I've just looked it up on Land Registry and it looks very encouraging.

Trafalgar bought the Freehold in March 2020.

very interesting. thanks.

Apparently Gambado will be taking over the Capitol.

They provide an indoor play area for children.

Interesting to see how they will turn a profit on that...

Planning permission for Gambado has been granted by Lewisham.
I'm looking forward to this site coming back into use and bringing many new families to the local shops and restaurants.

Personally,
I'd rather have seen it become something along the lines of The Catford House (mixed use bar, arts community space..Like I hoped Louise House (V22)would become).
But that aside I'm relieved it has'nt become a church (nothing against churches btw) or been left to decay.
And as @michael so rightly says anything that drives footfall into our local independent traders (please not Costa.) is a good thing.

The immediate issue is the main entrance of the Capitol is being used by rough sleepers which seems to be a recent addition as they'd use the subway previously.

Yesterday afternoon I saw the police talk to a rough sleeper who was outside Sainsbury's to see if they were ok.

Saw that too. Hopefully it benefits the local shops although also hope it doesn't overwhelm the already busy bus services (TfL should seek to increase those services esp on weekends). Also hopefully gives enough day trade to allow at least one the local pubs to have an adults only evenings. Not keen on every pub becoming a creche.

Well there are plans for a new Superloop bus through Forest Hill, but that would only be a single-decker every 15 minutes. The main use of Gambardos would be at weekends and I think there is probably some spare capacity on the bus (and train) network at weekends.

But a lot of the Gambardo's users are likely to come by car (however much we might like to think that public transport is preferable). I've done my time a soft-play birthday parties and the car parks get very full!
Fortunately we have two car parks within easy walking distance, with two hours free parking.

A visit to Forest Hill for a birthday or random soft play time can easily be augmented with a trip to the museum or park or farm, lunch at one of the cafes on London Road or a sit down meal on Dartmouth Road / London Road / Perry Vale. So much more to offer than most town centres. If only we had a cinema

I agree with LForest2026 regarding needing good local pubs and cafe's that are not just full of pre-schoolers until early evening.
I know Michael mentioned he thought most the customers for Gambado probably coming at weekends, I suspect our weekend rail service could put a spanner in the works for this with us quite often finding a reduced service or no service at all on the trains due to engineering works.
I think It'll be more poppular during weekdays for groups of mums with babies and toddlers which does'nt bode well for those using buses with their limited space for buggys often being unable to accept another pushchair and leaving parents and babies waiting for the next bus.

This post was last modified: 23-01-2026 11:19 AM by nottinghillbilly.

Massive fan of the Alma in Crystal Palace for that. They are constantly fairly busy so clearly found a niche. Perhaps though that blanket policy only works in busier areas.The Signal does have a policy of asking politely for people to be considerate and have young children sat with them, but there is sadly the 10% who just ignore it, although owners are good at trying to keep people to it. Under the last management once saw a couple watch as their young one threw the contents of board games across the floor, and just laughed and walked off home, leaving some poor waitress to clear up (a few of us helped them as it just seemed so unfair).

Re the cinema yes would have been brilliant. I suppose the economics of a single screen are hard these days.

I would agree with Michael. When my children were younger, most of the soft play parties we attended involved travelling by car.

If there were around twelve children, we would typically organise three cars, collect the children from their homes, drive to Beckenham Gambados, and then drop them back afterwards. Walking to several houses to collect children aged between three and eight, and then taking them to somewhere like Gambados by bus, would have been quite impractical. I don’t believe there is any real need to worry about buses becoming overcrowded.

If you look at the local swimming pool, which you might expect to have a similar impact, I’ve never experienced issues with children using local buses. The only real difficulty tends to be crossing nearby roads when swimming lessons are starting or finishing, as traffic can become quite congested at those times.