SE23.com - The Official Forum for Forest Hill & Honor Oak, London SE23
Online since 2002   11,000+ members   72,000+ posts

Home | SE23 Topics | Businesses & Services | Wider Topics | Offered/Wanted/Lost/Found | About SE23.com | Advertising | Contact | |
 Armstrong & Co Solicitors



Post Reply  Post Topic 
Looking back at Forest Hill's future
Author Message
ForestGump


Posts: 202
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #1
28-03-2008 07:51 AM

The Creative Lewisham Culture & Urban Development Commission was set up by former mayor Dave Sullivan.

It's objective was to encourage using culture as a vehicle for transforming Lewisham and use the borough's creative talent as a dynamic force for change.

Chaired by Charles Landry, author of "The Creative City" it produced a report in 2001. Seven years later I wondered if people feel what the commission wrote about Forest Hill has happened or is about to happen.

From the 2001 here are some selected 'Forest Hill' passages...

Quote:
By common consent Lewisham is best conceived as a collection of neighbourhoods or villages and resonates well with residents who have a fierce loyalty to the component parts of the borough such as Catford, Forest Hill, Blackheath, Brockley, Deptford, Downham or Sydenham. But when people say Lewisham do they mean the local authority or the place?


Quote:
The objective is to create something both for the people of Lewisham as well as to affect its external image by encouraging outsiders to visit. The challenge of animating Lewisham as a whole is immense, so a start needs to be made at key nodal points. These might include: Lewisham Theatre and surrounds, Deptford High Street and the Creek, Forest Hill, Lewisham Town Centre.


Quote:
Forest Hill seems to be on the turn - Havelock Walk being an example.

In Forest Hill the new station will give the neighbourhood a revitalised heart and micro galleries will display changing aspects of the Horniman's collection and the route leading up to the museum will feel processional and inviting rather like an extended artistic creation. The Havelock Walk effect will have spilled out into other streets.


Quote:
...Creating beacons or landmarks out of railway stations...to enhance the sense of identity and arrival: an example would be to develop an artistic trail from the Horniman to Forest Hill station; working on a stronger design consciousness by cleaning up the street scene of unsightly advertising hoardings, traffic signs, railings and damaged paving as well as designing out crime and anti-social behaviour.


Quote:
Capitalising on the re-launch programme of the Horniman Museum throughout 2002. Its collection strengths in ethnography and, within that, music uniquely dovetail into the Lewisham vision. Links with the Music Village/Diaspora project or the World Tea Party initiative, given the Horniman's tea connection, are but two of the obvious ideas. The visibility of Horniman's could be strengthened by developing physical connections to Forest Hill station both along the route as well as making the museum part of the station itself when it is re-developed.


Quote:
Hold one of the World Tea Parties in collaboration with the Horniman, an unusual yet increasingly well-known international intercultural event; develop an artistic trail such as from the Horniman to Forest Hill station.


Quote:
....Drawing in new partners to the borough such as the Architectural Foundation, Urban Space Management; re-using empty estate shops for creative uses; instigating some visionary design work around Catford Square, Forest Hill, Sydenham, Honor Oak and the other Lewisham neighbourhoods.

Using the town centre management initiative to develop a stepped, timetabled vision for Forest Hill including the library/leisure pool redevelopment, the Sainsbury's re-furbishment, Horniman's and the new station to reflect the diversity of Lewisham.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
shzl400


Posts: 729
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #2
28-03-2008 10:03 AM

I seem to remember dimly some consultation a few years back on grandiose designs for a fantastic new station building instead of the measly portakabin there at the moment. What on earth happened to those proposals?

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
edd


Posts: 147
Joined: Mar 2008
Post: #3
28-03-2008 10:13 AM

LaughLaughLaugh


*very hollow laughter*

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
hilltopgeneral


Posts: 156
Joined: Mar 2004
Post: #4
28-03-2008 11:51 AM

Well, that's what you get when it's run from the Catford Big Top.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
thenutfield


Posts: 235
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #5
28-03-2008 02:10 PM

well we (lewisham, not FH) did get those blue lights in the trees between Lewisham Centre and Catford ( I believe the people that wrote all that guff in Forest Gumps thread likened it to 'Las Ramblas' in Barcelona!). I think most of the bulbs have blown now. Still the bare cables hanging in the trees look nice!

Being a bit more serious, it does seem a shame that FH doesnt make more of The Horniman Museum (or that the museum doesnt make more of FH?).

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
sydenhamcentral


Posts: 269
Joined: Mar 2008
Post: #6
28-03-2008 07:52 PM

The Horniman Museum is a great example of an historic building, an interesting, well designed museum and a really well considered, modern extension working in harmony with its surroundings. I love the Horniman and the gardens. It is advertised in the station. The main letdown in Forest Hill is the station itself. I'd love to see these so called 'grand plans' for it.

Good architecture and design makes a huge difference. It's a shame some of these grand local schemes never happened. Where local creative people participate in these matters it really creates a change for good.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
thenutfield


Posts: 235
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #7
28-03-2008 11:51 PM

it's all about the money, innit. Without Mr Horniman and his tea fortune (no doubt gained through the misery of others) we woudn't have had the museum. Are there any local billionaires out there who want to immortalise themselves by paying for a new station?

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Sherwood


Posts: 1,412
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #8
29-03-2008 10:50 AM

Someone wants to pay for 2 new railway stations at Catford. So it should be possible for a developer to build a new railway station at Forest Hill, provided he is allowed to build shops and offices as well.
The development could include the car park and be built over the railway tracks.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
shzl400


Posts: 729
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #9
29-03-2008 11:23 AM

Sherwood wrote:
Someone wants to pay for 2 new railway stations at Catford.


This may have something to do with the redevelopment of the former greyhound track for housing. I imagine it's part of a s.106 deal. Nothing like that in FH - PV Central is not on that scale (and they paid for refurbs to PV road & pavement).

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Sherwood


Posts: 1,412
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #10
29-03-2008 11:41 AM

I agree. The deal is that they will build new railway sations if they can build hundreds of houses/flats on the greyhound stadium site.

I am sure that a commercial development of Forest Hill railway staion including the large (mostly empty) car park would be commercially viable. Don't forget that the ELL will bring more passengers etc. in future.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
borderpaul


Posts: 95
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #11
29-03-2008 11:56 PM

I remember being at the Sainsbury's consultation at Holy Trinity for their new store when the man from Sainsburys was asked why did he want to proceed with refurbishing the existing site rather than moving into the fantastic new station area when he politely mentioned timescale and other reasons (translated as you're havin a laugh mate that is never going to happen). He was right and we have a new Sainsburys but no sign of a new station.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Sherwood


Posts: 1,412
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #12
30-03-2008 11:46 AM

Actually, Tesco are building a new supermarket over the tracks at Gerrards Cross. It was in the news when it collapsed!

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #13
30-03-2008 12:31 PM

I think at the moment there is to many new flats most of which are empty. I note the lowest price being asked at The Print House is GBP 249k. Are they in the real world. When Forest Hill Central completed could be a few bargains to pick up as devolpers get desperate and lower prices.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Happysnapper


Posts: 93
Joined: Aug 2007
Post: #14
31-03-2008 09:00 AM

ForestGump wrote:
develop an artistic trail such as from the Horniman to Forest Hill station.


That report gives this idea a number of times... the only 'trail' I've seen is a defaced sign and an out of date bus route map at the station and some absolutely minute and badly deisgned banners near the museum itself. Such a shame.

I love FH, and it's all very well writing these reports but it's a waste of money unless someone is actually going to take forward the suggestions.

Visit this user's website Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply

Friends of Blythe Hill Fields


Possibly Related Topics ...
Topic: Author Replies: Views: Last Post
  What does the future hold for Forest Hill? Savvy 19 24,104 30-09-2012 08:27 PM
Last Post: rbmartin
  Bring the 194 bus back to Forest Hill? SEN 5 5,852 29-11-2010 04:05 PM
Last Post: brian