SARAH FOORD-DIVERS has news of a concert taking place next weekend at St Luke’s Church in Charlton Village…
On Saturday April 8 at 7pm, Arise will be an evening of music celebrating new beginnings, from upbeat gospel to heart-stirring classics, and many more. The line-up includes accomplished jazz and gospel pianist Dominic Barlow, musical theatre singer Ella Griffiths and singer-songwriter Owen Morgan, plus St Luke’s Community Choir.
Last year’s event drew 18,000 people to Charlton Park
Greenwich Council’s Together 23 festival will be back in Charlton Park on Saturday June 10th, with organisers looking for performers, traders and activity providers to take part.
It’ll be the third festival to be held in the park, with the event now settling into early June after being held to mark Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee at the beginning of last summer.
Last year’s performers included Tyber and Pete from the Dualers and the House and Garage Orchestra, with 18,000 people attending across the day. This year’s event will bring more live music and performances, arts and crafts, community stalls, marketplace and street food, ‘have a go’ sports and kids’ activities and funfair rides.
Adel Khaireh, the council’s cabinet member for culture, said: “Every year, our summer event brings local communities together and showcases the borough’s diverse range of arts and culture, voluntary organisations and local businesses.
“The rising cost of living is putting pressure on all of us, so providing free family events for local people from all backgrounds to enjoy is more important than ever. Last year over 18,000 of you enjoyed Together 22. I hope to see many of you again in Charlton Park this June.”
Performers, traders, or anyone who wants to provide an activity at the event should move quickly and fill in the form at www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/take-part-T23 by Friday.
A panel of Greenwich councillors have given permission for another rave by the Thames Barrier, despite noise complaints from past events and fears from police that it could attract gang violence.
The event, called Rave in the Park, will begin at 10.30pm on Saturday April 29 and finish at 5.30am the next day. Unlike five past parties held on the site, this one will be held indoors.
Locals submitted over 30 complaints for previous events, including from residents in flats across the Thames, leading to neighbouring Newham Council sending a warning to the promoter, Andy Mills.
Last month Mills – also known as Andreas Millios – had applied to Greenwich for a permanent licence for the car park at the Bunker 51 paintballing venue in Herringham Road, next to the Barrier. But it was later withdrawn and planning issues mean no further events can be held in the car park.
This event would be held within Bunker 51 itself, which is largely underground.
Mills said: “There’s been a lot of complaints and stuff like that, but none of them have ever been proven to be myself. I’ve got a big background of noise, sound and production. I build music festivals and stuff like that and I put everything in place the best I can for these events so they run smoothly so we have no problems.”
But police licensing officer Sam Bobb spoke against the plans, saying alcohol and drug-related issues could arise from such late events due to strained police resources.
The site falls within the former Woolwich Riverside ward, which Bobb said had “previously had the highest recorded crime within the borough of Greenwich. There are concerns that the attendees could, in the lack of their geographical knowledge, find themselves falling foul of gangs or crime in the area, exposing themselves to assaults or muggings.”
Darryl Crossman, Mills’ representative, said Bobb had not given any figures to prove the high crime rate in the area.
Crossman said: “Mr Mills has held several events there successfully so we must give him credit for those… With light of the residents’ complaints that were going ahead, he decided to hold the event [inside] Bunker 51, which is obviously incurring extra costs, but the idea behind that is the sound will be restricted and that noise will be completely limited to attract zero complaints from residents.”
Mills said there would be signs at the event to remind patrons to be considerate of neighbours, with stewards and security directing people out of the event once it has finished.
The council announced yesterday that the licensing sub-committee – councillors Matt Morrow, Cathy Dowse and Sam Littlewood – had granted permission for the event.
In 2018, the developer Komoto applied to build up to 500 homes on the site, which was home to the Johnsen & Jorgensen glass works until the early 1980s. Revised proposals were submitted in 2021, but little has happened since with the scheme, called Flint Glass Wharf.
Additional reporting by Darryl Chamberlain
Joe Coughlan is the Local Democracy Reporter for Greenwich. The Local Democracy Reporter Scheme is a BBC-funded initiative to ensure councils are covered properly in local media. See more about how The Charlton Champion uses LDRS content.
Looking for a treat this Mother’s Day? SARAH FOORD-DIVERS brings news of a concert at St Thomas Church on Woodland Terrace on Sunday…
A concert of beautiful and varied music for Mothering Sunday: from classical favourites to afternoon jazz, performed by the Charlton Ensemble featuring talented musicians such as Joseph Spooner on cello, Anna Salmi on violin and classical tenor James Kinsella.
Tickets are £10 and can be reserved in advance on 07989 740252. Proceeds will go towards a community defibrillator and church funds.
The concert starts at 5pm on Sunday 19th March – there will be limited availability on the door.
The White Swan closed closed three years ago this week: it still shows Six Nations memorabilia from 2020 in its front windows
Plans to convert the upper floors of the White Swan in Charlton Village into two flats have been thrown out on the third anniversary of the pub’s closure.
Isle of Man-based Mendoza Ltd had insisted the plans would not affect the viability of the pub – but Greenwich Council’s planning officers disagreed on the grounds that it would remove part of the pub’s floorspace.
As well as removing the function rooms upstairs, the plans would have involved taking out part of the downstairs bar to form an entrance to the flats.
Developers did not wait for the council to assess the plans and have already converted the rooms upstairs into residential accommodation, which is currently being squatted – something discovered by council officers when they visited the Swan as part of their investigations.
The Charlton Champion understands that electricity supply to the building was cut off this week.
In November 2020 Mendoza won planning permission to build a house in part of the beer garden after Stephen Brain, then the chair of planning in Greenwich, broke a tied vote to approve the plans. Work has not yet begun; Mendoza has until November this year to begin or the permission will lapse.
But that application was, in part, Mendoza’s undoing, because it said that the pub was viable because “the first floor of the public house contained a function room, a pool room and a cocktail bar with seating for 26 persons. This is corroborated by several objectors who stated that they had hired a function room at the premises in the past.”
Brendan Meade, the council officer who wrote the report, said that this showed Mendoza’s latest plans “would result in the loss of a significant amount of floorspace associated with the pub which would have an impact on the future viability of the public house to continue as such”.
Mendoza’s attempts to claim the pub was not viable were also criticised – Meade said a marketing report was not dated but appeared to have been written in late 2020, when lockdown had ravaged the market for pubs.
“The proposed development would result in the partial loss of floorspace associated with the existing public house with no justification provided for its loss,” the report concluded.
“Consequently, insufficient evidence has been submitted demonstrating how the existing public house on the site would continue to be economically viable and would not result in the loss of a social community asset to the detriment of the local area.”
The council is now going through the process of placing the Swan on its local heritage list, while this website understands that a repossession hearing will be held next week to take the pub back from the squatters.
There were 147 objections to Mendoza’s plans, including from the Charlton Society and the SE London branch of the Campaign for Real Ale.
Upstairs rooms have been converted to residential, despite the council decision, and are being squatted. Electricity supplies are said to have been cut off
Following the money
Mendoza bought the freehold to the Swan from Punch Taverns for £900,000 in April 2015, although Land Registry data reveals that in December that year the building was sold again, to Associate Properties Ltd, also based on the Isle of Man, for £1.2 million.
Both Mendoza and Associate Properties are registered at the same office in Douglas, the Manx capital, and the planning application was made by Mendoza. After its closure, the company insisted that it was committed to reopening the Swan as a pub.
Since January 2021 the property has been mortgaged. That charge is now held by Apex, a financial services company based in Bermuda.
A report to the council from Jenkins Law, which had been marketing the pub, said that it was initially offered at a rent of £50,000/year, later cut to £40,000/year, for the ground floor and basement only. The report described Charlton as “a densely-populated affluent suburb” and wrongly claimed the pub closed in November 2019.
The Charlton Champion understands that the rent on the Swan while it was open was about £65,000/year, although we have not been able to corroborate this figure. When Mendoza won permission to build the pub beer garden, its planning consultant conceded that the rent may have been too high.
Mendoza and Associate Properties also share the HQ in Douglas with another sister company, Hamna Wakaf, which owns the Vanburgh in Greenwich.
Plans for a house at the rear of the Vanbrugh were approved by planning inspectors in 2021 after years of refusals from the council. The housing plans for both the Vanbrugh and the Swan shared an architect, Milan Babic.
The Vanbrugh closed a year ago and is currently on the market for £90,000/year, although it is currently said to be “under offer”.
The concert will be in the Old Library at Charlton House
Are you a man? Can you sing? If so, GWEN ZAMMIT wants to hear from you. Her charity show, Music For A Summer’s Evening, returns to the Old Library at Charlton House in June. But she needs a man or two (or more)…
We are seeking the assistance of some male singers please. They will be joining St Luke’s Players’ contribution to the Concert. We do have some but need more. We are currently meeting in The Bugle Horn in The Village, Charlton, on Tuesday evenings at 7.30pm in the former restaurant at the back of the bar.
The concert will be on the evening of Sunday 25 June (time to be confirmed) and will raise funds for Greenwich Foodbank.
St Thomas’ Church is hosting a concert on Saturday
A charity concert raising money for earthquake relief in Turkey and Syria is taking place this weekend at St Thomas Church on Woodland Terrace. COLIN FOORD-DIVERS has the details…
St Thomas Church is hosting a concert by a band of young local musicians on Saturday 4th March at 5.00pm. The band are aged from 9 to 15 and are playing a set including songs by Talking Heads, The Beatles, Taylor Swift and songs they have written themselves.
They played a concert at the church last year and got a fantastic reception from a packed audience, raising money for the church’s school visits programme.
Tickets are £5 for adults and £1 for children with proceeds divided between the Turkish/Syrian Earthquake disaster (Embrace the Middle East) and St Thomas Church school visits.
The church is on Woodland Terrace, near Maryon Park, and if you’re coming from further afield, the 380 bus stops right outside.
Joe Coughlan is the Local Democracy Reporter for Greenwich. The Local Democracy Reporter Scheme is a BBC-funded initiative to ensure councils are covered properly in local media.
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