Meet the developers...Thursday 30 January, 7.30pm at Pink Palace

Representatives of Bellway Homes have invited themselves to this Thursday's Crossfields Tenants & Residents Association's meeting at the Pink Palace (7.30pm start).* They would like to tell us about their plans to redevelop Kent Wharf.

Kent Wharf is the area of derelict land next to the Laban and opposite Finch House. It backs onto Deptford Creek and, like almost all the property on both sides of the Creek, has been on the cards for redevelopment for some time. Recently, Kent Wharf was sold to Bellway Homes as one of 4-5 'parcels' of land surrounding the Laban. The other parcels form part of the originally much larger Creekside Village site that have also been derelict for some time.

The land was marketed for the owners by DTZ ("a global leader in property services and corporate real estate solutions"), which put out a brochure in July 2013, from which the following two illustrations have been taken. (We have added Convoys Wharf to the first one, to add extra context – click both images to enlarge).

As usual, the marketing blurb emphasises the transport links to Canary Wharf and the "close proximity of increasingly popular and continually improving Deptford Town centre, dubbed the 'new Shoreditch' with more artists per square mile than anywhere else in the capital".  They suggest the new owner might build a "high quality residential-led mixed use development" of up to 100 apartments, which must include an element ("ideally a minimum of 20%") of employment floorspace with a focus on creative uses – to be situated on the ground floor since sensitive uses like residential cannot go there because of the flood risk!

This illustration shows the 'land parcels'. We have added the borough boundaries. The existing Creekside Village West lies within the Greenwich boundary, as does Plot A, part of 'Creekside Village East'. Earlier this month, the Deptford Dame posted about the recent sale of Plot A. Not a fan of the present blight on the landscape that is Creekside Village West, she reported "Essential Living ('specialist developer of homes for the private rented sector') has bought the eastern parcel of land and intends to submit a new planning application for construction of a 17-storey tower next to the Creek." She suspects that "Greenwich Council will simply wave it through as they have done in the past" and speculates that the new development will follow the previous designs for the site – it is likely to be more of the same:

Hopefully, the Kent Wharf development, which comes under Lewisham, will not follow suit – although plans were rather speculatively drawn up some time ago by the Creekside Village architects Squire & Partners for the whole of Creekside, including Crossfields, to look like Creekside Village! There's little chance of those plans being resurrected, but the Kent Wharf site might still include tall buildings – after all, Lewisham approved a 12-storey tower at Faircharm. And a quick look at Bellway Homes' rather bland developments in the capital do not inspire confidence.

But whatever your opinion of the design of the buildings going up around here, it is the construction of these two new developments that will impact detrimentally on Crossfields residents. With 180 lorries a day already expected on Creekside from the Faircharm redevelopment (for three years) and Thames Tunnel's proposals to partially close Deptford Church Street (for three years or more), the environment surrounding Crossfields will just get worse and worse before it gets better.

Update: See our newer post on Thames Tunnel and Deptford Church Street

*The TRA meeting will also discuss MITIE works and Thames Tunnel proposals for Deptford Church St.

Catch the midnight train to...Greenwich

Deptford High Street's iconic train carriage is being moved this evening between 8pm and midnight (and possibly as late at 2am) and taken to be stored at Morden Wharf in Greenwich. The squatters are gone, the gates and decking have been removed and the Elvis loo looks a little sad, stranded on its own!

We asked the café business owner Rebecca if it's coming back. She's said, "It wants to come back to Douglas Square. But there's a slight hitch in that the only place it could be sited (to prevent any issues with the existing structures like lighting columns and market trading spaces) is by the Albany. But the Albany is planning to move their front entrance to face the square which will be better for the building as a whole but means the carriage would only have a short time frame in the square. It would be expensive to move it again!"

The train will be stored for the time being at Morden Wharf courtesy of Cathedral plc who are developing the riverside site on the Greenwich waterfront. Rebecca said, "The Council have been very helpful in navigating where the best place is for it to sit in the long term, and Cathedral are supporting my wish for it to stay in Deptford and not take it anywhere else." (The developer had at one point wanted to re-site the train at their new development in Brighton). "In the meantime I might open a little caff in the square just to keep the business going."

We asked what's happening with the Elvis loo. "All the plants and decking have been saved and are going to Tidemill's Assembly garden project. The Elvis loo is still up but there's nothing much left to save and the squatters left it in a bit of a mess. They've also written all over the tables, walls and floor, and had electric heaters on 24/7."

One of the squatters wrote in the comments section on our previous post about the carriage that they would keep the place clean, and even claimed to have changed the electricity bill to their own name. But it seems the more responsible among them were staying with their parents over the Christmas period when things got out of hand. During this period, a local shopkeeper witnessed an ambulance turning up to take a party-goer – who had overdosed on drugs – to hospital. The electricity is still in Rebecca's name.

Was she having a special send-off tonight? "No special send-off. It's all been a bit emotional and a bit of a rush! Now it's time to focus on the future." She hopes people will have good memories of the train, and look forward to its return.

The train arriving in 2008, and more recent and sunnier times...

Update: The train left tonight at just before midnight. Bye for now!

Steve McQueen to work on BBC drama and Yinka Shonibare at the National Maritime Museum

Although Oscar nominated film director Steve McQueen grew up in West London, it was when he was at Goldsmiths College doing his Fine Art degree that he realised his love of film. As he said on the Culture Show on BBC last night (and echoing many a Goldsmith Fine Art under-graduate who thinks they're on the wrong course), "When I was at Goldsmiths, I wanted to be at film school...and when I went to (Tisch film school in New York) I only stayed 3 months". He felt stifled by the limitations there – the Goldsmiths ethos had turned his head. For McQueen, "it was all about ideas". He went on to win the Turner Prize in 1999 after making several highly distinctive short films.

The 12 Years A Slave director is now working towards a new BBC drama about the lives of black Britons, claimed to be 'epic in scope' and covering 1968 to the present day, says the BBC. What better hands could such a high profile project be in that are in charge of a story about black people from all walks of life living in Britain in a period spanning fifty years?

Was there an open competition to which perhaps the UK's most talented black dramatists who've been working in theatre all these years might have pitched? Oh well never mind. Good luck, Steve, we're looking forward to it! Ask your writers to get in touch with your Deptford cousins, we don't want all the London scenes set in Notting Hill and Brixton, it was all gwan here y'know.

Meanwhile, another great artist and Goldsmiths Fine Arts Degree graduate, Yinka Shonibare MBE, is showing at the National Maritime Museum until 23 February.

Shonibare, who was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2004, turns all the reverential baloney about Nelson on its head – by introducing new photographs into the museum's collection of paintings of Nelson at the Queen's House.

In Shonibare's reconstructed likenesses of the paintings, Nelson is accompanied by the black people who might inevitably have been there at the time if they hadn't been wiped from history (the short-focused history recorded and collected by the privileged of the time and henceforth).

The exhibition includes Shonibare's trademark Dutch wax 'African' printed costumes for Nelson and his lover, plus a beautiful outdoor sculpture of a flag in the Queen's Park on the Trafalgar Road side. His better known "Nelson's Ship in A Bottle" sits on the Greenwich Park side, originally displayed on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square and subsequently acquired by the Museum. A further work is displayed at the Observatory but you'll have to pay to get in.

At a public talk at the NMM late last year, Shonibare said that when he was young he'd always felt "museums were not for him and his like", but now he was "on the inside to change things from the inside out". It's no coincidence that Royal Museums Greenwich are making a special effort to address their hitherto highly narrow, blinkered and colonial approach to British Naval History by inviting Shonibare to tinker (they say "infiltrate") with their collection. Don't miss – and it's free.

(God forbid the estate agents pick up on this slice of 'vibrancy' - Ed.)

Convoys Wharf update – Lewisham Council and Dame Ruddock respond

The fight to save Deptford's immense heritage on the site of Deptford Royal Dockyard from the owners of Convoys Wharf (Hong Kong developers Hutchison Whampoa, owned by the world's 8th richest billionaire, Li Ka Shing) is gathering momentum, as local campaigners work to influence Boris Johnson and the GLA, who, at the developer's request, took over control of the application from Lewisham Council in October 2013. Boris has promised the developer that he will make a decision by the end of February.

Lewisham Council is now a Statutory Consultant on the application, and last week their Strategic Planning Committee voted to reject it in its present form and back their planning officers in their continued negotiations with the GLA and developer. They want important amendments to be made before the application is approved. The Council thoroughly support the local heritage projects Build The Lenox and Sayes Court Garden, who have yet to secure the right conditions on the site or a full commitment from the developer. See Deptford Is... for a brief digest of Lewisham's proposals and amendments.

Yesterday, Deptford's MP Dame Joan Ruddock spoke on record to Ed Vaizey (Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries) in an "adjournment debate" in the House of Commons. She presented the history of the site and asked Mr Vaizey to bring his influence to bear on the matter of its sensitive redevelopment in relation to the heritage assets and the local heritage projects. Vaizey, who had taken advice from English Heritage to prepare for the debate, thanked Ms Ruddock for bringing the site to his attention and offered his support.
See the half hour debate here or here.
Read the transcript published here.
Read Deptford Is... for a summary.

Also see our analysis of this application and its owner here.

Thames Tunnel campaign update and diary dates – how it affects Crossfields!

This week four Crossfields residents took part in the pollution testing organised by Don't Dump on Deptford's Heart (see here). The aim of this 'citizen science' project is to show that there are already very high levels of pollution from traffic on Deptford Church Street – and therefore the proposal to site a Thames Tunnel worksite on Deptford Church Street and close two lanes of the road for three years whilst construction takes place would be seriously detrimental to local residents.

The proposal to partially close Deptford Church Street from 2017-2020 (in which bus stops will also be moved and bus times slow down) is all the more insane since there will also be an influx of heavy construction traffic not just from the proposed Thames Tunnel site next to St Paul's Church, but also from the redevelopment of Faircharm Trading Estate on Creekside, and potentially from the redevelopment of Convoys Wharf and other development sites.

Crossfields residents will also suffer on all sides from the noise, vibration and dust of the Thames Tunnel works, since construction work will also be taking place at Greenwich Pumping Station. A tunnel linking the two sites will be bored under the Farrer House lawn (very close to the block – see the map here). There will also be two primary schools affected – St Joseph's and Tidemill.

The campaign needs your support! Between now and the end of February is a critical time. Here are some ways you can give a little of your time to show your objection to our road being partially closed for three years (among other things!):

• Sign the petition
• Join the mailing list by emailing ddodeptfordh@gmail.com
• Come to a campaign meeting: Tuesday 21 January, 7pm at the Pink Palace
• Come to the 'Site Visit' (see below): Thursday 30 January, 2pm at Crossfields Green (next to the church)
• Come to the 'Open Hearing' (see below): Wednesday 5 February, 8.30pm at Deptford Lounge

Thursday 30 January, 2pm at Crossfields Green
The government Planning Inspectors are presently considering the Thames Tunnel proposals and have scheduled a visit to the Deptford Church Street site. Unfortunately this is possibly the quietest time of the day at the quietest time of the year for traffic, so we need to let them know our objections in other ways – vocally, and by demonstrating present and potential uses of the site. If you own a dog, bring your pooch along for a Big Dog Walk at 2pm!

Wednesday 5 February, 8.30pm at Deptford Lounge
Anyone can come to this and have their say, but you must register (whether you want to speak or not) between 8pm and 8.30pm. Please come to this meeting to show your support. When asked to speak you can simply say you support what has previously been said.

Written representations
This takes a bit more time and thought, but if you have objections and have not previously written into Thames Tunnel, you have until 13th January to add your "evidence" for the Planning Inspectors. Write to thamestunnel@infrastructure.gsi.gov.uk.  You can read what other people have written here (Don't Dump on Deptford's Heart), here (Joan Ruddock), here and here (Crossfields residents), here (Lewisham Council), here (local resident).

Also see:
www.thamestidewaytunnel.co.uk/site-profiles/deptford-church-street/
infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/projects/london/thames-tideway-tunnel/

Over 50 diffusion tubes have been placed in and around Deptford Church Street, Creek Road and Deptford Broadway. They will stay up for a month then be submitted to a lab for the results.