Charlton

The White Swan spreads its wings: Food, a beer festival, Northern Soul and a writers’ night

Neil Clasper

Since re-opening under new management at the beginning of September Charlton’s White Swan pub has quickly built up a loyal audience and a programme of events that puts longer-established pubs in the area to shame, with live music each weekend, a weekly quiz, and even a free cheeseboard on Sundays.

Food’s now on the menu too…

https://twitter.com/SwanPubSE7/status/657189725216841728

Pub manager Eren sends us news of their first beer festival:

Our first annual beer festival will take place from October 30th – 1st November. During the course of that weekend:

Friday – Festival kicks off and we have live music from Dennis Greaves (9 Below Zero). We’re aiming to have around 15-20 ales & ciders.

Saturday 31st –  Halloween party: Fancy dress strongly encouraged, pumpkin carving for kids from 1pm, live music from The Duplicates from 9pm. Also the rugby final at 4pm!

Sunday 1st Nov – The Oakland Brothers bring their acoustic sounds at 6pm.

This Friday brings a night of Northern Soul and Rare Groove – The Charlton Champion hopes this will become a regular event:

Swan Northern Soul

It’s not just music, though: local author Paul Breen has sent us details of a regular writers’ evening he’s started at the White Swan, with some personal reflections on the changes to the pub:

These past few weeks have shown me that there is a community in Charlton, and that all those different groups of people who I know also happen to know one another, and enjoy coming together in shared social spaces. I’ve met people there, and invited people there who I’ve never socialised with before in a pub. At times it’s felt like EastEnders, which being from Ireland I thought all London pubs were like anyway. Growing up, watching TV, most of England’s conversations seemed to take place in the pub, andrecently The White Swan has brought me back to memories of those soap operas I don’t watch anymore – places like The Queen Vic, The Rovers Return, and The Woolpack. Mind you though, I’m not putting names to Charlton’s versions of Grant Mitchell, Emily Bishop, Hilda Ogden, Dirty Den, or Bet Lynch.

It’s just good to see this drawing together of a community, and a sense that there’s a place you can go to on the edges of London’s incessant rush, and know somebody who’s there and have a chat.

One of the developments I have been involved in has been the creation of a Writers’ Group who have decided to hold regular gatherings on Monday evenings at half past seven. Once a month we have a theme, and all other Mondays are just going to be drop in sessions. Everyone is welcome to the drop in sessions happening next week and the week after, and then the theme night on Monday 2nd November, where the theme is Comedy & Humour. As I said, feel free to come along to perform, participate, discuss, watch, chat, drink, or whatever. Everyone’s welcome regardless of how or what they write. Some of us are published authors, bloggers or journalists, and some are artists in other areas, and some novices.

You can find the White Swan on Facebook and Twitter.

‘The Wyrd Sisters’: new production from The Alexandra Players

Neil Clasper

Alexandra Players 'Wyrd Sisters'

Charlton’s amateur theatre group presents Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs. The show’s on from the 28th to 30th of October at The Alexandra Hall on Bramshot Avenue;  more info – and booking details – can be found on The Alexander Players website.

Regenerating Charlton: What to do with the old summer house?

Darryl Chamberlain7 Comments

Charlton summer house

We’ve written before about whether Charlton needs a regeneration plan. We’ve also written about the challenges ahead for Charlton House under its new owners. There’s one place in SE7 where these two themes come neatly together.

You may well recognise the old public toilet opposite St Luke’s Church. It’s been locked shut for about a decade now. There’s a longer and more fascinating history to this building, though – it’s a Grade I-listed summer house, built in about 1630 and designed by Inigo Jones.

If it was in Greenwich, it’d be cherished. If it was in Woolwich, developers would probably have bulldozed it for “investment opportunities”. This is Charlton, though, so it’s just sat there, closed.

Now Severndroog Castle is back in rude health, it’s probably the most neglected historic building in Greenwich borough. It quietly passed from the council to the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust in July 2014 – so it’s now their job to decide what to do with it.

If the centre of Charlton is to be regenerated, the trust is going to have to play a big part in that. It’s recently found a long-term tenant for Charlton Assembly Rooms, which was recently refurbished by Greenwich Council, but what future is there for the summer house?

We’d like to make a small suggestion. This could make a brilliant place for people to try out small businesses. A former public toilet near Loughborough Junction station is being used for just that – and there’s no reason why we think this can’t happen in Charlton.

Cider I Up, Loughborough Junction
The Platform Cider Bar at Loughborough Junction. The building has also been used as a bike market, jewellery shop and cosmetics retailer.

The Platform is a project backed by Lambeth Council and Meanwhile Space.

If you’ve got a business idea, The Platform gives you training and advice, and then allows you to try out your dream in one of three locations – two railway arches and an old toilet at Ridgway Road.

The best-known use for the Ridgway Road toilet has been as a cider bar – it’s well worth a visit if it reopens – but the space has also been used for a farm shop, art gallery, workshops, bicycle market, organic cosmetics shop and jewellery shop.

Perhaps a cider bar next to a pub might not work out (or maybe it would if you avoided matchdays?), but putting the summer house to good use for small businesses is certainly better than leaving it empty. It’s just an idea – and if Charlton’s fortunes are to be revived, it seems like a very good one to us.

Valley House: Greenwich councillors throw out nine-storey Charlton block

Darryl Chamberlain8 Comments

Valley House render

Greenwich Council’s planning board has thrown out plans for a nine-storey block of 74 flats on Woolwich Road – even after the developer agreed to remove the “poor doors” so residents of social and private housing shared the same entrance and facilities.

Councillors had demanded the scheme be deferred in July because of concerns about the “poor doors”, but at also because of the size and density of the development, which faces two-storey homes.

Concerns had been dismissed by council officers, who said in a report: “In an evolving area such as this, it is not practical or even reasonable to expect a developer to mirror the low density of the two-storey terraces on the southern side of Woolwich Road, as the opportunity to provide both market and affordable housing would be missed.”

But in a surprising decision, the nine-strong board dismissed the scheme. Four councillors – Ray Walker, Peter Brooks, Harry Singh and Mehboob Khan – backed the proposal. But four voted against and one, Angela Cornforth, abstained. As planning chair Mark James was one of those opposing the scheme.

Council leader Denise Hyland – the only London borough leader who sits on their council’s main planning committee – was absent due to an engagement elsewhere, as was regeneration cabinet member Danny Thorpe.

A CGI from architects Chassay & Last.
A CGI from architects Chassay & Last.

28 objections had been received for the scheme, which objector David Gayther called “the most important development here for years”. Residents’ groups had feared approval would set a precedent for the forthcoming new Charlton Riverside masterplan, which observers say is likely to feature demands for more tall buildings by the Thames.

Objectors were led by the Charlton Central Residents Association – whose area, which is south of the railway line, does not cover Valley House. Representative Anne Waite lambasted the lack of measures to deal with poor air quality in the area, saying “we’ve got rid of poor doors and replaced them with poor floors”.

Fellow resident Linda Waite picked holes in the planning document, highlighting a “sloppy use of cut and paste” which appeared to recommend councillors approve a completely separate application. She branded it a “pick and mix” of what recommendations from the masterplan were accepted and which were ignored.

Greenwich Conservation Group’s Philip Binns said there was no indication the developer had even considered reducing the height of the building.

But a representative of the developer denied the scheme “disrespected” loals, and said losing the top two floors would have a disproportionate impact on the number of “affordable” homes that could be provided – which was only 18.9%.

Eltham West councillor Ray Walker said he “couldn’t see the impact on existing residential amenity”, but chair Cllr James said he did not think the scheme conformed with the current Charlton Riverside masterplan. He joined Geoff Brighty, Christine Grice and Nuala Geary in voting down the proposal.

Two other controversial planning applications – one to replace the rear of Charlton Conservative Club with housing, the other the expansion of a care home on Victoria Way, go before a separate planning committee on Tuesday.

New Our Lady of Grace school approved for disused Highcombe playing field site

Darryl Chamberlain6 Comments

new Our Lady of Grace School on Highcombe
Developer Galliford Try’s image of the new Our Lady of Grace School on Highcombe
Plans to rebuild Our Lady of Grace primary school on a disused playing field in Highcombe were passed by Greenwich Council last night, despite a 100-signature petition signed by neighbours who oppose the development.

The scheme, passed unanimously by the nine councillors on the planning board, will see the Roman Catholic school move down the hill from its Charlton Road site to open space last used by the former St Austin’s comprehensive school and its successor, Christ The King sixth form college.

The school building was demolished when Christ the King moved to Lewisham in the early 1990s and was replaced with housing, but the playing field remained in church ownership and was left abandoned. The land and Highcombe itself have long been a blackspot for flytipping.

It will enable the school to double its intake to 420 pupils, at a time when primary school places are in high demand. Vehicles will enter via Highcombe – 18 staff parking spaces are being provided – with deliveries using Lime Kiln Close.

The new school could be open as early as September 2016 – a factor in councillors wanting to approve the application now instead of wanting to defer it to iron out issues with those who live near the site.

With a shortage of school places in Greenwich borough, planning chair Mark James said that as community open space can be used for education, “that is the overriding consideration” in the case. Councillors did call for a community garden to be included on the site.

Our Lady of Grace site render

Neighbours are concerned about increased car traffic on adjacent side roads as well as the loss of open space – the 1992 planning agreement for Lime Kiln Drive stated the site was to remain for recreation – with some calling for the school to be rebuilt on its existing site or at the Blackheath Bluecoat site on Old Dover Road. There are also concerns about a “multi-use games area” alongside the school.

Charlton ward councillor Gary Parker led objectors, saying the development would add to the “significant” amount of traffic caused by parents and staff driving to schools in the immediate area. He asked for the application to be deferred.

Martina Keating of the Charlton Central Residents’ Association – whose area doesn’t cover Highcombe – complained the group had not been invited to consultation events. She was also concerned about effects from building the school, adding that piling work at the Sainsbury’s site could be heard from Charlton Village.

Keating said the application had a “rosy view” of car parking – adding that most current Our Lady of Grace staff and pupils came by car. She was also concerned about claims that Victoria Way was a “quiet road” that was suitable for pupils to use to cycle to school, particularly with an increase in traffic caused by new superstore development.

Caroline Love of Charlton Community Gardens pointed out that her group was formed through unsuccessful negotiations with Southwark Diocese to use the land, lamenting the loss of potential for a “community-managed local park”

Local resident Richard Lovegrove, who presented a 100-strong petition from immediate neighbours, said the area would struggle to cope with traffic and branded the scheme a “dangerous, flawed proposal”. Another resident referred to a 1914 covenant on the land which he said meant the owners “must not cause noise or nuisance to neighbours”.

But a father of a child at Our Lady of Grace school, Mark Adams, said there was a “silent majority” in favour of the scheme, claiming most parents there did not drive.

Representatives of the scheme said it was impossible to rebuild the school on its current site due to the listed buildings next to it, and in any case they didn’t own the land there. They added that a scheme to hire out the playing field at “reasonable” rates had failed.

The current site of Our Lady of Grace is not included in the planning application. A previous application covering both sites failed in 2014 because of worries about housing planned for the land where the school sits now.

Burglary down, car crime up – Charlton ward crime stats now available

Neil Clasper5 Comments

Police in Floyd Road on a matchday

Greenwich Council’s Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel took a look at the key performance measures set by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) on Thursday night, and the Charlton ward-level results make interesting reading.

Comparison with neighbouring wards will raise questions about neighbourhood policing policies, and police community support officer (PCSO) numbers locally.

It’s worth noting that Charlton ward has retained its dedicated PCSO, while other wards – such as Kidbrooke with Hornfair, which covers the southern part of SE7 – share with neighbouring wards. The Metropolitan Police is considering getting rid of all 1,000 PCSOs in London.

Key year-on-year results include:

  • A decline in reported burglaries; residential and non-residential
  • A decline in reported robberies
  • A significant (63%) increase in reported vehicle thefts
  • An increase in reported thefts from vehicles
  • A decrease in reported theft from the person
  • An increase in reported criminal damage
  • An increase in reported violence against the person.

Click the tables below to enlarge them and get a more detailed view of the data, plus comparison with wards across the borough:MOPAC_1MOPAC_2MOPAC_3

The original data can be found on the council’s website. Cllr Chris Lloyd of Peninsula ward has called on the council to make this data more readily available to residents:

Thanks to Cllr Lloyd for tweeting from last night’s meeting. The MOPAC Dashboard gives more information on the London-wide picture for reported crimes.

Weekend night buses on route 486 get set to start

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment

Bus route 486
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.