Who buys flats in Lewisham?

Letter from overseas...

Having lived in 3 quite diverse parts of London, I have always felt that the market for properties in Lewisham, with the proximity to Central London and Canary Wharf, added to the quality of properties and green open spaces, should appeal to a wide audience.

Well, on opening the South China Morning Post last week, the advertising seems to certainly be targeting customers in Hong Kong. 

For nearly two weeks, advertising for a sales event (held at the Mandarin Oriental, HK) for the Silkworks apartments in SE13 has featured within the paper (being promoted by the developer, St James and the estate agent, King Sturge). 

With the weakened pound, the UK is proving attractive to a number of investors. There may be some expats looking to stay in the UK market, but a large number of Asian investors are being targeted. Also in the last week, I have watched a half hour documentary on this very subject on local HK tv, showing a number of Hong Kong residents who invest in London property.

Whether this advertising and tv interest leads to a knock on effect for Forest Hill may remain to be seen, but I think it is worth noting that the market for properties like Forest Hill Central is much wider than the traditional local SE23 market.

Forest Hill Pools Post No. 2

I really didn't mean to post about this, but it is such a big thing for the local area, that I can't help myself. I thought I'd add numbers to my posts on this going forwards so that I can track how often I end up posting about the same thing over the next few years....

So the latest, is 3 options for the Forest Hill Pools from the council. It took me quite some time, and a number of read throughs to get this right in my head.

So option 3 is - build a pool in Sydenham - I mean really...

Option 1 & 2 in theory are get rid of the Victorian frontage (Option 1) or keep it (Option 2). But then to make it a little more complicated the same assumptions don't appear to work for both, so you don't end up with a like for like comparison. Apparently to be able to Finance the one where you get rid of the frontage, you need additional housing to offset costs but for the conservation option you don't need this (logic I can't quite grasp).

I previously have been in favour of getting rid of the frontage (which I see as something of a Gothic monstrosity), though I have to say the new pictures with the frontage look rather cute. Truthfully, I don't care if it is Option 1 or 2, just get on and start it already.

What I really do care about though is that a facility should be built on the current site. Not because I particularly like swimming, but because I think the Council have a duty to provide investment to Forest Hill Town Centre. The 'town centre' is currently drab and run down, with a few notable exceptions trying to buck the trend. For Lewisham Council to even think of building the facility elsewhere is shameful. Lets hope that common opinion and common sense prevail.

Sunday brunch at Tapastry

This is the current favourite of the bf & I. Lazy Sunday, read the papers & a late breakfast at Tapastry in Honor Oak. Splendid.

Usually, they play cool music and you can lose the day in here. More recently, a tv seems to have appeared, and I have to imagine that the owner likes his footie. Having said that, it isn't too loud and surely it isn't on every day...

The food though is spot on - a healthy grill sources top quality ingredients and sets us up for the day. The service is friendly if a little scatter brained. But you do get the feeling that the owner really does like his little joint, and honestly - so do I. Possibly with more competition, I might shop around, but for now, this will do nicely.

Milkman delivers in the snow

No buses, National Rail Enquiries website crashed, schools closed - a nation thrown into turmoil?

I was so impressed at this sight in my porch this morning. I really didn't expect it, but I so appreciated it.

I love the fact that we have a milkman at all. I love the fact that you can now order online up to 9pm the night before. I love the fact they deliver cat food (as does the cat). I love that they never screw up when I go on holiday. But the fact that they can deliver when all else has failed !!

There's a fighting spirit. Go, milkman!

Forest Hill has a Snow Day!

It didn't take me too long this morning to realise it would be easier to work from home. Between the excel spreadsheets and the numerous phone calls, I managed to go out to the shops (with camera in tow)! Seeing Forest Hill in the snow was great - really uplifting.

The neighbourhood was full of kids (some well into their 30s) having snowball fights, snowmen being made and people taking photographs. This is one if the finest displays of community spirit I have seen in ages. This should happen every year!

Bongo Mike & Extremely Frank Jeremy

My Zone 2 & 3 travelcard experiment is kind of going as expected. Great if I don't need to go into Zone 1 and a bit crappy otherwise. To be fair, it is OK until I need to come home from London Bridge and then have to buy a ticket - currently I am going for the New Cross option (from where my Zone 2 card is OK) but it really irks, when you pay over 2.40, having just paid only 1.60 on the way into Zone 1 on the tube.

Week before last though and some buskers really cheered me up. Bongo Mike and Extremely Frank Jeremy were on the train. Seasoned professionals I see from surveying the net, they broke into a ditty about being on 'The train to Caterham'. (Presumably this song works as well on journeys to Hayes or Brighton as well.) The whole carriage was smiling as they played and a few of us bought their 4 song cd (artwork above) which includes the classic 'If you can't have a shave in a toilet, where can you shave?'.

Mike did say that the songs were absolutely dreadful - and his honesty is to be applauded. Sadly they didn't make it as far as Forest Hill, making a u-turn at New Cross Gate to miss the police.

Catch them if you can!

Burns Night with the SE23 club

My second dinner with the SE23 club was a Burns Night at the Honor Oak pub on the corner of St German's Road and Brockley Rise. Over 20 people attended and we filled over 2 tables at the pub, which seemed like a good effort for a cold January evening.

The Honor Oak put on a free starter (haggis) and then everyone ordered and paid their way as usual. The haggis was excellent. As a Scot abroad, I do have haggis fairly regularly, but always the supermarket ones, which are fine, but this one was a lovely, peppery little number. Special mention has to go to Rob Winton's dad who addressed the haggis. A nice touch and well received.

We sat next to two couples who lived very near us and had a good chat about the area and what we liked about where we lived. We really enjoyed the evening and personally I think this is an excellent way of getting locals to try out and patronise local restaurants where they may not have done otherwise. Even better, the bf has agreed that he may come again!

One Tree Hill

I have to own up and say that until I moved to the area, I did think that One Tree Hill was a spectacularly bad American drama series in the Dawson Creek vein.

Turns out it has a stupendous view of London. I've only been there in the winter, so not sure how much that you can see in the summer when the trees are in leaf. If you walk up from HOP train station, just follow the path past the church. When you get to the top there is a small clearing and a bench.

The story goes that on 1st May 1602, Elizabeth I had a picnic at the summit whilst on route from London to (somewhere further south..). Having hiked up there, I frankly very much doubt it. My guess is she walked round the side - if you were travelling past, I doubt you'd walk to the top - as it is a hike - but that is what gives you the view.

Books set in SE23

A friend sent me this link a while ago. The idea is that books set in an area get linked to it via a map - so you can put in your postcode and see if any books are set in your area. Clearly this is more fun if it is fiction.

For Se23, I found 'The Fowler Family Business' by Jonathan Meades. It is fun to read about an area that you know. For this read, a working knowledge of the Sydenham side of Forest Hill is useful!

Admittedly it isn't the best way to judge literature (as indeed illustrated by this example..) but good fun all the same.

Lottery Lounge

I have long held a dream of my very own, laid back, coffee shop/lounge, which mentally I refer to as the 'Lottery Lounge'. The idea really stems from some coffee shops that I used to frequent when I lived in New York. The favourite being a place called the Tea Lounge in Brooklyn, near my old apartment. Big comfy chairs and sofas, rugs on the floor, free wi-fi, books to read and funky art on the walls - the kind of thing that Central Perk in Friends was based on (though much nicer, artier and generally funkier).

The lottery bit comes from the fact that it would never make any money, so I'd need to fund it myself rather than have it as a business which was a going concern.

My dream is currently even more alive than usual as the perfect venue is for sale - the old fire station on Perry Vale. Recently unsold at auction, surely the council would sell it off cheap to me?!

I would, rather boringly, turn the upstairs into apartments - but decent, big roomed loft spaces rather than the usual Barrat boxes. And downstairs would be my lounge. But it wouldn't just be about me. You'd be very welcome.

I'd serve fabulous coffees, hot chocolate with marshmallows in it, open sandwiches and cupcakes to stave off hunger and beer & wine would be available. Opening hours would be early to very late. But very few people would know I was the owner, as the lottery money would pay the staff bill. I'd be the girl curled up on the Chesterfield in the corner with a book on my lap and the cat at my feet.

Recycle your Christmas Tree!

Thanks to Lewisham council for the picture above. Out of curiosity - how many people do you know who have such a vehicle?!

The council will kindly pick up Christmas trees and recycle from a number of parks on the borough. I'd love to know how you get them there. I created a blanket of green moving my tree from the living room to the front door. If you think it is going in my car, you are very much mistaken.

Explains why we found a dead Christmas tree abandoned behind the shed when we moved in in April.

Forest Hill Tavern

Having made a conscious decision to try somewhere different, today we went to the FHT for lunch. Being the East Dulwich side of Forest Hill, it is no surprise that it has acquired a three letter acronym moniker. My expectations were of a gastro pub full of 20 & 30 year olds, though having looked online, I think it does have a reputation as a spoirts pub.

My first surprise was the size of the place. It is much larger than I expected and has a decent sized and what looked like a nice garden (hardly the weather for it unless you are a smoker).

At 20 past 12, we thought we were the only people there. Us and one seasoned local who I assume had been there at door opening time. But sure enough, as with most places, it slowly filled up and was probably just under half full when we left. I quite liked this as it wasn't packed at this stage, so we got the sofa seats nor was it heaving with badly behaved children, which sadly almost every establishment round here seems to cater for (another post some time).

The menu at first I found very disappointing as it was limited and to my mind, I expected food from the freezer. The roast beef we both had however was absolutely excellent. A really decent amount of good meat with all the trimmings for 8.95. Exactly what the doctor ordered.

Happily full we wandered out, just as the football came on (loudly). My heart sank.

This place has some good things going for it, but in trying to be everything to everybody, it struggles to meet every ones tastes. Having said that, I'd quite happily return, but early on before the tv goes on and the kids arrive.

The world is your Oyster...

I drafted this post mid week and then it was a tirade at Boris for letting the side down and all going quiet on the Oyster front. But then low and behold, in Friday's Evening Standard, it turns out that we will be able to use Pay as You Go Oyster cards this year.

As Oyster cards were introduced in January 2004, it has taken quite some time for tfl to get the train companies to agree to use them in earnest. Although you can have your travelcard on Oyster, it is no use on PAYG. Currently I have a Zone 2&3 travelcard. I can get into town from work (Canary Wharf) using the tube and PAYG, but if I want to come home, it is the bus or queuing for a ticket at a station for the train.

To my mind, it is this - not being on the Oyster network, rather than not being on the tube network which holds back SE London. Sure, when I moved to London in the mid 90's I'd never have dreamt of living more than a 7 mins (not sure why 7) walk from the tube and I wouldn't have dreamt of living in one of the 'Outer Zones' which is what I thought of anything outside of Zone 2. But those days have gone. Young professionals live in Earlsfield and Tooting these days - the very thought of which would have made me faint in my 20s. And we should welcome them here also. But until PAYG comes in, I am struggling to get any of my older professional friends to even visit Forest Hill. Psychologically, having to get a train ticket at London Bridge is what you do when you go to the seaside, not pop over to a see a friend.