1 | Lone Ranger
20 July, 2008 at 9:41 am

This may be of interest, The Catford Wanderers…

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K_tFdKvOXcQ&feature=related

3 | rp
20 July, 2008 at 11:04 am

“Andrew gets an elegant brush-off” – it didn’t come across to me as a brush-off at all, elegant perhaps, but not a brush-off, but perhaps I have my agenda and you have yours. Mine has been made perfectly clear on a number of occasions.

I think Andrew has a very valid point, one that has certainly been put forward by the various opposition groups to the Gateway as well as by Andrew himself.

Rather than condemning it as a brush-off you should open a newspaper and see the numerous articles outlining the fall of Taylor Wimpey and perhaps try to encourage people to recognise that there are other ways to regenerate the centre of Lewisham that doesn’t involve multi-storey tower blocks and a realignment of the roads that at best would merely seek to maintain the traffic flow at present and at worst, well the worst case scenario doesn’t bear thinking about, but any cursory glance at the plans will reveal this.

Forward thinking is whats needed, not idle prodding from the sidelines.

5 | rp
21 July, 2008 at 11:04 am

You continually surprise me Andrew, and you have no *apparent * need to, that you don’t allow yourself to stand back and look a little more objectively, and a little bit more thoroughly, at what’s happening in Central Lewisham. But I don’t suppose you need to. I don’t either. But I do have a grave concern for what’s planned because I have looked at the plans in some depth.

The letter referred to does offer hope. For instance “beautiful new public spaces for London and striking architecture”, well, it’s not publicly known what the architecture will look like, but going on near previous ‘erections’ nearby, ie the Sundermead Estate, the omens are not good. And the thought of “beautiful new public spaces” within the development is laughable – look at the plans to see that. There’s hope in the statement “we will look to find ways to give further protection through the London Plan to small shops and high streets”. I said hope, what a fool am I. How many times can the London Plan be interpreted to give the opposite of what it promises? Again, I leave that to you to look at, I have and I know.

We could also glance sideways at the David Adjaye building, what a disaster that is! It even makes the Silkworks behind it look good! Squatting there with it harsh cheese grater walls and spiked fencing, I wonder what the objectives were with that building, to keep people out or invite them in?

I think I’m talking myself into agree with you, but, after Taylor Wimpey pull out, which they will at some point (hopefully before any work is started) then there will be an opportunity to revisit the planning permissions, and at that point we (and that includes you) will be able to stand up and not allow Lewisham to become a dumping ground for developers offering 60’s solutions to 20th century problems.

All the best as usual