What I think is interesting about this article is how the town centre looks to others who don't know the place.

Lets work on the basis that the journalist who wrote it lives in say, Blackheath, and spends quite a lot of time driving through Forest Hill on the south circular. He can do the research for his article whilst stuck in traffic.

And if this is what you'd seen. It does look a bit of a mess. Those of us that live here know its got great people/shops/parks/schools/pubs and other stuff but those things aren't obvious to the casual observer.

The town centre visually is all over the place, it's pretty visually incoherent, there are buildings and shopfronts that need a lot of TLC (it's not Blackheath is it). It's something that it would be good to improve further, so after much thought I'm taking this article as some useful constructive criticism that at least doesn't play up to the hype.

One way of trying to improve things would be to work towards an updated planning guidance document that sets out a vision for the town centre, and how this might be achieved. This is something that the Forest Hill Society have been starting to talk about, along with a range of other local people and groups. Maybe 2013 should be the year for it?