Fewer things for cars, more things for people

It's not for nothing that my son's first word was 'car'.

I'd bet that the car ownership per capita in Brockley is relatively low compared with the rest of London, given that parking never seems to be a problem and the local demographic seems to consist of young professionals, the low-paid and the 'artistic' family. And yet, an amazing proportion of the area seems to be given over to them.

On the short journey between Crofton Park Library and Geoffrey Road, I counted 10 car-related commercial properties, from MOT garages to car washes. The most mysterious are the second hand car lots that never seem to have customers, particularly B&M Motors on Geoffrey Road, which I've never once seen any human life in and whose signs still advertise a telephone number starting with 01 for London.

It would be nice to think that at least one or two of these places might give up the ghost pretty soon and perhaps we could have something for people there in their place.

Anyway, this blog is at risk of turning in to a list of gripes, so the next post will be something positive, since it was started to celebrate the local community. And on that note, I can heartily recommend the tyre place on Geoffrey Road, who fixed my flat for a tenner, within an hour on a Saturday morning...