Rebuild the Greyhound Pub Campaign #rebuildthegreyhound

[Sydenham Society]

For nearly 300 years the Greyhound pub was a well-known and attractive landmark which welcomed people to Sydenham. Two and a half years ago it was partly demolished without Conservation Area Consent – a criminal act for which its owner, Purelake, was fined in the courts. Since then this sad structure has remained as a blight on our high street and is preventing new investment in the area. It’s now seven years since the pub was last open and we are now saying to our Council and Lewisham's Mayor: Enough is Enough - we want our pub back!

Today the Sydenham Society are launching a campaign - Rebuild the Greyhound Pub - which we hope will lead to a resolution of this longstanding problem, get our pub rebuilt (and operating as a pub!) and allow the retail space to the rear and side to be let.

But we can't do this on our own. We need the entire community to participate and get
behind this campaign. And we need support from all those who live, work and shop in Sydenham.

In the course of the next few days we'd like to explain to users of this site what's gone wrong at the Greyhound and how we can act together to get the result we all want - the rebuilding of our pub.

As a first step can I ask you to sign our on-line petition at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rebu ... yhound-pub

Many thanks,


Annabel McLaren
Chair, Sydenham Society

[southernmoose]

Yeyyyyyy! Finally some public action. Good on ya Sydenham Society.

Looking forward to seeing what the next bits of the campaign look like, and very much hoping it will involve putting up a 'name and shame' sign outside the Greyhound so people understand exactly who is responsible for the current mess...

[Rachael]

Excellent. People else thread where asking how to make the public more aware of this, and the connections between Purelake and our PM. I would suggest using the #rebuildthegreyhound hashtag liberally on Twitter.

[Manwithaview1]

Signed and tweeted

[Annie.]

Can I still sign? Even though I'm not there anymore, I'd did live there for 38 yrs and my family are on the murul.

[admin]

I would suggest using the #rebuildthegreyhound hashtag liberally on Twitter.

Purelake Group and Jim Dowd are both Twitter free. Should we hashtag them too? Perhaps the young could explain the best way to tweet them into submission ...

Admin

[Rachael]

Purelake are on Facebook though. https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pure ... 81?fref=ts

It might be a good idea to bomb their page with comments about the Greyhound, and let them know that there is a Twitter campaign afoot. They need to know we mean business. They may delete the comments, so take a screen shot after you leave your comments. If they start deleting a lot of them, that looks bad when you can prove they are doing it.

[Suzee]

Great news! Petition signed and tweeted.

[Rachael]

I posted to their Facebook page, forgot to take my own advice to take a screenshot, went back and it was gone, as was another post made today about the Greyhound. I've posted again and taken a screenshot this time. Let's hope it stays up a bit longer!

[admin]

Purelake have form for airbrushing inconvenient history: http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... ive#p81706
Which extols the virtue of this exciting development around a 'gastro' pub. How sick can you get:
http://web.archive.org/web/201308140350 ... ject_id=62
And if you find a way of getting that taken down Purelake - I have the screenshots.

I'm thinking - if they really wanted to wind up people into thinking they are just a bunch of shysters - they really couldn't do better.

Admin

[Nigel]

100% with you
A very good morning
Nigel

[admin]

Posted on behalf of Sydenham Society from the South London Press ...

Click on the image for a larger version.

[Nigel]

It says it all when Purelake's response was " no comment ". Especially as their spokesperson is called Tracy Sultana . I presume that is their currant position.
A very good morning
Nigel

[Eagle]

Despite my doubts of the validity of a rebuild , I wish the campaign all the best.

The councils comment that they are awaiting legal advice seems strange. This has been a big issue for a very very long time. They must have very slow lawyers. Suggest they look around for new ones.

I hope I a wrong but doubt if any change in 6 months time.

[JMLF]

Signed. Will be spreading the word and getting others to sign and hopefully make the target of 1000.

Excellent start, considering it's only been up a little while!

[admin]

It says it all when Purelake's response was " no comment ". Especially as their spokesperson is called Tracy Sultana . I presume that is their currant position.

This is the real Tracey Sultana: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/tracey-sultana/5a/448/9b5

I note Gerry Dowd, Purelake Group Finance Director, keeps a very low Linkedin profile. But here is a picture so you can recognise him if shows up in Sydenham. He is an award winner and as you look art him remember his words about the Greyhound in April 2012:

"That pub will rise again ... we are rebuilding it - it is not a problem"
(full quote here)

[Sydenham Syd]

Signed a tweeted. How about writing to bbc Watchdog?

[Smiffy]

Signed. Shame I won't be around to see it rebuilt (if it ever is rebuilt. Having seen the deliberate neglect of the building and knowing what utter contempt Purelake have for Sydenham, as well as their connections in high places I have my doubts).

[admin]

High or low places. Purelake are keen to brand themselves to be:



And Lewisham are presumably happy they use our council's logo to promote themselves. And at the very same council has, for the past two years or more supposedly been enforcing the law against them. Has their very own planning department some sort of commercial relationship? (which is what Purelake's website implies). Is this a conflict of interest?

This has been raised before but Lewisham appear to have done nothing about it. Would someone like to respond on their behalf?

Admin

[nasaroc]

This is a question to be put to the Lewisham Mayor. Why can't he ask Purelake to remove the "in partnership with Lewisham " from the Purelake website and threaten not to work with Purelake in future unless they start to do the right thing and rebuild the Greyhound?

The Lewisham Council logo is after all being used as a "seal of approval" here. This approval should be removed immediately.

Housing associations can also be asked by Lewisham to play their part in this. Developers such as Purelake often partner up with a Housing Association to complete a housing project. In the case of the Greyhound, Purelake's partner is Hexagon Housing.

Lewisham has huge influence over local housing associations. A clear letter sent by the Mayor to the Chief Executives of all local HA would make the position clear.

As part of our campaign we have to get in front of the Lewisham Mayor and press him on this and other questions.

Barry Milton