Kirkdale/Dartmouth Road New builds

[michael]

On Thursday evening this application went before the planning committee. Officers had recommended approval, however the councillors on the committee rejected this application due to the various problems that the density of the scheme led to. Well done to the Sydenham Society for leading the opposition to this application which was not good enough for this particular site.

[bag lady]

Thats fabulous news, well done to those involved.

I really can't understand on what basis the planners approved this build, it's madness. The council has announced that it plans to sell the old council building at the back of kirkdale in Willow way, no access can now be guaranteed by the unadopted path to the back of the buildings on Kirkdale once sold. Thats what their saying.

Unfortunately their's at least one property whose only access is via this route, the planning dept approved this build earlier this year. Another case where one arm of the council doesn;t know what the others doing. The plans would never have been approved and doubtless the developers would not have planned access this way if they had known the land was going to be sold.

Madness.

[marymck]

I imagine the future marketing guff will refer to it as an enclave, shortly followed by references to Kirkdale Village/Quarter no doubt.

W. Wonder

Oh, Wispy, how right you were ... Wooster & Stock are rebranding the area Kirkdale Village.

[Eagle]

Poor Kirkdale. Area destroyed by the terrible council blocks in Wells Park Rd. It would be great to bring back and put on trial the planning people in LBC in the 60's. They seemed to have the one aim of shipping people in from Deptford and building terrible tower blocks.

Before these blocks quite countryfied.

[marymck]

&, just to clarify BTW, although I welcome any efforts to genuinely improve this area (reopening the Woodman as a vibrant and welcoming pub would be a start) I think the name "Kirkdale Village" is really embarrassingly silly. I can't think of anything less like a village.

I would, however, love to see the bit of Kirkdale that used to be called Sydenham Hill Road (i.e. the bit that runs between Dartmouth Road and Sydenham Hill) either revert to its earlier name, or be renamed "Upper Kirkdale" or some such. Such a change would save a lot of confusion. Practically every time I'm working on my front garden a knackered pedestrian or confused motorist asks for directions and invariably they should have turned right onto Dartmouth Road rather than haul themselves all the way up the hill.

[Tim Lund]

although I welcome any efforts to genuinely improve this area (reopening the Woodman as a vibrant and welcoming pub would be a start) I think the name "Kirkdale Village" is really embarrassingly silly. I can't think of anything less like a village.

I would, however, love to see the bit of Kirkdale that used to be called Sydenham Hill Road (i.e. the bit that runs between Dartmouth Road and Sydenham Hill) either revert to its earlier name, or be renamed "Upper Kirkdale" or some such. Such a change would save a lot of confusion.

I think the name 'Kirkdale Village' came out of a meeting organised by some of the traders up there, but including others, such as myself, Annabel from the Sydenham Society, and Jonathan from the Kirkdale Bookshop / Sydenham Arts Festival. We went round in circles a bit thinking what would be a good name to help rebrand the area, which clearly does have its own identity. One of the problems is that getting a road renamed is not really practical. I have to say, when I saw an email from Jenny Holland, of Wooster & Stock, entitled "Kirkdale Village Launch", my immediate reaction was positive. I'd have been just as happy with "Upper Kirkdale", but Wooster & Stock are actually trading up there, and taking this initiative, so I for one would like to support them.

As Estate Agents, Wooster & Stock inevitably have a particular economic incentive to brand this area, but other traders around are just as much involved. The fact that Wooster & Stock was previously looking to put up the massive over-development, which is the original subject of this thread, is not for me a reason to think this cannot be a genuine effort to improve the area. Yes, it probably would have been nice to keep the Woodman going as a pub, but we need to accept commercial realities.

[mummycat]

..

[georgemichael]

How awful.
Kirkdale "village".
What next Silverdale village? Bell Green village?
I don't want to live in a village.
I want to live in Sydenham Town!

[leenewham]

Oh George, have Faith!



I wish the businesses in Kirkdale well and I really hope this makes a difference. I really do.

But with naming and branding, it's dangerous to make something out to be something it isn't. Before the branding Kirkdale thing came about I'd never heard anyone refer to Kirkdale as a village. I'm sure that everyone will carry on calling Kirkdake 'Kirkdale' just as most people call The Pound store 'Mustis' or Sydenham Road 'The High Street'.

If they manage to make Kirkdale feel like a village and give it's it own distinct personality then I'm sure it will work. But personally, I feel it's best to do that first, THEN brand it. It's always best to make an idea spread by word of mouth first.

[Eagle]

Village
What has it got in common with villages in Midsommer.