Last post based on an Economist article for a while, we promise, but a few people tipped us off about this one and it's relevant to London's "great inversion", as well as our daily commutes.
Last week, the magazine focused on the London Overground's impact on areas along its route and claims the TfL-run model is likely to be rolled-out to other services as a result of its success, with the South Eastern service among the most likely to be taken over:
Since it opened in 2010—with extensions in 2011 and 2012—the London Overground changed two things. First, the way that commuters get around the capital has shifted. In 2008, 33m passengers zipped up and down the service. Last year 120m did. Fully 64% of those who use the network are getting to and from work. This initially lightened heavily congested trains on the Southern service (another line running along the route) with 46% of new passengers swapping from other train services...
Second, areas that were once underdeveloped became more popular... In Peckham Rye, another stop on the service in the south-east, average values went up by 24%. In New Cross, also in the south-east, the average value of property sold increased by 12%. Many buyers are young professional families, says Abdallah Osman of Winkworth, another estate agent. By contrast, average property values in Highgate, a leafy suburb in north London fell by 8%, while those in Muswell Hill, also in the north, fell by 3%. As prices go up across London, younger families and rich professionals are pushed farther east...
But the continuing success of the Overground will not come smoothly. TfL predicts that several parts of the line will be crammed with commuters by 2016... Squeezed buses and Tubes in the East End have not seen the decline of 6m passengers originally predicted. New passengers have simply taken the place of those who have swapped to the Overground.
For the full article, click here.
£10m Peckham Complex to transform South East London art scene
Hoping to confirm Peckham's ascendancy and their own place at the heart of that story are Bold Tendencies, the phenomenally successful arts group led by Hannah Barry and Sven Mündner, who are to Peckham what Jay Jopling once was to Hoxton. Having created the Bold Tendencies summer sculpture show (topped off with Frank's Campari Bar) in Peckham's 10 storey car park, they now want to turn the building in to a permanent art complex.
The Standard reports:
Barry and the team plan a mixed-use reinvention of the building to incorporate the existing PeckhamPlex Cinema on the ground floor. “There will be light industrial spaces, studio spaces and we’re very keen on Kunsthalle-style [independent] galleries.”
Now that Peckham is a newly desirable location (thanks in part to the East London Overground extension) the fear is that a developer could make a multi-million pound offer to bulldoze it and build flats.
Hence the pre-emptive strike. Barry and Mündner are not against regeneration but would hate the site to be cannibalised. “With the arts centre, we can propose a model that is stronger than selling the car park and generate more rates and more cash in terms of jobs,” Barry says.
There are relatively few major tourist draws between Greenwich and Bermondsey, but Bold Tendencies has already attracted 500,000 visitors in its first six years. If these £10 million expansion plans succeed, then the challenge for areas like Deptford and Brockley, which offer plenty for art-lovers, will be to soak up some of the visitors drawn to this part of South East London.
- Click here to visit the Peckham forum
Peckham Brainwrap
We like to separate the night into different sections: starters, main courses and desserts. Starters are usually experiments or films with a special something. Main courses is made up of more established work, and for desserts we have a raffle and sometimes a Q&A with an actor or director or comedian who's been involved in the night.
For more details visit http://brainwrapcomedy.com/
