Thursday, March 18, 2010

New developments: Deptford Town Centre

If you, like me, never heard about the 'public consultation' over plans for Deptford High Street (one day in February when plans were on view in Giffin Street) you can view them on the Lewisham Council website here.
"New homes, new artists' units and gallery space, and new parking facilities will all strengthen the local economy, improve business opportunities, and build upon Deptford’s reputation for artistic excellence."

3 comments:

  1. Little Black CatFriday, March 19, 2010

    What is this myth about artistic excellence? All the artists are getting squeezed out by higher rents and business charges like the East End. Regeneration should be about jobs for local people that aren't just cleaning posh flats and working in new retail outlets. The developers are going on about the wonderful Greenwich market when the reality is it's already been cut in half and Greenwich Hospital Trust that owns the land is appealing the planning decision that has stopped them closing it altogether. So is Greenwich market moving to Giffin Street and Deptford station? OMG, they really do want Deptford to become Greenwich? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha etc...is Lewisham in on this? Have you seen the plans for Lewisham Gateway? Are they all living in cloud cuckoo land?

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  2. Good Lord! I think that's all I can say for the moment.........

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  3. Little Black Cat, I believe there is a kind of Bohemian wave effect where artists move into a cheap downmarket area, often with disused factories or warehouses, and after a while the Council realise that something's started so they set up some kind of ''creative agency'' sort of thing and promptly hike up the rates. The next step is where the media hears that there's something happening, and Time Out send out a journalist. This step is subsequently swallowed up by developers seeking to capitalise on the ''artistic excellence'' of an area where they have supplied none of their own (watch the videos!).

    The final stage in this Bohemian wave - and it remains to be seen whether it can be avoided - is for the artists to up sticks and find somewhere else because they can no longer afford to rent their studios.

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