Charlton Village in 1970. “The watchmaker, hairdresser and Fieldings before the cottages were demolished, the tree to the right still stands in Fairfield Grove”
From Saturday, the Charlton Society is hosting a street exhibition in The Village, with displays on 17 shops showing engravings and photographs of the village since 1775. If you can’t make Saturday, the exhibition will last until 27 November.
In addition, if you can spare time on a Friday afternoon, the society is hosting an open day on 30 October from 2pm to 4pm: “Members of The Charlton Society Committee will be in the Village outside The Village Green Grocers where they will hand out copies of a commemorative Year Book and a facsimile of Charlton Village and its Parks Walk, originally printed in 1984. We hope that Charlton Society members and residents will take the opportunity to walk around the Village and view the exhibition.”
A view from 1775, with St Luke’s Church on the left and the spire of Charlton House on the right
The society adds: “The Charlton Society has been operating virtually since the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown and have produced this exhibition to highlight Charlton Village as a unique London village, thank our traders for supporting the community throughout the lockdown and demonstrate some of the activities that The Charlton Society has engaged in during its 50 years.
“The Charlton Society has been operating since 1969 in response to a growing concern at the level of modernisation that could threaten the special character of the Village. Never an enemy of necessary development The Charlton Society was established to awake interest in the special character of Charlton Village, to assess new developments with a view to bring the best to Charlton as a whole, to protect the neighbourhood from the excesses of development but support good design and improvement.”
During the summer, we reported on lead thieves causing damage at St Luke’s Church in Charlton Village. Now two other listed buildings in the village – the Summer House and the Assembly Rooms – have been vandalised by ham-fisted thieves who have caused thousands of pounds of damage while trying to get hold of lead, some of it degraded.
It remains unclear whether they will be able to cover the damage on insurance – a major setback to efforts to restore the buildings. Thieves have also targeted St Richard’s church hall in Swallowfield Road.
The Charlton Society‘s RODEN RICHARDSON looks at why each building is important – and explains the damage done.
The Summer House
With its uniquely classical proportions, this 17th century Grade I protected gem of a building is part of the Charlton House Estate and hence in the care of the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, which has recently been carrying out much-needed repair and restoration work. The spectacular curvilinear roof is covered in fine, graded slate tiles, with lead flashing along its 4 curved ridges. After storms in January 2018 and tree damage to the roof, the existing and unsatisfactory asbestos felt flashing was replaced with conservation-standard lead.
However, it wasn’t long before this was torn from all four ridges by thieves in a single operation. It was all replaced in early September this year at a cost running into five figures – a sum vastly greater than the stolen lead. But then, at 2am a few days later, the thieves attacked again. No doubt expecting another easy haul, this time they didn’t reckon with an alarm that had by now been installed and they only got as far as partially lifting a short section of the flashing on a single roof ridge, which the Trust was able to repair by the following evening.
The damage done to the Assembly Rooms
Assembly Rooms
Completed in 1881 in red, handsomely decorative brick and terracotta, the Assembly Rooms were a gift to the local community from the Maryon Wilson family, the former owners and last occupants of Charlton House. Recently Grade II listed, and now the responsibility of the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, the Assembly Rooms remain a great community asset which might have been lost if that same community hadn’t saved them from demolition in the 1970s. A highly ambitious restoration project at the time, one of the key tasks was to replace the domed, multi-facetted roof cupola. This highly skilled work was undertaken at a local college by students specialising in the traditional materials and techniques required. The cupola’s dome is covered in lead, and this has now become the Village’s most recent target for attack by lead thieves.
As the picture shows, they managed to prise some of the lead away until they were either caught in the act or because it was more difficult to remove than anticipated. Once again, the value of the lead is minimal when compared to the cost of restoration and repair work, which also involves the base of the cupola structure, the fine tiled roof that the thieves scaled to reach their objective and serious rainwater damage to the parquet flooring inside the Rooms, which, like Charlton House, have been closed since the onset of Covid-19.
Edward Schofield, visitor and operations manager at the trust, says that the attack comes at a time when the charity is working towards ways of safely and reliably reopening the trust’s buildings to the community. “This criminal damage goes beyond the basic theft of materials – apart from the disruption, the overall repair and replacement costs, not least for the extensive scaffolding required, will be considerable.”
St Luke’s
Built in 1630 – a little before Christopher Wren’s Royal Observatory a couple of miles or so away on the same escarpment – historic St Luke’s is one of London’s most compelling and attractive parish churches. Not immediately visible to the eye from the outside, the roof has two ridges forming a valley and it is from here and the gulley at the side that thieves ripped out lead coverings, causing extensive damage in the process, including to the interior fabric of the building. Churchwarden Rick Newman confirms that the amount stolen was minimal but that the cost of repair will run into the tens of thousands of pounds, considerably more than the limits imposed on claims for what is being deemed as “metal theft”. St Luke’s has ambitious plans for the repair and upkeep of the building – important and essential work on the unique castellated tower has already been completed – but with other works required, this theft and vandalism is a major setback.
It has just been discovered that lead has now also been torn from above the main porch and side door to St Richard’s Church Centre at the corner of Swallowfield and Sundorne Roads. Rick Newman describes the crime as “a frustrating addendum to the current epidemic of lead thefts in Charlton”.
The designation means that if the building is put up for sale, a six-month block can be put on the sale to allow a community group to bid to take it on.
It is the second time the pub has been given the status – six years ago the society successfully applied for the White Swan to be made an asset of community value, but the designation was allowed to lapse.
What has Charlton ward councillor GARY PARKER been up to? Here’s his latest report.
Dear Charlton Residents, this is my current ward report, this is a snapshot of my recent activities it does not cover individual case work or a range of other meetings. I try to highlight a few key activities which maybe of general interest. Please contact me direct if you want more information: gary.parker[at]royalgreenwich.gov.uk; Twitter: @CllrG2013.
Charlton Society – I attended the Charlton Society meeting on redevelopment and regeneration of the village and surrounding areas, together with my co-councillors and other officers from the Charlton Society, some good ideas came forward, I will be working with the CS and others to develop and support these ideas wherever possible. A meeting is scheduled in the near future with council officers and we gave the Charlton Society some information about current funding opportunities through the council – more below.
New Funding- Charlton-based organisations or those that support Charlton residents can now bid for new funding from the council this includes the ward budget – your ward councillors want to give money to as many local organisations as possible within the £30,000 budget allowable and also from the Community Infrastructure Levy (to be launched on 17 September) – a fund from actual development to support local neighbourhoods. There is over £109k to support projects in four wards including Charlton. This is a one year fund with more money available next year – for more info see www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk.
Planning & Development Issues – I have been working with local groups and individuals regarding a range of planning issues, yet again. I opposed the recent application by Rockwell and spoke at the planning board meeting on this in July as did many local residents. The application was rejected but since then, the Mayor of London has ‘called in’ the decision for review, as he claims that Greenwich has not been achieving its affordable housing targets. In my view this call in is a challenge to local democracy, the planning board, who I have been sharply critical of in the past, did the right thing as did local residents. There is a large group of residents, community organisations, businesses and groups in the area actively opposing this development – I will support them as much as I can. If the application is upheld by the Mayor I will be encouraging the council to seek a judicial review on this issue. I will continue to campaign vigorously on this issue, which is now as much about local democracy as it is about planning issues and defending local communities against big developers.
Pocket Homes – Pocket Living is a property development company supported by the Mayor of London which builds homes for sale to first time buyers at reduced prices. The Council cabinet took a decision on 16 July to go out to consultation with residents on the sale of three plots of land to the company at three sites – in Blackheath Westcombe, Greenwich West, and The Heights in Charlton. I called in this decision with Cllr Fletcher from Blackheath ward, a “call-in” is a council process by which councillors can ask for decisions to be reviewed. I have some specific concerns which I raised about: social value, the impact in Charlton ward, land contamination at the site and the nature of the consultation. Many local residents attended this meeting and they too voiced their concerns. Since then this issue has featured significantly in social media and in the local press.
Events & Engagements – A selection
I attended two Better Together Community Engagement events covering Charlton.
I attended the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust board meeting on 17th July and raised a number of local issues including parking charges at Charlton House and access to the archives for local residents and historians – I will issue a separate report on the trust soon.
I support the John Roan- anti academisation campaign and attended the picket line to support striking workers in July.
I attended and supported the new Greenwich Housing Forum which held an open public meeting about housing issues in the Borough – I estimate nearly 100 people attended- more info @greenwich_forum
I chaired the Council’s Regeneration Scrutiny Panel on 23 July – it reviews policy and executive actions on regeneration issues in the borough.
I held a meeting with the council’s deputy chief executive about the Woolwich Creative District and other heritage and regeneration issues in the Charlton area on 24 August.
SURGERIES/CASEWORK – Raised a very large amount of housing and planning related casework, community safety and crime related issues which is ongoing. I also dealt with some issues in Charlton Park related to alleged drug dealing and anti -social behaviour and continued graffiti and vandalism around the toilets. I am concerned about the escalation of such behaviour in Charlton Park and am working with my co-councillors to address this issue.
COUNCIL – I also attended the July 2018 full council meeting and the main overview and scrutiny panel meetings of which I am a member. This received reports from senior council officers and cabinet members about major issues in Greenwich.
The Charlton Society has a plan to rejuvenate Charlton Village
The Charlton Society has launched an 18-point action plan to turn around the fortunes of Charlton Village – and is holding a public meeting on Saturday to discuss its ideas.
The Charlton Village Action Plan sets out proposals for traffic, buildings and the street scene to make the area more attractive for businesses and residents.
The meeting will be held at the Grand Salon in Charlton House at 2.30pm on Saturday 20 January.
Proposals include: introducing traffic calming measures and making The Village a 20mph zone (worth noting that 20mph is now a standard speed limit in other south London boroughs); improving the two service roads behind The Village together with car parking; providing “welcome” signage; surveying property ownership and empty homes above shops; creating a market space outside The Baguette and Village Green Grocers; and improving street furniture and pavements.
Inverine Road is one of the streets covered by the scheme
A Charlton residents’ group is to launch an anti-cold calling campaign in its area after getting £740 from Greenwich Council’s ward budget scheme.
The Charlton Central Neighbourhood Watch plans to turn its area – 10 streets between Victoria Way and Charlton Church Lane, south of Charlton station – into a “no cold caller/rogue trader zone”, raising awareness among the 800 households who live in those roads.
“Every household will receive a door sticker to ward off unwelcome callers and signage will be put in the area to promote the campaign and to deter cold caller and rogue traders from operating in the area,” the council document outlining the scheme says.
The Charlton Society has also been given money from the fund – £1,620 to support its events programme. The society says it is hoping to attract more families to events and is “considering events which could increase the range of age within the membership”.
Please come and join us for the Charlton Society AGM this coming Saturday, October 17th in Charlton House, starting at 2.30pm.
Charlton has seen a lot of changes in the last year. Please come along to the AGM and tell us what you like about Charlton, and what you don’t. We’d love to have more members and more of you involved.
The past year has been a very busy one for the Society and largely unnoticed as our public face is rather like a handsome swan – calm above the water – for the Society a successful series of talks and paddling like crazy below – setting up sub-groups to facilitate an ever-burgeoning programme of work, setting up our website, encouraging new members and taking an active part with other local and borough-wide organisations keeping a careful eye on new developments either in Charlton or those which will have a major impact on Charlton.
Saturday will present an interesting programme in addition to the regular AGM business. The committee will present its past year to you and we hope that you will join us in discussing the progress made and what still needs to be done.
We will also have three guest speakers: Greenwich mayor Norman Adams will give a short presentation, Matthew Pennycook MP will be present and we look forward to his reflections on his early months in his new role. Finally Mark Hughes of AECOM consultants will be giving a short presentation on current progress with the Charlton Riverside Masterplan Phase 2 and their future programme of consultation.
It should be a busy and very interesting afternoon. Please join us for this important discussion, followed by a welcome cup of tea.
The Charlton Champion 