Re-wrapped - established by Tracy Umney and Annie Cullen in 2011 - produces gift wrapping printed on 100% recycled paper and vegetable based inks.
Re-wrapped is currently seeking money to expand by raising money at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/re-wrapped
Ladywell company wins green business award
Re-wrapped - established by Tracy Umney and Annie Cullen in 2011 - produces gift wrapping printed on 100% recycled paper and vegetable based inks.
Re-wrapped is currently seeking money to expand by raising money at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/re-wrapped
Free parking this Christmas for Small Business Saturday
Lewisham Council writes:
Lewisham Council is to offer free car parking on three Saturdays in the run up to Christmas.
Shoppers will be able to park for free all day in all council-run car parks in Blackheath, Catford, Deptford, Forest Hill, Lewisham and Sydenham on Saturday 7, 14 and 21 December.
The start of the free parking offer falls on 7 December – the traditional start of the Christmas shopping rush – and also the UK’s first ‘Small Business Saturday’ which is a national campaign to encourage shoppers to ‘shop local’ and use local, independent shops.
Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham, said: “Town centres are at the heart of our local communities and independent businesses play a huge role in making our town centres the vibrant and prosperous areas they are to work in and to shop.
“We are pleased to take part in Small Business Saturday by waiving parking charges in Council car parks during this period and I hope everyone will take this opportunity to do their Christmas shopping locally and help support local businesses.”
The free car parking offer only applies to car parks that are managed by Lewisham Council and does not include on-street parking, Lewisham Shopping Centre (which is privately owned) or Blackheath Station car park which is now owned by Network Rail.
For a list of all participating car parks visit www.lewisham.gov.uk/freeparking.
Lewisham Council is to offer free car parking on three Saturdays in the run up to Christmas.
Shoppers will be able to park for free all day in all council-run car parks in Blackheath, Catford, Deptford, Forest Hill, Lewisham and Sydenham on Saturday 7, 14 and 21 December.
The start of the free parking offer falls on 7 December – the traditional start of the Christmas shopping rush – and also the UK’s first ‘Small Business Saturday’ which is a national campaign to encourage shoppers to ‘shop local’ and use local, independent shops.
Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham, said: “Town centres are at the heart of our local communities and independent businesses play a huge role in making our town centres the vibrant and prosperous areas they are to work in and to shop.
“We are pleased to take part in Small Business Saturday by waiving parking charges in Council car parks during this period and I hope everyone will take this opportunity to do their Christmas shopping locally and help support local businesses.”
The free car parking offer only applies to car parks that are managed by Lewisham Council and does not include on-street parking, Lewisham Shopping Centre (which is privately owned) or Blackheath Station car park which is now owned by Network Rail.
For a list of all participating car parks visit www.lewisham.gov.uk/freeparking.
Brockley's BottleBazaar
A million miles away from tacky fonts and tasteless tipples, BottleBazaar is about quality wine and fantastic labels that can be personalised to say whatever you want.
The BottleBazaar team have worked with talented artists and illustrators to ensure the design library has plenty of diversity and style. Labels designs range from images of Walter White to London scenes in a collage style. As the business grows the plan is to work with more and more artists to continually offer customers something new.
India and Caroline are also offering a Totally Bespoke service, where you chose an artist to produce a unique piece of artwork for your label. You can get a portrait done, a picture of a place – whatever you like. One of the selected artists for this service, Gemma, is also a local girl, living in Camberwell. Prices start from £12.50 including a smart gift box. Depending on your budget, you can pick a bottle from the bronze, silver or gold categories and the website has all the detail you need to help you make a great choice. Each and every wine is carefully selected from fantastic suppliers across the world, so you’re sure to be giving a gift that tastes great with a label that really says something.
Click here to visit the site.
Greenwich Peninsula deal paves way for delivery of 10,000 new homes
Developer Quintain has sold its minority stake in the Greenwich Peninsula regeneration scheme to its joint-venture partner Knight Dragon in a deal which will ensure the delivery of approximately 10,000 new homes on the 147 acre site.
Commenting on the deal, Sammy Lee, Director of Knight Dragon said:
“Greenwich Peninsula represents a unique opportunity to deliver one of the largest regeneration schemes in Europe and Knight Dragon is fully committed to delivering this landmark development for London, creating thousands of new jobs, new homes and a community where people will want to live.” “Our joint venture with Quintain has achieved a great deal over the past 16 months. We are now looking forward to building on the momentum which has been created.”
Full disclosure: Knight Dragon is a client of mine.
Commenting on the deal, Sammy Lee, Director of Knight Dragon said:
“Greenwich Peninsula represents a unique opportunity to deliver one of the largest regeneration schemes in Europe and Knight Dragon is fully committed to delivering this landmark development for London, creating thousands of new jobs, new homes and a community where people will want to live.” “Our joint venture with Quintain has achieved a great deal over the past 16 months. We are now looking forward to building on the momentum which has been created.”
Full disclosure: Knight Dragon is a client of mine.
I think that you think that a certain borough is not all that it could be, when, in fact, it is all that it should be... And more!
Hyperlocal site Go Earlsfield has this graph, courtesy of think tank The Centre for Cities, which shows that Lewisham's population shrinks by day. It's from a report ('Inner London's Economy') that attempts to understand what happens to the populations of each borough in London's inner core on a daily basis, as commuters flood in and out.
Inner London accounts for 40 per cent of Greater London’s population, but 56 per cent of private sector jobs. The daytime population of Inner London is 68 per cent higher than its resident population; most of the boroughs import workers daily, but Lewisham, Greenwich, Newham and Wandsworth experience (surprisingly) small net outflows each day:
With thanks to Richard for the nod.
The Ladywell Discount Day - Saturday, 12th October
El of El's Kitchen in Ladywell writes:
The Ladywell traders have come together to help drive footfall back to our shopping parade by holding Ladywell Discount Day on Saturday 12th October. There will be special offers, great discounts and bargains galore in anticipation of Ladywell Road being re-opened. Come and support your local businesses and bag yourselves a bargain – look out for the red posters at participating stores!
Many thanks to BC readers who responded when they heard about the plight of the Ladywell traders – we really appreciate the show of support you have given us.
The Ladywell traders have come together to help drive footfall back to our shopping parade by holding Ladywell Discount Day on Saturday 12th October. There will be special offers, great discounts and bargains galore in anticipation of Ladywell Road being re-opened. Come and support your local businesses and bag yourselves a bargain – look out for the red posters at participating stores!
The Great Inversion
Last month, we posted a map showing how house prices have changed in London the last three years, with Lewisham among an inner core of London boroughs which rose while outer boroughs stagnated. It's one expression of a phenomenon that US demographer Alan Ehrenhalt calls 'The Great Inversion'.
“The late 20th century,” he writes, “was the age of poor inner cities and wealthy suburbs; the 21st century is emerging as an age of affluent inner neighborhoods and immigrants settling on the outside.”
The Economist used the book's title to describe what's happening to London, as illustrated by this map from Savills, which shows the socio-economic changes that have taken place in London between the 2001 and 2011 censuses. Areas in red have moved "upmarket", areas in blue have done the reverse. There are actually two great inversions going on here. Firstly, inner London is rapidly catching up with the outer suburbs in terms of wealth and status. Secondly, London is flipping on its axis, as job creation (see map below) in places like Shoreditch, London Bridge and Canary Wharf fuels the ascendancy of East London:
The Economist explains:
The places that have gone downmarket are in Metroland—the 1920s and 1930s railway suburbs stretching west of Acton and Willesden or around Ilford. These are the middle-class suburbs where commuters move when they have children. But of late, house prices in those parts of suburban London have stagnated, even as inner-London ones have soared ahead. In recent years, the outflow of people to the Home Counties has not been matched by the inflow from inner-London, and so population increases have been sustained by immigration and births...
It attributes this change to three big shifts:
1. Jobs are becoming more focused in central London "at the expense of out-of-town office parks, which look increasingly dilapidated." [Lewisham's lack of job creation is not a unique phenomenon].
2. People are marrying and having kids later, meaning that city-centre lifestyles suit them better for longer. "Today’s 20-somethings are more likely to be university educated and less likely to drive, which makes offices that can be reached quickly by bike, bus or train far more desirable."
3. Structural changes, including falling crime, less pollution and better schools are encouraging families to stay put too, while "gentrification proves self-reinforcing, as new restaurants, bars and other businesses open to serve—and employ—gentrifiers."
So while Lewisham once braced itself for an influx of urban poor, priced out of central London, it seems likely that those people will move further out and our borough might face a very different kind of housing policy choice. The Economist concludes:
In some places, borough councils may be tempted to leverage high property prices to generate cash to redevelop their more run-down parts—turning over their social housing stock to private developers. That however smacks just a little of social cleansing. At the moment, complaints about gentrification in London tends to be limited to carping about the silliness of hipster bars, or the cost of a burger in Brixton village*. But... the politics of gentrification in London could eventually become quite tetchy.
*See all arguments about gentrification on Brockley Central ever.
“The late 20th century,” he writes, “was the age of poor inner cities and wealthy suburbs; the 21st century is emerging as an age of affluent inner neighborhoods and immigrants settling on the outside.”
It attributes this change to three big shifts:
1. Jobs are becoming more focused in central London "at the expense of out-of-town office parks, which look increasingly dilapidated." [Lewisham's lack of job creation is not a unique phenomenon].
2. People are marrying and having kids later, meaning that city-centre lifestyles suit them better for longer. "Today’s 20-somethings are more likely to be university educated and less likely to drive, which makes offices that can be reached quickly by bike, bus or train far more desirable."
3. Structural changes, including falling crime, less pollution and better schools are encouraging families to stay put too, while "gentrification proves self-reinforcing, as new restaurants, bars and other businesses open to serve—and employ—gentrifiers."
So while Lewisham once braced itself for an influx of urban poor, priced out of central London, it seems likely that those people will move further out and our borough might face a very different kind of housing policy choice. The Economist concludes:
In some places, borough councils may be tempted to leverage high property prices to generate cash to redevelop their more run-down parts—turning over their social housing stock to private developers. That however smacks just a little of social cleansing. At the moment, complaints about gentrification in London tends to be limited to carping about the silliness of hipster bars, or the cost of a burger in Brixton village*. But... the politics of gentrification in London could eventually become quite tetchy.
*See all arguments about gentrification on Brockley Central ever.
Welcome back to local banking
George, you can type this shit, but you sure as hell can't say it.
- Harrison Ford on the Star Wars script
Nearest local branch? Greenwich. Still, corporate Britain's not welcome around these parts anyway.
- Harrison Ford on the Star Wars script
Nearest local branch? Greenwich. Still, corporate Britain's not welcome around these parts anyway.
A victory Pho common sense
Mo Pho gets to keep its name. The cafe had been threatened with legal action by another restaurant chain called Pho, who claimed trademark infringement. But after a Twitter storm today, Pho has wisely called off its legal dogs and now says:
Whilst all we want 2 do is protect our brand/business, we fully understand the sentiment, & will not pursue action against MoPho-sorry guysThis is good.
— Pho (@PhoRestaurant) September 24, 2013
No Mo' Mo Pho
Coulgate Street Vietnamese café Mo Pho has fallen phoul of Big Pho. The Pho café chain seems to think they own the word Pho and have served Mo Pho notice that they think they are infringing their trademark. The Mo Pho team write:
It is with sadness that we would like to inform our customers that we will be reluctantly taking down our shop sign this week and trading as "mopho" instead of mo pho until we have establish a new name for ourselves.
Please note, WE WILL BE OPEN for business as usual and welcome your continued support!!
Some background on our decision... we have been put on notice by Pho Holdings Ltd (Pho cafe) that they have registered and trade marked the word PHO, as they feel that the use of our name Mo Pho is confusingly similar to their trade mark, constituting an infringement and passing off.
We feel this unfair as we ensured the look and feel of our brand was different to any established restaurants when designing our brand and logo. Our biggest surprise was that trademarking the word PHO was possible especially as it's our national dish which is used widely in our trade as a Vietnamese cafe/restaurant.
As a small family business, taking on a successful chain such as Pho will be a big risk to us, therefore we opted to take down our signages until we are fully rebranded.
If you have any suggestions for our new name, please let us know!! You could see your name in lights and a free meal on us!
It’s a little incongruous for a cutesy, Innocentesque brand like Pho to act so aggressively and a little odd that they think their customers might confuse them with a café whose title is a play on “motherfucker”. It’s not who they are underneath, but what they do that defines them.
It is with sadness that we would like to inform our customers that we will be reluctantly taking down our shop sign this week and trading as "mopho" instead of mo pho until we have establish a new name for ourselves.
Please note, WE WILL BE OPEN for business as usual and welcome your continued support!!
Some background on our decision... we have been put on notice by Pho Holdings Ltd (Pho cafe) that they have registered and trade marked the word PHO, as they feel that the use of our name Mo Pho is confusingly similar to their trade mark, constituting an infringement and passing off.
We feel this unfair as we ensured the look and feel of our brand was different to any established restaurants when designing our brand and logo. Our biggest surprise was that trademarking the word PHO was possible especially as it's our national dish which is used widely in our trade as a Vietnamese cafe/restaurant.
As a small family business, taking on a successful chain such as Pho will be a big risk to us, therefore we opted to take down our signages until we are fully rebranded.
If you have any suggestions for our new name, please let us know!! You could see your name in lights and a free meal on us!
It’s a little incongruous for a cutesy, Innocentesque brand like Pho to act so aggressively and a little odd that they think their customers might confuse them with a café whose title is a play on “motherfucker”. It’s not who they are underneath, but what they do that defines them.
Deputy Mayor backs call for urgent resolution of Ladywell chaos
Earlier this month, a group of Ladywell businesses demanded a quick resolution of the town centre roadworks, which are running behind schedule and damaging their trade. El, from El's Kitchen writes, following her meeting with the Deputy Mayor of Lewisham, the Head of Transport and Tom Connell from Conway, the contractor carrying out the work:
- Conway have a three year, rolling retainer contract with Lewisham Council to carry out new highways work and any maintenance required under a certain job value (approx £1m). They were awarded this job without needing to tender for it and there are no penalties for delays or poor quality work (they just have to re-do the work at their expense). The budget for the work was £700,000 and they have been paid approx £600,000 to date. They are paid in stages by the size of the area they complete so there is effectively no incentive at all for them to meet any timescale given to them.
- The Deputy Mayor expressed his concern with the level of mis-management and poor decision-making by Conway and had witnessed some of the lack of urgency for himself. It was ironic that he was 10 minutes late for the meeting, blaming traffic congestion in Catford due to the diversions away from Ladywell Road.
- The Deputy Mayor was shocked by the level of negative impact that the delays are having on local businesses and urged Conway to meet the new date for Ladywell Road to be re-opened of mid-October.
- Conway promised to give us an on-site point of contact that any member of the public may speak to. This is Mick Malloney and he has now been introduced to the majority of business owners.
- Conway promised to give us a detailed program of site works with timelines that traders can share with their customers. The first of these was produced on Thursday last week and shows a daily schedule of where works are being carried out to the road and pavements for the next week. They will also post this somewhere on the site for the public to access. We hope Conway will continue to gives us a weekly update going forward.
Since our meeting, work appears to be progressing a quite a pace, with many more workers on site daily and activity continuing on Saturdays and Sundays, so this is a great result. The stretch of Ladywell Road from the junction with Algernon Road to Malyons Road has been re-opened for access to Malyons Road and many of the unsightly and confusing barriers have now been removed from this area. The workmen have also cleared away much of the rubbish and unnecessary materials from the site, making it much easier, safer and cleaner for pedestrians to circulate.
However, low footfall is still an issue for all the shopkeepers in Ladywell and we urge you to come down and visit the shops while the construction work is being completed, as it would be very sad to see any of us go out of business due to continued, unsustainable losses.
- Conway have a three year, rolling retainer contract with Lewisham Council to carry out new highways work and any maintenance required under a certain job value (approx £1m). They were awarded this job without needing to tender for it and there are no penalties for delays or poor quality work (they just have to re-do the work at their expense). The budget for the work was £700,000 and they have been paid approx £600,000 to date. They are paid in stages by the size of the area they complete so there is effectively no incentive at all for them to meet any timescale given to them.
- The Deputy Mayor expressed his concern with the level of mis-management and poor decision-making by Conway and had witnessed some of the lack of urgency for himself. It was ironic that he was 10 minutes late for the meeting, blaming traffic congestion in Catford due to the diversions away from Ladywell Road.
- The Deputy Mayor was shocked by the level of negative impact that the delays are having on local businesses and urged Conway to meet the new date for Ladywell Road to be re-opened of mid-October.
- Conway promised to give us an on-site point of contact that any member of the public may speak to. This is Mick Malloney and he has now been introduced to the majority of business owners.
- Conway promised to give us a detailed program of site works with timelines that traders can share with their customers. The first of these was produced on Thursday last week and shows a daily schedule of where works are being carried out to the road and pavements for the next week. They will also post this somewhere on the site for the public to access. We hope Conway will continue to gives us a weekly update going forward.
Since our meeting, work appears to be progressing a quite a pace, with many more workers on site daily and activity continuing on Saturdays and Sundays, so this is a great result. The stretch of Ladywell Road from the junction with Algernon Road to Malyons Road has been re-opened for access to Malyons Road and many of the unsightly and confusing barriers have now been removed from this area. The workmen have also cleared away much of the rubbish and unnecessary materials from the site, making it much easier, safer and cleaner for pedestrians to circulate.
However, low footfall is still an issue for all the shopkeepers in Ladywell and we urge you to come down and visit the shops while the construction work is being completed, as it would be very sad to see any of us go out of business due to continued, unsustainable losses.
The Brockley Brewery's 50,000 Pints Party at the Wickham Arms
Andy from the Brockley Brewery writes:
We are having a bit of a do tonight at the Wickham Arms, to celebrate the anticipated pulling of the 50,000th pint of Brockley ale.
We've been hard at it for 6 months desperately servicing the south-east thirst for craft ale, which seems unquenchable!
We're welcoming everyone along to support their local brewery and their local pub!
Brockley Park Cars and ACE relocate
Brockley Park Cars are departing their old home at 180 Brockley Road and relocating to Blackfen. The move will allow the mixed-use redevelopment of the site. In a valedictory post here, they say:
A big thank you to all our customers for your loyalty over the years if you wish to continue using us we can offer a free collection and delivery service we are keeping our existing phone number 0208 691 7666.
ACE Vans, who also operated from the site, have opened a new office at The Tea Factory.
A big thank you to all our customers for your loyalty over the years if you wish to continue using us we can offer a free collection and delivery service we are keeping our existing phone number 0208 691 7666.
ACE Vans, who also operated from the site, have opened a new office at The Tea Factory.
Fake piano maker needed
I am producing the Off West End premiere of the musical Love Story at the Brockley Jack Theatre this Autumn with my own company. We would like to design a unit that when assembled looks like a grand piano, but that can be easily dismantled and its pieces used to create all of the scenic locations in the show.
We are looking for something similar to the photograph, but that is made out of five free-standing moveable pieces. One piece would house the keyboard, pedal, power supply and potentially be attached to a piano stool. Two pieces would be rectangular, so they could be separated out to become a dining table or placed together for a bed, and two pieces would create the curved portion of the grand and be used as smaller café tables or desks. We are looking for someone to work with the director to design and build the unit.
Maybe a local carpenter, furniture maker or design student. Please contact me darren@languagelaidbare.co.uk if you are able to help and for more details.
Ladywell the thin blue line in London flood defence project
The Independent reports that engineering firms have been invited to develop plans to defend London from future floods, including upgrading the the Thames Barrier.
Britain's biggest engineers have been asked to develop plans to protect London and £200bn-worth of property from flooding until the end of the century. Launched at an industry event at the Thames Barrier today, the project is said to be the country's biggest ever flood management contract. The winning engineering team will work on the first 10 years of what is known as Thames Estuary 2100.
Chris Wheal (who kindly sent us the link) points out that Ladywell Fields might be part of any solution:
Ladywell Fields is used to store water to help keep the Thames lower. I have photos of it full, normal and empty on Flickr. They close a sluice gate to the Thames and store the water upstream until the tide goes out and then let it out. That was one of the main reasons for digging the river back into Ladywell Fields.
Britain's biggest engineers have been asked to develop plans to protect London and £200bn-worth of property from flooding until the end of the century. Launched at an industry event at the Thames Barrier today, the project is said to be the country's biggest ever flood management contract. The winning engineering team will work on the first 10 years of what is known as Thames Estuary 2100.
Chris Wheal (who kindly sent us the link) points out that Ladywell Fields might be part of any solution:
Ladywell Fields is used to store water to help keep the Thames lower. I have photos of it full, normal and empty on Flickr. They close a sluice gate to the Thames and store the water upstream until the tide goes out and then let it out. That was one of the main reasons for digging the river back into Ladywell Fields.
London Bridge emerges as a media hub
London Bridge - Brockley's most important direct connection - is emerging as one of London's leading media industry hubs. City AM reports:
Booming demand from the media industry is set to double take-up of office space along London’s Southbank this year, according to new research from estate agent Knight Frank.
Nearly 700,000 square feet (sq ft) of office space has been acquired on the Southbank in 2013 so far. Major leasing deals this year include News Corp, which owns Dow Jones, Harper Collins and News UK (full disclosure, a client of Edelman), and broadcaster Al Jazeera (full disclosure: also a client), which rents premises in The Shard. A further 439,000 sq ft of deals are in advanced negotiations, meaning that full-year take-up should exceed 1.1m sq ft.
With IPC and others up the road at the Blue Fin building and several media and marketing firms based in More London and Bermondsey Square, London Bridge is vying with Victoria, Kings Cross and Tottenham Court Road / Soho as the city's leading media cluster. Which is handy for the 50% of BC readers who work in the sector.
Earlier this week, Building also reported that:
Engineer WSP has been drafted in by the Shard developer Sellar to work with architect Renzo Piano on designs for two further, smaller towers in the London Bridge Quarter. The towers will house flats and be built on the site of Fielden House, by the Shard and the Place, which currently houses ground floor bars with offices above, including a Sellar office.
Booming demand from the media industry is set to double take-up of office space along London’s Southbank this year, according to new research from estate agent Knight Frank.
Nearly 700,000 square feet (sq ft) of office space has been acquired on the Southbank in 2013 so far. Major leasing deals this year include News Corp, which owns Dow Jones, Harper Collins and News UK (full disclosure, a client of Edelman), and broadcaster Al Jazeera (full disclosure: also a client), which rents premises in The Shard. A further 439,000 sq ft of deals are in advanced negotiations, meaning that full-year take-up should exceed 1.1m sq ft.
With IPC and others up the road at the Blue Fin building and several media and marketing firms based in More London and Bermondsey Square, London Bridge is vying with Victoria, Kings Cross and Tottenham Court Road / Soho as the city's leading media cluster. Which is handy for the 50% of BC readers who work in the sector.
Earlier this week, Building also reported that:
Engineer WSP has been drafted in by the Shard developer Sellar to work with architect Renzo Piano on designs for two further, smaller towers in the London Bridge Quarter. The towers will house flats and be built on the site of Fielden House, by the Shard and the Place, which currently houses ground floor bars with offices above, including a Sellar office.
Ladywell roadworks delays putting local businesses at risk
El, from Ladywell deli El's Kitchen writes in response to the severe delays to roadworks currently affecting Ladywell town centre:
Myself and a small group of business owners in Ladywell are having a meeting with the Deputy Major (Cllr Allan Smith) and Ian Ransom (Head of Transport) tomorrow (Friday). We will be representing all businesses in Ladywell that have been directly or indirectly affected by the delays to the project.
In principle we are all in favour of the improvements to the streetscape improvements as the benefits it will bring to pedestrians, cyclists, car drivers who wish to park, as well as to the businesses, are great.
However, in the original document that was issued publically in March, the date for re-opening Ladywell Road was set at 7 June. Since then we have had no official communication about when that might be until this latest communication which states the road will re-open mid-October. Many of us cannot see how it will be possible for the contractors to meet this new deadline as they have still not finished the highway works on section 2, which has been closed for the best part of three months, and they have only just started digging up section 3.
The delays to this project are now starting to bite into many businesses budgets with some having already laid off staff to try and keep costs down while trying to ride out the loss of trade as long as they can. Footfall was down 16% in August and remains so for the beginning of September (I have been counting and documenting this, comparing it to the same time last year).
We are now taking legal advice and will determine,based on the outcome of the meeting tomorrow, if we have a claim against Lewisham Council for loss of business due to the delays. In order to make a claim we need to be in possession of the original schedule or works and the current schedule of works completed to date and the service level agreement with the contractor (Conway) detailing the penalty clauses. We can then make a claim against the Council for any money that has been and will be recovered by the Council from Conway as it should be used to compensate those who have lost out as a result of the delays (the local businesses, not the Council), as per the penalty clauses in the contract.
If the works continue past the end of October and the footfall remains as low as it is now it will be very difficult for many of the business to continue trading and those that rely on Christmas trade to survive the rest of the year will be teetering on the edge by January.
As business owners we all want to see a positive outcome from the works having taken place: the loss of trade being more than compensated for by increased footfall in Ladywell, on-street parking to enable passing motorists to stop and use the shops, a brighter and lighter landscape with more trees and benches that draws people in to the area and makes them want to stay here.
In the meantime we implore local people to continue to use Ladywell, visit the shops and spend the money you used to spend here. We understand that it is very noisy, dusty and dirty and highly inconvenient without public transport or parking (we have live with it day in, day out!), but without continued loyalty from our customers and a bit of risk-taking from potential customers in the wider area, the aims and objectives of the improvements to the streetscape to improve the economic viability of the retail area will have been in vain.
Many thanks for the loyalty you have shown us thus far.
El @ Els Kitchen, on behalf of the businesses in Ladywell.
Myself and a small group of business owners in Ladywell are having a meeting with the Deputy Major (Cllr Allan Smith) and Ian Ransom (Head of Transport) tomorrow (Friday). We will be representing all businesses in Ladywell that have been directly or indirectly affected by the delays to the project.
In principle we are all in favour of the improvements to the streetscape improvements as the benefits it will bring to pedestrians, cyclists, car drivers who wish to park, as well as to the businesses, are great.
However, in the original document that was issued publically in March, the date for re-opening Ladywell Road was set at 7 June. Since then we have had no official communication about when that might be until this latest communication which states the road will re-open mid-October. Many of us cannot see how it will be possible for the contractors to meet this new deadline as they have still not finished the highway works on section 2, which has been closed for the best part of three months, and they have only just started digging up section 3.
The delays to this project are now starting to bite into many businesses budgets with some having already laid off staff to try and keep costs down while trying to ride out the loss of trade as long as they can. Footfall was down 16% in August and remains so for the beginning of September (I have been counting and documenting this, comparing it to the same time last year).
We are now taking legal advice and will determine,based on the outcome of the meeting tomorrow, if we have a claim against Lewisham Council for loss of business due to the delays. In order to make a claim we need to be in possession of the original schedule or works and the current schedule of works completed to date and the service level agreement with the contractor (Conway) detailing the penalty clauses. We can then make a claim against the Council for any money that has been and will be recovered by the Council from Conway as it should be used to compensate those who have lost out as a result of the delays (the local businesses, not the Council), as per the penalty clauses in the contract.
If the works continue past the end of October and the footfall remains as low as it is now it will be very difficult for many of the business to continue trading and those that rely on Christmas trade to survive the rest of the year will be teetering on the edge by January.
As business owners we all want to see a positive outcome from the works having taken place: the loss of trade being more than compensated for by increased footfall in Ladywell, on-street parking to enable passing motorists to stop and use the shops, a brighter and lighter landscape with more trees and benches that draws people in to the area and makes them want to stay here.
In the meantime we implore local people to continue to use Ladywell, visit the shops and spend the money you used to spend here. We understand that it is very noisy, dusty and dirty and highly inconvenient without public transport or parking (we have live with it day in, day out!), but without continued loyalty from our customers and a bit of risk-taking from potential customers in the wider area, the aims and objectives of the improvements to the streetscape to improve the economic viability of the retail area will have been in vain.
Many thanks for the loyalty you have shown us thus far.
El @ Els Kitchen, on behalf of the businesses in Ladywell.
Brockley is the new Chelsea
Brockley now has its own boot.Jigsaw is selling the Brockley Nubuck Ankle Boot, named after SE4 by a Brockley-loving employee, rather than because they are fashioned from badger-hide.
Like the place that inspired it, the boot is:
"Timeless and versatile [and] effortlessly cool."
Jigsaw also claims that it works best with a pair of skinny jeans, which can be no coincidence.
Thanks to Fabhat for the tip-off.
Ladywell roadworks expected to drag on until Christmas
The BC style-guide frowns upon the use of newspaper-favourite words like "farce" and "fiasco", but in this case, we're happy to make an exception. The Ladywell town centre roadwork delays are reaching farcical proportions. Local resident Tony writes:
Ladywell businesses have written to Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock calling for an urgent meeting to discuss further delays to the completion of the street improvement works in the neighbourhood. Local business people, frustrated by the seemingly endless delays to the works that started in May, are worried that some businesses could go under because the disruption is causing a dramatic reduction in footfall.
Local businesses wrote to the Mayor in June when the the project first hit snags and was delayed. They were told the work would be completed by end- September. They are now being told it will be October, with workers on site saying it will be Christmas before the works are finished.
Shopowners say there is no sense of urgency in the work being carried out by the contractors Conway. Construction is progressing at a snails pace and activity is intermittent.
The businesses have called for an meeting with the Mayor to explain the serious impact the street works are now having on local businesses and to urge him to do all in his power to ensure Conway steps up the pace of the building work.
Ladywell businesses have written to Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock calling for an urgent meeting to discuss further delays to the completion of the street improvement works in the neighbourhood. Local business people, frustrated by the seemingly endless delays to the works that started in May, are worried that some businesses could go under because the disruption is causing a dramatic reduction in footfall.
Local businesses wrote to the Mayor in June when the the project first hit snags and was delayed. They were told the work would be completed by end- September. They are now being told it will be October, with workers on site saying it will be Christmas before the works are finished.
Shopowners say there is no sense of urgency in the work being carried out by the contractors Conway. Construction is progressing at a snails pace and activity is intermittent.
The businesses have called for an meeting with the Mayor to explain the serious impact the street works are now having on local businesses and to urge him to do all in his power to ensure Conway steps up the pace of the building work.
Pret a LeSoCo
Two LeSoCo (formerly Lewisham College incorporating Southwark College and not to be confused with Lesotho) fashion students will be on show at London Fashion Week on 17th September.
Work by 18 year old Nhung Le Thi Hong and Gloria Iyare will be showcased at Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden. The students are competing in the 2013 FAD Junior Awards Final.
Nhung and Gloria are both doing Fashion Foundation Diplomas at LeSoCo. As with all the finalists, their designs have been inspired by their urban city surrounds. The winner will get a top design placement with project sponsors George at Asda.
The Awards are part of an outreach project organised by London based charity FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct). They conclude weeks of ‘Fashion Futures’ workshops, which involved a total of 100 young people from across 19 inner-city London boroughs. Run between January and March this year, the south London workshops were held at LeSoCo, as they have been for each of the nine years of this FAD programme. LeSoCo’s own expert fashion lecturers led many of the workshops.
From the 100 participants, 20 finalists were selected by an industry panel to take part in an intensive FAD summer school. LeSoCo’s students worked with professionals at the University of East London to make up their calico designs into final fabrics.
Work by 18 year old Nhung Le Thi Hong and Gloria Iyare will be showcased at Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden. The students are competing in the 2013 FAD Junior Awards Final.
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| Gloria Iyare |
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| Nhung Le Thi Hong |
The Awards are part of an outreach project organised by London based charity FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct). They conclude weeks of ‘Fashion Futures’ workshops, which involved a total of 100 young people from across 19 inner-city London boroughs. Run between January and March this year, the south London workshops were held at LeSoCo, as they have been for each of the nine years of this FAD programme. LeSoCo’s own expert fashion lecturers led many of the workshops.
From the 100 participants, 20 finalists were selected by an industry panel to take part in an intensive FAD summer school. LeSoCo’s students worked with professionals at the University of East London to make up their calico designs into final fabrics.
