The Night Tube might have been delayed, but bus route 486 still gains a night service this weekend, with buses every 30 minutes between North Greenwich, Charlton, Shooters Hill and Bexleyheath.
Services will run through the small hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings, with the eventual aim of connecting with the weekend Night Tube at North Greenwich.
A new weekend service on the 132 at North Greenwich will also start this weekend, serving Sun-in-the-Sands roundabout. Routes 108, 188 and 472 already run to North Greenwich every night of the week.
TfL said 86% of respondents to its consultation who expressed an opinion supported a night service on the 486, with many responses “from the Charlton area, particularly around Charlton Church Lane”.
When asked for more detailed views, 18 people said it should be more frequent while 11 claimed the service was “not needed”. There were nine complaints about noise from buses and two claiming the road was too narrow (presumably this refers to Charlton Church Lane).
Plans to cut the weekend service on route N1 from three buses an hour to two appear to have vanished, although it’s unclear if the proposal has been junked for good. Of 49 people who expressed detailed opinions, 15 said the N1 should be more frequent.
Other changes in south-east London see the N47 night bus replaced with a 24-hour service on route 47 from Shoreditch to Bellingham, and a new N199 from Trafalgar Square to St Mary Cray, which will replace the small section of N1 which runs through Deptford’s Pepys Estate.
The newspapers are down… the pub is open!
Charlton’s worst-kept secret is finally out – the White Swan pub has reopened, with the team behind Greenwich’s Pelton Arms aiming to give the bar a new lease of life.
The pub has had a “soft opening” – so don’t go expecting a full service just yet. But we do know that there’s plenty of beer from Woolwich’s Hop Stuff brewery ready for you…
We popped in on Friday for its test night, and we found Brockley Brewery’s Golden and two beers from Croydon’s Cronx brewery on too. It’s amazing what some new furniture and a little bit of redecoration can do for a pub which hasn’t looked quite right since the old carpets were stripped out many moons ago. We had a great night and we’re looking forward to many more.
It’s the fourth pub to be taken on by Pelton boss Geoff Keen, who also runs Bromley’s Shortlands Tavern and the Red Lion in Godalming, Surrey. The Pelton’s firmly established as one of south-east London’s best-loved boozers and we know he’s done a excellent job with the cosy Shortlands, so we’re looking forward to watching the Swan develop.
As with any new leased pub, there are still a few niggles to be ironed out. But since Geoff has managed to transform the Pelton despite having Punch Taverns as a freeholder, we’re optimistic the Swan can finally fly. It’ll only take off if you visit – so pop in for a pint.
A lot of people have been fretting over the Swan over the past couple of years – probably more than the numbers who actually regularly drank there, truth be told. Hopefully, this tale finally has its happy ending. For everyone who worked on the asset of community value, everyone who took time to look at a community bid, and everyone who spread the word about a great pub going to waste – it’s time for a drink, I reckon. Cheers!
The new superstore store complex looms over housing on Woolwich Road
The developer behind Sainsbury’s and M&S paid Greenwich Council nearly £1.5 million to help secure planning permission, the Charlton Champion can reveal. But none of this money has been spent in the Charlton area – and promised facilities at the development haven’t materialised.
The firm behind the Charlton Riverside Retail Park, LXP RP (Greenwich 3) Ltd, agreed to pay £1,484,927 to Greenwich Council in Section 106 payments. These are aimed at easing the impact of large construction projects on local communities.
But none of the money has been spent in Charlton – with a chunk of the money going to projects in Woolwich instead.
The Charlton Champion used the Freedom of Information Act to find out what LXB paid Greenwich Council – and how it is being spent.
Making a difference in [insert store name here]
So far, £170,685 has been spent. The first £150,000 has gone to “employment and training” – believed to be Greenwich Local Labour and Business, the council’s employment agency, which is largely funded by these payments. GLLaB is due to receive a further £284,613 from this project.
The remaining £20,685 has been spent on a “public safety” contribution – the council’s CCTV control room in Woolwich.
The other sums have been allocated, but not spent. Asked where they would be spent, the council merely said on “schemes within the Royal Borough of Greenwich”.
£303,120 has been earmarked for “town centre management”. This sum won’t be spent in Charlton – instead, it is likely to go to Woolwich, Eltham and/or Greenwich.
A huge motorway-size sign adds to street clutter at Charlton Church Lane
£209,202 has gone to “public realm” – effectively, making streets look nicer. Again, there’s no pledge to spend this money locally – despite the poor state of the area’s streets (worsened by the huge SUPERSTORE signs that have appeared in recent weeks). A further £217,307 has gone to “environmental health”.
Finally, £300,000 has gone to “bus service enhancements”. Again, it’s not clear quite where this money will be spent. There are currently no plans to enhance bus services in the Charlton area, while Transport for London rejected proposals to extend bus route 202 from Blackheath Standard to serve the new store.
There’s an additional £449,715 too – this is a community infrastructure levy, collected by boroughs on behalf of City Hall to help pay for Crossrail.
So far, so disappointing. But if local groups want to start lobbying for improvements to the area, there’s where the cash is.
It helps to get the small things right…
Should residents have expected anything different?
Well, when the plan was first announced, developer LXB held several meetings with local people, who formed the Charlton Riverside Action Group.
Both CRAG’s prime movers have now moved out of the area, but other groups such as the Charlton Society and Charlton Central Residents’ Association also had a hand in these talks – designed to address fears that the complex would add to already-bad traffic congestion in the area..
It appears, though, that these talks they were largely for nothing. Those who took part in the talks believed they were getting…
The proposed exit would have been on long-disused railway land to the left of this photo
A new entrance to Charlton station: One of the proposals to encourage people to travel to the new complex by public transport included opening a new entrance to Charlton station at Troughton Road, nearer the western end of the Kent-bound platform. This plan, however, appears to have stalled.
Bus arrivals information in the store: Residents were told the store would feature boards showing bus times (you’ll see these in North Greenwich bus station and the new Greenwich University building in Stockwell Street). They never materialised. Meanwhile, a new bus stop on Bugsbys Way doesn’t even have a shelter.
Legible London signs installed by Lewisham Council on Blackheath
Local signposts: Another plan was to make it easier to walk to the store by installing Legible London signposts in the local area – the black and yellow signs used in Blackheath Village and Woolwich Town Centre. This scheme could have been rolled out to make it easier for visitors to find Charlton House, Charlton Lido, Charlton Athletic and other attractions. Nothing has appeared.
Why does this matter? Well, Charlton’s riverside will soon undergo huge redevelopment – community groups are waiting for a new masterplan to be announced. If local people aren’t getting anything from current developments, what hope is there when the diggers start going in by the river?
It also matters because community groups believed they had a scheme that could have delivered tangible benefits for residents. Instead, those locals haven’t seen any of those benefits – and are suffering from rat-running as cars head down side roads to the new supermarket.
A few weeks ago, this website asked if Charlton needed a regeneration plan. We now that thanks to this development – and others – there is money available, even if only to tidy up the public realm and put some signs up to direct people around. If community groups want to take this seriously, then they should be watching where the cash from these developments go – and making sure SE7 gets more than scraps.
Charlton Village: Could it be so much more than it currently is?
Charlton resident Chris Seaden – who is part of the Charlton Parkside Community Hub – has emailed one of Greenwich Council’s cabinet members about the future of the area, and shared it on social media for everyone to see.
I thought I’d reproduce some of his email here to see what you think of what he had to say in his correspondence with culture cabinet member (and Charlton ward councillor) Miranda Williams.
I help run www.cpchub.org . There’s a lot of non-political grass roots community activity going on in SE7 nowadays.
We spoke on Twitter ( I am @mr_chas ). You expressed a desire to hear more of what I had to say.
Charlton retail / leisure / services (and by that I mean the Y shape that is up Charlton Church Lane from the station left into the village, right to Cherry Orchard) needs a proper co-ordinated REGENERATION PLAN.
It has so much potential, but without a defined strategy it isn’t going to happen. Empty shops, dying pubs, Floyd road is not pleasant after dark, I could go on.
If you look at what has happened in Brockley, Honor Oak, Nunhead, Forest Hill and places like that it’s just not happening in Charlton.
I have a degree in urban geography so I am particularly interested in zone 3 regeneration and stuff like that.
Charlton’s big problem is that the station and the village are not in the same place. Were that so it would be a mini Blackheath. An RBG strategy might help bridge the gap. An overarching plan is needed.
Would you like to discuss this?
The council needs to take action before we lose out even more to other local retail/leisure/service nodes and the village dies.
Well, it needed to be said. The curious stagnation of Charlton comes up again and again, but few actually stick their head above the parapet and say something, and even fewer come up with ways to do something about it.
So why is Charlton floundering when other areas are thriving? Slightly trickier transport links are a factor, certainly; council disinterest and grotty public realm in areas outside the Village also contribute, but certainly aren’t the full story. The last thing Charlton needs is to be another Blackheath, and it’s unfair to dump everything at the council’s door.
But let’s stick with this for a minute.
My own thought is that the area’s just waiting for a spark – a destination pub, or a new shop that takes off like a rocket, and then the rest will start to follow. The Bugle/Swan shenanigans of the past week don’t offer much hope at the moment – but things can change quickly, as we have found.
There’s certainly a role for the council in making the area more attractive – not just the conservation area around The Village, but thinking more broadly as Chris says, down to the station and along past Charlton House to Cherry Orchard Estate. But what would that entail? How to convince councillors that this would create jobs rather than increase a few people’s house prices?
Personally speaking, my own priority would be to try to sort out traffic – eliminating backstreet rat-running in residential roads (do we include Charlton Church Lane in this?) and slowing vehicles passing along Charlton Road and The Village, perhaps banning HGVs from the whole B210. Just making the area more liveable should provide a decent nudge, and wouldn’t cost a fortune.
But others have a role to play here, such as the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, which now owns Charlton House and the old summerhouse/ public toilets next door.
And if you live here, you have a role to play too, by making your voice heard. So does Charlton need a boost – and if you think it does, how would you do it?
The tale of Charlton village’s two pubs has taken another twist, as the staff running the White Swan appear to have decamped to the Bugle Horn, which lost its new management this week after their own bosses declined to pay £30,000 for new cellar equipment.
Concrete barriers appeared outside the Swan this morning and this afternoon a team were moving beer barrels down the Village to the Bugle.
A manager on the scene denied rumours that the Swan was being squatted.
The Swan was recently bought by property firm Mendoza, which specialises in developing flats above pubs. It is currently on the market for £35,000 a year.
Plans to revive Charlton Village’s Bugle Horn pub have ground to a halt after the leaseholders declined to pay a £30,000 to repair vital equipment in its cellar.
The pub, which has been put up for sale by Punch Taverns, has been run on a short-term lease for the past six weeks after the departure of its long-serving past management.
But the firm that’s leasing the pub has baulked at paying £30,000 to repair ale coolers in the cellar, fearing the the cost would not be recouped over the current lease’s short term.
Today (Tuesday) was due to be the last day under Stephen’s management – plunging the pub’s future back into uncertainty. However, the pub was locked and closed this afternoon, with a cleaner at work inside.
Punch is hoping to sell the pub, a Grade II listed building, for £1.5 million – a hefty price tag for a building that’s going to need substantial work to make it fit for the future.
Like its neighbour the White Swan, the pub was last month declared an Asset of Community Value, meaning any sale would have to be paused for six months to allow community groups time to bid. However, it would take a phenomenal effort for such a bid to raise that sum of money.
Rents have been increased and that pub is also on the market – minus the rooms upstairs – for £35,000 per year.
One thing that could boost the fortunes of both pubs would be for Greenwich Council to place an Article 4 direction on them, preventing any change of use. But despite this being raised repeatedly, this hasn’t been forthcoming.
![Making a difference in [insert store name here]](https://charltonchampion.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/charlton_sains_001.jpg?w=636)
The Charlton Champion 