‘Forest Hill Lacks a Heart’

In the Evening Standard’s Homes&Property tonight.

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We need to introduce the Evening Standard to @Pauline, @Michael, @Simon and co… would blow their minds!

So many examples of “heart” in our all-time Top Topics

They are probably using the estate agent definition of ‘heart’ meaning ‘middle’.

There have been a few similar comments over the years and I think it’s often been because the South Circular Road dissects the town centre.

I guess it is a bit fragmented really.

It’s a town of distinctively different ‘quarters’ -
London Road
Dartmouth Road
Havelock Walk (inc Canvas & Cream and St Davids)
Perry Vale Triangle (up to All In One)

Big-up to FOUREST HILL - the town with a quadruple bypass that offers 4 for the price of 1.

(That 4th can of Special Brew always sends me a bit cranky - hic!).

Hahaha Mr,

Too funny xx

But NO more “Miriam Lodge” jokes please but yes please

I will vote (and work to get the vote out for) a political party with a serious plan for managing the road traffic around FH for the benefit of residents rather than commuters.

@Anotherjohn You know, thats not a bad idea.

Pauline - Miriam Lodge is no joke!

By the way, did FHSoc get an answer to their ‘bail hostel’ questions (see below) back in 2012/13?

There have been suggestions that Miriam Lodge is used, in part, as a Bail Hostel. In pre-application discussions Mr Lanyon-Hogg expressed his concern at such suggestions (see appendix 6 of the Community Impact Assessment). To clarify this situation we would ask for recent figures relating to the residents:
a. How many have been charged with a criminal offence and are awaiting trial.
b. How many have previous criminal records.

Exploring the Miriam Lodge saga probably deserves its own topic. Reminder - here’s how to reply as a linked topic

Any Miriam Lodge discussion with a political slant should go in the existing topic for this. Cheers all!

Oh I agree completely Mr!

Not sure if FHSoc got an answer to that, but @Michael should be able to let us know.

On the contrary, when we were house-hunting we were drawn more towards FH than Brockley, Crofton Park or HOP because of more of a ‘heart’ to the place, a sense of a centre with a reasonable selection of shops, pubs and restaurants (albeit slightly spoiled by the South Circular).

In fairness to the journalist he was probably paid enough to spend about an hour in Forest Hill and just went to the main street, which is split in three by the south circular there’s no way around that fact. I’ve seen even worse examples of this sort of property filler where you get the distinct impression they’ve just looked it up online without even going there. Best to take this stuff with a pinch of salt I reckon.

Where do we think the “Heart” of FH is. I am talking about the centre and not the

I think of the station as the ‘centre’, with the main roads radiating out from it, and indeed back towards it.

If the station is the heart of Forest Hill then it needs a pacemaker so the Southern trains are more regular.

Its the crossing island on London road.

I let my inner geek live this evening and calculated that the centre of SE23 is in Shannons Garden centre. I could only do SE23 (and not ‘Forest Hill’) because I needed a well defined border.

This was one of the reasons we considered Crofton Park and HOP over Forest Hill, how we differ!

The journalism is sloppy, but I do have some sympathy with this view; I think Forest Hill suffers a great deal with traffic volumes from the ever busy South Circular Road. I have to cross it with my daughter every day and am concerned about the accumulated damage it is doing to her lungs. It is one of the main factors why I am considering a move out of the area, and away from London.

Unless you’re a major community center like Lewisham or Greenwich, most community centres in London are built linearly. A straight up and down line with room to grow in only one or two directions.

What I love about Forest Hill is how it is dissected almost into four with shopping branches going down Dartmouth Road, London Road, Devonshire Road and Perry Vale. It creates a community ‘heart’ which is cross shaped and closer together.

It also shows the importance of how this cross is connected so it IS a shame that the interchange outside the station has not been improved for pedestrians, and also shows the critical importance of the underpass to keep Perry Vale connected and accessible to all.

Thinking of the subway, and the proposed ‘welcome’ wall sign, could we also have some signage at the top of the subway listing traders on the Perry Vale side? I’m wondering how many FH residents never have cause to go to the wrong side of the tracks and don’t know what’s there?

From memory there is a nice map of all the traders in the sign board near WH Smith. South and North of the railway.

Yes. But I was thinking more about either an A-frame at the top of the stairs, or an antique style hand-arrow, indicating ‘more shops this way!’

That is such a great idea. Wonder if Forest Hill Traders Association would take a project on like this?

Got you. There is one there already but hidden behind and in between the emergency call post, lights, signs and everything else clutter wise. Black post and sign with gold lettering. Its at the top of the stairs to the underpass, hidden by weeds.

Quite a few openings in the past few months on Perry vale
2x Craft beer Shops,
Fish mongers / Greengrocers
Italian restaurant
A Vape Café
and another shop is under development but with very little foot fall in this area unlikely many people know about them. Along with the Perry Vale and finches Sports an interesting collection of little business Perry Vale way…

Mind you not the most inviting of areas with all the rubbish strewn along the street towards the Waldram Park side

I had to go to Street View to see what you meant. I don’t know about other people, but I barely ever look up at signs like that, unless I know where I want to get to, but don’t know which direction to head. All very well for people who are looking for Perry Vale, not much use for tempting them there if they don’t know what’s there.

I’m thinking about something much snazzier, telling people what is on offer on the other side of the subway, which is why I thought an A-frame might be a good idea.

We have the Traders map/shop directory/community board at the front entrance of FH station - this cost us around £6000 - we had some money to be spent on signage from SEE3 & we put the other £2000ish to it ourselves from money we had in our account from membership fees at the time.

If more signage were to be done for Perry Vale only it would cost more money & possibly might need planning permission depending what it was & where it would go.

I think this is a good idea too but the idea of the signage at the front of the station was so that people would get to know that there was more businesses in FH other than just London Road.

6 grand? How in god’s name could it cost that much? Someone is making a mint.

I’ve lived in Forest Hill since 1984, and I couldn’t care less!

It cost that much.mainly because of the sculpture on top & the type of wood etc used so it would last for many years

@Pauline - I was thinking of something painted on the side of WH Smiths, maybe, as part of the project to do a painted Welcome to Forest Hill sign that was mooted some time back. An arrow (maybe one of those old-fashioned pointing hands) saying This Way for the Perry Vale Shopping Area.

Or something like that to brand that area and draw people down.

Or de clutter the area outside WH Smith and one of the signs you suggested. Or something more novel.

That would be brilliant!

I quite like the “Kirkdale High Street” painted signage. Something similar maybe? All costs money though…

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Yes, that’s exactly the sort of thing. Done by the very community minded and local (well, Sydenham) Designed By Good People.
http://designedbygoodpeople.com/about-us-the-company.html

Sadly the landlord that owns the WH Smith building will not give permission to have anything painted on the side - we tried really hard as we wanted to paint the Traders map but the landlord wouldn’t allow it

Ah, such a shame. It would be the perfect location.

What about a community effort… a letter campaign or online petition? Would the tenant apply pressure? I’d even promise to not complain about the freaking post office in there anymore.

Wow. Great company. Loving their work. Now in search of duck in sloe gin as a result.

Another great place for a sign advertising the Dartmouth Road quarter is high on the flank wall above Bunka. It would be visible from the main junction and could help draw people along and into the businesses and amenities further up the road.

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Thanks for posting this boss, the footfall on D Rd is much less than Perry Vale as they have the back exit/entrance to the station.

D Rd only gets the locals that know about it, and at least once a week I get wanderers saying “Oh, we never knew any shops were on this Rd”.

Anyhow, I hope all that know about D Rd make the effort to walk along when the works start…

ETA As bizarre as it may seem, Perry Vale gets much more foot traffic than D Rd, so big up D Rd businesses - we tend to pull in our own foot traffic by getting good reviews, mentioned on blogs & working hard to get noticed. Some on PV do the same

I don’t think the issue is about footfall, it is to show people of forest hill and visitors what’s available in all directions and areas within the forest hill triangle

A couple of big old style railway signs and the postcode under the bridge, like the ones which they’ve done in Herne Hill, would brighten things up. Mind you, having lived in Forest Hill for 33 years, It feels really lively now. All relative I suppose!

New thread ‘Forest Hill lacks a soul’?

We have a heart AND a soul! More like “Forest Hill lacks direction”

I’d be interested to know what you mean by that.