If the council approves, it would mean that if the building is put up for sale, then there would be a six-month pause on the sale to enable the community to put together a bid to buy it. To avoid this, the building would have to be sold as a going concern.
While the pub is not under any immediate threat, it was closed for a spell late last year with Punch Taverns’ rent demands casting long-term worries about its future. But Punch itself, which also owns the Bugle Horn, is deeply in debt, with the future of the whole business in the balance.
So the petition’s aimed at making it harder for any future owner of the business to try to sell the building for redevelopment, and to try to ensure that it’s kept in business as a pub.
At the moment, there’s signs of optimism – a 164-strong Facebook group has organised a number of meet-ups in the pub – and there’s a manager in charge who’s interested in developing the business.
While the Charlton Society can ask the council to declare the Swan an asset of community value on its own, proof of interest in the community will help. So sign up, and let’s help try to get the Swan’s future sorted.
Could a community council help promote Charlton’s attractions more effectively?
Do you know what a community council is? It’s something you might be hearing a bit more of in the next few months, as the Government’s given a small grant to The Charlton Society to promote and explore the possibilities of handing the people of SE7 a little bit more power over their lives. So – would you want to get involved? Read on…
Parish councils were abolished in London in 1899, when the metropolitan boroughs – the forerunners to today’s London boroughs – were set up. But they still thrive outside London, as a tier below borough or district councils. They can take charge of a range of services such as community centres, open spaces, allotments, flower beds, some planning functions – whatever they want to take on, so long as their local borough or district council is happy to devolve to them.
In London, it’s been the boroughs that have taken on an increasing range of functions over the years. That can mean that many communities can feel overlooked.
But a 2007 law means that parish or community councils can now be established in London. The first is in Queen’s Park, north-west London, where elections will be held in May. There’s also an established campaign to set one up in London Fields, Hackney.
So, where does Charlton fit into this? This isn’t about declaring UDI from the borough of Greenwich. But there’s certainly a growing appetite within the SE7 area for people to get involved and make their area a better place.
Yet the current structure of local government doesn’t recognise that, while there’s been an explicit shift within Greenwich Council in the past decade or so to concentrate on the centres of Greenwich, Woolwich and Eltham. Similar funding has been granted to a campaign in Plumstead, another area where many feel overlooked.
The theory goes that a community council will be able to get Charlton punching at its weight again, and will mean local people have control over local services.
A community council could beautify streets with flowerbeds, or install signs welcoming people to the area. It could take control of council-run community halls, commission extra street cleaning or arrange volunteers, or run youth or children’s facilities.
Here’s what they’re doing in Queen’s Park: “Help for young and vulnerable people, the prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour, support for local business, as well as specific proposals including community events and the establishment of a Youth Council.”
Is this something you could get involved in?
A community council could make sure Charlton’s streets are better maintained
One thing it shouldn’t be is party political – often those who are most active in the area will have some political background, but for this to work, party rosettes and personal grudges should be left at the door. Making this happen, I suspect, will be one of the bigger challenges. Persuading Greenwich Council could also be a challenge – but the Queen’s Park campaign won over Westminster Council, which saw the advantages in having a local body to work with.
Another challenge will be making sure the council benefits all of SE7, from the estates to the estate agents’ favourite streets – and not just those who shout the loudest, or who are the most affluent or well-spoken, or live in Charlton village, or the current Charlton council ward. Current election arrangements mean it should be easy to set the council up, although there may be a very small overlap into areas of SE3, SE10 and maybe SE18.
All this will cost some money though – a community council will be able to levy a small precept on the council tax. This is likely to be only a few pounds, but would give the council a budget of, perhaps a couple of hundred thousand pounds each year. A community council would need to persuade you that it’s good value for money.
But most of all, it’d need to involve you. There’ll be a public meeting later this year to discuss the idea, and it’d need to be approved by a referendum and by Greenwich Council’s cabinet.
So would you like the chance to get involved with how your area is run – or do you think it’d just be another layer of bureaucracy? The Charlton Society’s Nikki Coates will post more about this issue at a later date, and she’ll be happy to answer any question you have. But what do you think of the idea – would you get involved?
If you heard deep bass lines reverberating in the wee small hours of the morning, then they were coming from the shut-down Matalan store on Bugsbys Way – it was being used for an illegal rave. It’s not the first time it’s happened, and there didn’t seem to be any trouble when a curious reporter went to take a look at 1.30am – just a little crowd waiting to be let in, and little knots of people strolling up to the store, which shut last month.
The same happened when the old Wickes store on Woolwich Road shut a couple of years back, and it’ll probably happen again. This area’s seen it all before, with early acid house parties taking place in a warehouse on the old East Greenwich gas works in the late 1980s. When the Greenwich Sainsbury’s closes next year, I wonder if anyone will get to hold a party there?
Matalan has now temporarily moved to the old Comet store in Greenwich’s Millennium Retail Park – there was an impressive queue of 40 or so people outside on Friday morning awaiting its grand opening. Its old site – which opened in the mid-1980s as a Texas Homecare DIY store – is being redeveloped.
It’s all part of a reshuffle and revamp of Charlton’s retail barns being carried out by developer LXB as part of the Sainsbury’s move, which will see a new store together with an M&S and other shops open on the Wickes site on Woolwich Road in 2015.
Let’s be honest, now, the White Swan’s been an ugly duckling of a pub for a long while now. An attempted revamp in 2010 never quite caught on.
For all the attempts to drag it up by its bootstraps, a couple of female friends of mine got grief one summer’s night for the crime of… ordering pints. I’ve not been back since, but I’m told the following manager’s attempt to turn it into a poker hangout didn’t have ace results either.
It was shut for a while, but reopened shortly before Christmas with a new manager in charge while owners Punch Taverns hunt for someone to take it on long-term, albeit at a steep rent of £43,000/ year.
“A rare chance to step into a community pub, located in the heart of Charlton village. The White Swan is a family-friendly establishment that is ideal for hosting events and entertainment. A large patio garden to the rear combined with a commercial kitchen means there is ample opportunity to develop the food trade, particularly in good weather.”
There seems to be a bit of interest in taking on the Swan this time, though – but whether the potential pub bosses have the same ideas as Punch is a curious question. The manager who led the 2010 revamp fancies trying to finish the job, another group fancies trying to recreate the live music success of the Pelton Arms in Greenwich, while there’s also talk of a local brewery showing some interest (small breweries have helped the community buy Nunhead’s Ivy House under new legislation, while the East Wickham Brewery has taken on the long-forgotten Old Loyal Britons in Thames Street, Greenwich).
And then there’s this petition and Facebook page from Kathryn McDowell, who wants to see the Antic group take the pub over. Antic has a fine track record in taking on dowdy pubs and making them shine – particularly the Ravensbourne Arms (ex-George and Dragon) in Lewisham and the now-shut Catford Bridge Tavern (ex-Copperfield), which has been replaced by the Catford Constitutional Club, in a long-shut Conservative club. It’s an interesting company, but has taken nearly a year to do anything with a planned pub in Woolwich’s Equitable House, evidence of a full diary of planned refurbs.
Worth noting, though, that there’s 125 “likes” on Kathryn’s Facebook page – probably more than have ever been in the Swan on a non-matchday for some time.
Do you drink in Charlton and have a preferred pub? Or do you just head straight out of SE7 towards Greenwich or Blackheath if you fancy a tipple? Share your thoughts on Charlton’s pubs – and what do you think can be done to keep the Swan afloat?
Our Lady of Grace primary school could be rebuilt on a long-disused playing field in Highcombe if plans submitted to Greenwich Council get the go-ahead.
A planning application has been submitted to move the Roman Catholic primary school from its oversubscribed site on Charlton Road onto the playing field, which has sat disused since the early 1990s since Christ The King Sixth Form College moved to Lewisham. The school site would be redeveloped into housing.
The rebuilt school would have its entrance and exit on Lime Kiln Close, the cul-de-sac built on the site of what used to be St Austin’s boys’ school, whose playing field it was.
Our Lady of Grace is one of six south east London schools in the running to have a replacement school built under the Priority Schools Building Programme – if the government gives it the funds and the council backs the plans, it could be open by 2015.
While the plan (reference 13/2692/L) is due to be publicised in this week’s edition of council newspaper Greenwich Time, at the time of writing it can’t be viewed on the council website because of a technical fault.
The proposal also affects the Charlton Community Gardens group, which had been proposing to use some of the land for a community garden. But with Greenwich Council committed to ensuring there is no loss of community open space (the disused field is shown on a map as just that, despite it being owned by a French religious order and having been out of bounds for two decades), the group is exploring options as to how it can attempt to secure some land there.
English Heritage have complained to Greenwich Council about new signs promoting Charlton House, which have been placed outside the Jacobean mansion.
The two signs, in the council’s house style, use stock photos to advertise the Grade I-listed venue’s availability for weddings, meetings, and other events.
Charlton Society chair David Gardner, which is also chair of the Greenwich & Woolwich Labour Party, said he was unaware that the signs would be installed but that the heritage body had complained to the council.
The revelation came at the Charlton Society’s annual general meeting on Saturday, where the council’s management of the house was repeatedly criticised.
Plans for Charlton House’s management to be taken over by a specific trust have been scrapped by council leader Chris Roberts, with it now to be run by a trust which looks after all of Greenwich borough’s community venues.
Charlton Society president Lord Gough – a descendant of the Maryon Wilson family which owned the house – voiced his regret at the collapse of the plans, while Gardner complained the council was “not talking to us” about the future of Charlton House.
The new signs point potential customers to the council’s website, despite the council having recently launched a new website for Charlton House. A previous website for Charlton House, which cost £3,500 to develop, lasted only two years.
The meeting also saw Charlton councillor Allan MacCarthy appeal for people to get in touch with council chief executive Mary Ney (mary.ney [at] royalgreenwich.gov.uk) if they wished to complain about the Run to the Beat event, while assembly member Len Duvall said Greenwich Council and organisers should either improve arrangements and information or axe the event.
The meeting was also addressed by Greenwich & Woolwich MP Nick Raynsford, who spoke about the opportunities – and dangers – presented by riverside developments. You can hear some of his speech below.
Charlton Champion contributors Darryl Chamberlain (that’s me) and Nikki Coates, along with Andrew Donkin from the Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks, were elected to the Charlton Society committee on Saturday. We’ll be looking at ways to breathe some new life into the organisation and get more people involved – if you’ve got any ideas, get in touch.
Network Rail’s launching a publicity campaign to warn people of the big changes taking place to train services along the Greenwich line, which will involve most of Charlton’s trains being permanently routed away from Charing Cross and into Cannon Street instead.
Staff will be at Charlton station during Thursday and Friday’s rush hours to talk about the changes, and will also be at other local stations in coming days.
The changes are prompted by the rebuilding of London Bridge for the Thameslink programme, which will cut the connection to the Charing Cross tracks. It’ll also mean many trains won’t be able to call at London Bridge for three years from 2015.
Here’s the press release…
To raise passengers’ awareness a number of information events will take place at affected stations from next week including Maze Hill, Westcombe Park, Deptford, Charlton, Greenwich, St Johns and New Cross.
Leaflets and information will be available to passengers outlining the changes which include:
* For all passengers from January 2015, services to Waterloo East and Charing Cross will not stop at London Bridge for nearly 20 months.
* For passengers using the Greenwich line from January 2015 onwards, Charing Cross services will be diverted to Cannon Street.
* For passengers using New Cross and St Johns from January 2015 onwards, Waterloo East and Charing Cross services will not stop at New Cross and St Johns stations.
* For all passengers from August 2016, no Cannon Street services will stop at London Bridge for nearly 16 months.
Fiona Taylor, Network Rail’s route managing director for Kent, said: “Thameslink will transform the railway in London and the south east of England, providing greater capacity and better journey options for millions of passengers. To rebuild London Bridge station and carry out the complicated track work on the approach to the station, it is unavoidable that there will be a certain level of disruption.
“We are working closely with all train companies which operate through London Bridge to keep this disruption to a minimum and are committed to providing passengers with as much information as early as possible. The end result of this investment will be a vastly improved service which will better meet the demands of passengers.”
Southeastern managing director, Charles Horton, said: “Although Greenwich line passengers will eventually see a much improved station at London Bridge, we understand that these works will be disruptive and our customers will be inconvenienced.
“We’re sorry about this and are working in partnership with Network Rail, Transport for London and other train operators to do what we can to minimise the inconvenience, advise on alternative travel options and keep passengers informed.”
Full details of the public information events are:
Maze Hill: 21-22 October, 7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm
Westcombe Park: 21 – 22 October, 7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm
Deptford: 24 – 25 October, 7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm
Charlton: 24 – 25 October, 7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm
Greenwich: 29 – 31 October, 7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm
St. Johns: 28 October, 7am – 10am
New Cross: 29 – 31 October, 7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm
As part of the Thameslink Programme the layout of the tracks around London Bridge station are being changed. When the programme is complete, each service will have dedicated routes allowing more trains to run. The new layout means trains on the Greenwich line are unable to continue on to Waterloo East and Charing Cross. From January 2018, you’ll be able to travel to Waterloo East and Charing Cross by changing at London Bridge.
Passengers can find out more about the Thameslink Programme by visiting www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk where you can also sign up for email alerts or by following us on Twitter @TLProgramme.
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