I just got an email from a council officer working for the 'Sustainable Development Select Committee', which is
looking at how the council addresses the issue of empty homes and commercial properties in the borough, and what can be done to further reduce numbers
The full email, with contact details, is below. My favourite (or least favourite) empty property is the Rotary Day Centre in Addington Grove, owned by ... the Council! What are other STFers' faves? Post a reply here, PM me, or reply to the Council contact given.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to let you know about a review of empty properties being carried out by Lewisham Council's Sustainable Development Select Committee. The Committee will be looking at how the council addresses the issue of empty homes and commercial properties in the borough, and what can be done to further reduce numbers.
As empty properties can be a blight on local areas - often leading to anti-social behaviour such as graffiti, fly-tipping and pest infestations - the Chair of the Committee (Councillor Sue Luxton) is keen to hear from local societies such as your own. Any contributions you wish to make to the review will be considered by the committee, along with a range of other evidence, when making their final recommendations. Contributions you may wish to make to the review might include:
examples of empty properties (domestic or commercial) in your local area - particularly those which have become derelict or have led to anti-social behaviour such as those listed above;
your experiences of how problem empty properties have been dealt with by the council; and
the impact of empty properties on your neighbourhood.
Joel Hartfield
Overview & Scrutiny
London Borough of Lewisham
2nd Floor Civic Suite
London SE6 4RU
If you don't feel you have anything to contribute to the review but would nevertheless like to attend the review sessions held in public, then they will take place at 7:30pm on the 2nd September and 7th October. Details of each meeting will be available on the council website around a week in advance of each meeting (http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/CouncilAndDe ... lMeetings/). The final report and recommendations are likely to be presented to the Mayor and Cabinet in November or December.
There are lots of empty shops on Kirkdale, nr Dartmouth Road, and they REALLY drag the whole area's appearance right down. If they could sorted I would be one very, very happy bunny!!!!
Rates charge reduction to 50% for empty commercial properties have been scrapped, owners now face having to cough up the whole lot. According to this article properties are deliberately being made derelict or pulled down to avoid the tax hike.
The shop at 101 Kirkdale is awful, it has pigeons living in it, weeds growing in the brickwork, old food stock still in it ( from 5 years ago), is in a state of increasingly dangerous looking disrepair and a general eye sore.
I have contacted several depts at Lewisham council regarding this and had no useful help.
natbeuk wrote:Ah yes, who could forget the Greyhound.... ok, add that to my list. Sort out the Greyhound and Kirkdale and I'll be happy
Seconded... Also, what is going on with the "club" that has always been boarded up as long as I've lived here, behind Cobbs corner, entrance on Spring Hill. Between that and the Greyhound, it looks god-awful
Why don't we use the empty buildings as temporary art galleries, or get posters or displays put in the windows. There is no reason, except lazyness, to let an empty shop look cr*ppy. And it doesn't have to be expensive.
I bet more people would have responded to recycling if there was an exhibition in an empty shop people could see as they walked past than the huge big brother esq and rather expensive banners making our high street look even more cluttered than it already is.
I've always been intrigued by that 'club' on the (side gate) way to the station. I walk past it every day and wonder about all the glamorous women and their perhaps not so glamorous boyfriends - was Ron Knight an owner? (or was he on the opposite side?) Anyway the thing is... every morning - the lights are on. Who is in there? The ghosts of Ron and Babs? (well not Babs, she's still alive). Men in mod suits doing deals, ladies with thick eyeliner sipping Babycham?
I would so love to be able to have a peek around before its redeveloped - it can't stay empty for ever can it?
Savvy, the Regency Club was an old snooker club, until not that long ago (10 years, maybe). I had a few games of snooker in there.
The club which was owned by Ronnie Knight was on the other side of the tracks, on Station Approach, over the top of where the Gymphobics now is. No doubt it was frequented by some lively local 'characters' in its time, probably including the notorious Richardsons, who, by all accounts, made the Krays look like Mother Teresa.
Do you know why the lights are on? Even if they were on a timer someone would have to adjust it. It is very intriguing. Maybe the owner now has a new diffenent business and uses it as a storage place? Whoever it is is there very early. Maybe its being squatted? Its a shame it isn't being used, I bet its a good space, a good venue for music or whatever.
Thank you bag lady for reinvigorating this post. Something that was pointed out to me recently - in connection with the former HSBC building - is that given the normal commercial lease, in which the tenant commits to paying the rent for a number of years, when in a recession the tenant gives up, but is still a good credit - still just about the case for HSBC - the landlord has very little incentive to relet the property, since the chance of finding as good an income stream is very small.
SydSoc and local traders do have regular meeting with our Town Centre Manager, but she - and other council officers - are incredibly sensitive about anything being said about what is discussed in them. It means that when those of us who attend post on this forum, we are often unable to say as much as we would like. But believe me, we do try to push for some of ideas people post on this forum.
Strange, I thought the "club" over Gymophobics was the Jimmy Small Dance Centre where my children learned to dance ballroom and Latin American in the 1990s. They even gained medals in different disciplines.
I wasn't aware of any Ronnie Knight connection......
If I remember correctly, the premises above Outback Hairdressers, Paul James and the keycutters were in the early 80s the Tudors (or was it the Knights?) nightclub - the Ronnie Knight connection. Jimmy Smalls was located in the adjacent upper floors. When we first moved to Sydenham (1979) this corner was very dilapidated until a sudden paint job was done - bright pink - and the internal walls were covered in frescoes of knights and ladies from days of yore... not that I ever visited, but all clearly visible through the windows! And down below, the premises occupied by Gymophobics were, for many years, Mick's Gym - a real Sarf London institution! Gymophobics is very genteel in comparison!
