If we involved the council we would probably need all sorts of health and safety checks, licences, insurance, etc

This will all work best if everybody just joins in and makes it work. Feel free to bring tables, chairs, picnic hampers, games, alcohol, musical instruments, astroturf, anything to amuse and entertain.

And although the FH Society have helped coordinate the idea, nobody is really in charge - in fact everybody is in charge!

We should be able to hear the music from the bandstand drifting through the air, you certainly could last weekend with no noise from the South Circular. But bringing a band down to the high street would be fun.

Just so you guys know, I got this update from Thames Water yesterday afternoon (unfortunately after our paper went to the printers!)....


Work is scheduled to end on 5/9/10 and NOT 24 Sept as BBC are reporting.

"We are working on a collapsed sewer under the road.

"Due to the collapse, the soil under the road has drained away, leaving a
large cavity.

"We have had to fill this cavity with concrete to make it safe for our
engineers to work. The concrete was left to set over night and work began
again this morning.

"We will be working 24/7 where necessary to get this work completed and the
road re-opened.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience caused."


Street party sounds good, if anybody takes any pictures email them over to me (michael.stringer@slp.co.uk) and John (john.hugill@slp.co.uk) and we'll see if we can get it in the paper...

The last couple of nights they have been working throughout the night. I understand that they need to complete the work as quickly as possible, but if you live near it, pneumatic drills going all night is a bit much, meaning one cannot sleep.
Is there something that can be done aboout this???? if this goes on for the next week of so it will be a nightmare. Would this be a police issue or local authority. Unless Thames Water has an override order to get it done, irrespective of the noise they make

I have to say I agree that the reduced level of traffic noise has been nice but im starting to miss it now. Living on London Road we hear police, ambulance sirens and buses every couple minutes but now all I hear are the drunks and sqeeky kids screaming. Bring back the traffic!!!

Forest Hill Promenade
You've probably noticed that the London
Rd stretch of the south circular has been closed since the weekend after drains collapsed?! It's caused big problems for traffic and for the businesses along there.
...
We could moan.
We could fret.
OR we could organise a PARTY!
London Road is quiet and (virtually) car free for perhaps the only time we'll ever get to experience it. So join us today for lunch and stroll along the NEW Forest Hill Promenade.

We'll keep it very informal. Just turn up, grab a coffee from the Lemon Grove or the Teapot or Wetherspoons, and meander. Perhaps you'll bring a deckchair, perhaps you'll show off your breakdancing skills, perhaps you'll turn up in fancy dress, perhaps a gentle game of boules will arise spontaneously. Who knows?

Same picture only bigger:


Just some of the people having fun on the South Circular.

Yep, I've always thought it would be fun to play with a digger on the South Circular!

Been away for two weeks, returned on Saturday 21st, must say, the silence of hardly any traffic is deafening, it is bliss

yes we could all moan, yet it if a sever decides to collapse, who are we to disagree, nice picture by the way

We felt it could be a bit better with more time to prepare, so plans have been going on for next weekend when we have a bouncy castle booked to sit on the South Circular on Sunday

I have walked past this mess several times recently. The deisel fumes from the compressors are almost unbearable and probably really toxic. Why do these machines have to point directly at the pavement adjacent to Sainsburys?

And why on earth would parents subject their children to these dangers when their is a wonderful amenity like the Horniman just a few minutes walk away?

Rant over.

Oops used their instead of there...that will teach me to go on and on and on................

or will it..........??

It might be bliss for some,but not if all the traffic decides to go up and down your road instead, a road which is usually very quiet at this time of night in August and is instead closely resembling a two lane motorway.
All that traffic has to go somewhere. It hasn't disappeared, its been displaced. Including several artic trucks, a coach load of German tourists, and even oddly the muc revered Paradise 4 itself.

May it all get a move on.

At last Roz's house is on the tourist trail!

It is fortunate that the works are happening in August, when September begins traffic is going to be even worse around the edges of Forest Hill and on residential roads that cannot take that level of traffic. I'm sure that we can all sympathise with what you are having to put up with at the moment.

As far as fumes go on the South Circular Parkway, except for outside Sainsburys there is really very little fumes from the road works, so it is possible to have a nice stroll along the road (although more people are realising it is a useful car park for Sainsburys especially when you just double park).

And it is worth remembering what the fumes are like on a normal day, I usually start choking in the morning on my way to work or school when stationary traffic is outside Sainsburys. I mention school because it has been like this for at least 25 years.

Roz - the bit where I said it was bliss was tongue in cheek as there was very little trafic in London Road, I thought it was Christmas day, must be hell in the side roads where all the traffic has gone, I do feel sorry for you and all who are affected

I know that the impacts are being felt in other areas but the town centre is so much nicer to be in without that traffic!

they could just build "the forest hill underpass" while they are digging... i'm sure it wouldn't cost much ;-)

In response to the 'non-stopping' bus e-mails, I am a Dartmouth Roader and normally get the 176 - which obviously we cannot do at the moment. I am lucky in that I can get a 185 as they are on diversion at the moment. Having said that, 2 mornings last week they sailed by (one driver with a grin on his face - and it was raining!). I rang TFL to make a complaint and they confirmed that buses on diversion SHOULD stop and they are all aware of the diversions. TFL log complaint calls and give you a reference number for your call and take it seriously it buses do not stop. The various bus companies have SLAs (Service Level Agreements) with the bus companies and if the levels are not met the bc's can be fined or lose their contracts. He encouraged me to report any further 'discrepancies' in bus services and to advise other people to do the same - so please do if you have had a similar situation!
P.S. sorry I missed the party - only just discovered this site!

Roz, I totally agree. Although I have sympathy for those living opposite Sainsbury's with the drills etc. going on, Dartmouth Road is taking the brunt of the heavy traffic with all the arctics etc. which are driving far too fast and causing our whole building to shake.

During 'rush hours' (goodness knows what it will be like when the schools go back) when there are huge jams of static road traffic, you have either got bus passengers trying to peer through your windows, or you have got the 'music merchants' who have built a car shell arond their speakers!

Once the road quietens down we have to put up with speeding motorists including the large lorries. Do you think it would be a good idea to have a temporary traffic measure put in Dartmouth Road for the rest of the duration of the works (perhaps between 11.00pm and 05.30hrs?) to slow down the arctics - bearing in mind we only had our new gas/water(?) mains put in end of last year and the heavy traffic is probably disturbing it all (i.e. come cold months again it may crack!?!) - Happy to contact the Council if you think worthwhile.