Vote For Kirkdale Village Logo

[jotbot]

Following up from the highly successful Kirkdale Village Launch at the Mad Hatters Easter Event on Saturday we are extending the voting for the 'Kirkdale Village' logo until the 29th April 2011 (the Royal Wedding)

Voting stations and ballot papers will be available in various shops within the village, keep an eye out for the signs and make sure that you cast your vote.

Kirkdale village comprises the shops/businesses at the juction of Kirkdale & Dartmouth Road.

[marymck]

"Kirkdale Village" is part of Liverpool.

Please, please don't try to re-brand the historic hub of Sydenham with this silly, twee name.

[Robin Orton]

(I posted this earlier on the wrong thread).

I agree that 'Kirkdale Village' is a bit naff. To call a London suburban shopping street a 'village' seems quite a common way of rebranding it - where we used to live in SE13 is now 'Ladywell Village'. I guess it panders to the all-pervasive English rural nostalgia (as well of course of carrying the posh connotations of Dulwich Village, Blackheath Village, Hampstead Village etc. 'Peckham Village', anyone?) I rather dislike the name 'Kirkdale' anyway - too aggressively tartan in my view to suit the idiom of either Kent or south London.

Having said that, I don't think we should rubbish this attempt to establish a commercial identity for this bit of Sydenham. It's presumably too late to change the name anyway without inconvenience and expense, and I for one can't think of anything better. ('Upper Sydenham Town'? 'The Old High Street'? I think not.)

As for the logos, I had a quick look at them this morning. All very similar in style, and obviously all designed by the same person. A bit bland for my taste, but quite inoffensive.

[CaptainCarCrash]

Kirkdale Village?

Estate Agent drivel.

[jotbot]

Kirkdale Village is the name of our new traders association and the initative has been recieved very well, please dont be negative and get behind the local traders and support us in the initiative to create a shopping destination and most importantly support our local businesses.

[Rachael]

I think we are all behind your initiative, it's the name 'Kirkdale Village' that posters here seem to have trouble with. I don't know if you did any consultation before you chose your name,but I agree with the others that it is a bit naff. It's just the sort of thing estate agents come up with when they are trying to rebrand an area ripe for gentrification, which is why you are getting a negative reaction.

That said, it's the name you've got, so let's work with it. Any chance of viewing those logos online?

[georgemichael]

So who's the village idiot? How many of you traders actually live in the village itself? Why didn't you ask the Villagers if they'd like the name?

[jotbot]

Consultation was under taken and various name suggestions were made. The best fit was Kirkdale Village and the got the majority vote. You can never please everyone, but this is an exciting start and the huge success of our launch this saturday shows what we Kirkdale Village can do.

[marymck]

I am not being negative to any plans to regenerate this once vibrant commercial area. The area has suffered greatly by some terrible planning decisions and developments: shops and post office lost to estate agents and flats.

What does concern me is that any criticism of the meaningless name "Kirkdale Village" is immediately pounced on as being negative of efforts at regeneration. This area is the old heart of Sydenham (which is, after all, a living community ... not just traders). It's an area I feel quite passionate about.

"Kirkdale" is not, nor has it ever been, a "village". (Except for the Kirkdale Village now consumed by Liverpool's expansion.)

Until around 1936 the street above the junction was called "Sydenham Hill Road". Much more appropriate than the meaningless Kirkdale. I'm not sure when the High Street was renamed Kirkdale, but I believe it was within living memory. I will start a thread on the History board to pose the question and open up the discussion re the invention of "Kirkdale Village".

[Rachael]

So how about getting those logos online and doing an online poll?

[marymck]

Jotbot:

What consultation? I know you only recently joined this forum, but where is the thread consulting on the name?

I was born in Sydenham. I live on Kirkdale. I shop in the Old High Street. I wasn't consulted. The first I heard was when it was a fait accompli.

Oh and, by the way, the Facebook page - while a worthy attempt - is very misleading. I've booked holidays in brochures based on those skewed kind of photographs. Those images show a very carefully selected part of the Kirkdale area. I'm afraid they don't show the reality.

[Robin Orton]

I'm not sure when the High Street was renamed Kirkdale, but I believe it was within living memory. I will start a thread on the History board to pose the question and open up the discussion re the invention of "Kirkdale Village".

There's plenty about the history on Steve Grindlays' blog - http://sydenhamforesthillhistory.blogsp ... l/Kirkdale
See also pp. 22-24 of 'The Transmitter' (something to do with Crystal Palace, I believe, wherever that is) issue 17: http://blog.thetransmitter.co.uk/2011/0 ... s-out.html

George Michael said:

How many of you traders actually live in the village itself?

Depends where the parish boundary is, I guess! I don't live in Kirkdale or a road immediately off it, but it's where I buy my morning paper and do emergency food shopping. Am I a 'villager'?

[jotbot]

The voting is not online as we want people to actually visit the businesses to cast their votes another inititative to get the local community into Kirkdale Village shops etc.

Kirkdale Village is the name of the Traders Asociation.

Follow us on our very own Kirkdale Village Facebook page.... Other initiatives to follow are loyalty cards, pop up shops, hanging baskets and a street party for the summer, haloween event and a campagin for Christmas lights and more.

[marymck]

Robin: thanks for the links. All very interesting.

[Janeco]

By asking people to go on Facebook you already lose a lot of potential interest. Surely there are a lot of us out there who have zero interest in joining Facebook!

[jotbot]

By asking people to go on Facebook you already lose a lot of potential interest. Surely there are a lot of us out there who have zero interest in joining Facebook!

We have no funding to create or run our own website (yet), so FB is a free way of easily communicating with people who are interested on mass.

Logo Voting will only be in Shops.... news and events will be billed on our FB page, here and where ever else we can get the word out.

[mummycat]

..

[Robin Orton]

There now appear to be two parallel discussions on this topic, one here and one on the 'Town Museum and Gallery.' Is there any way this can be rationalised?

[bigbadwolf]

As well intentioned as this whole venture or re-branding is, attempting to make something out what it's (locally) unanimously regarded as, in this case being a now grubby highstreet, is a complete waste of time and money.

The reason places like Blackheath, Dulwich and Hampstead villages all still retain a reputation of being an oasis-like village in an otherwise savage cityscape is because since their inception, during which pockets of London's expanding habitation were spaced apart, they actually were villages in the literal sense of the word. The survival of that village status depends entirely on how well its now-revered status is maintained. And in the case of the three examples that have popped-up during the course of this thread, they have, by and large, through various means (the Dulwich Estate enforces a tranquil village atmosphere via legal apparatus, aswell as community obligation) retained the image and atmosphere of a cosy village - often by establishing a financial status quo - thus setting an unwritten criteria for what small businesses are welcome i.e - no oiks, peasants or second-hand car dealerships. And to their credit, they were doing it long before it was deemed fashionable to let a greasy estate agent hypnotise you into thinking that you are living in a village. Even though you're actually five miles from the centre of one of the busiest cities in the world.

If the Traders' Association of Sydenham highstreet want to rebrand their little coterie of shops and outlets as the Kirkdale Village then fine. But after taking even the most cursory of glances at today's Kirkdale, even the most optimistic of small business owners will know that it won't stick, and will, after all the hype - which in this case is conspicuously absent - has died down, will go back to being known as Kirkdale; a place where you can buy a bucket of chicken, rent a one bedroom flat and buy four wigs for a tenner.

[Rachael]

I do think you are missing a trick by not at least posting the logos online. You can still restrict the actual voting to being done physically in area. I'm not going to go to the shops just to vote on something I haven't seen. If I've already seen them online and have a strong opinion then I might go along to vote.

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