be axed. Other services would be altered to plug the gaps.
Sixteen day routes and five night buses would be axed under the proposals – routes 4, 11, 12, 14, 16, 24, 31, 45, 72, 74, 78, 242, 259, 521, C3, D7, N11, N16, N31, N72, and N74.
The Charlton Champion 