Shop front renovation on Brockley Road
The renovation of the Holistic Centre on the corner of Cranfield and Brockley Roads has begun. Even boarded up, it already looks better than it did a week ago, when it was a mess of twisted metal and broken glass, that somehow managed to house a temporary junk shop.
The work is being done as part of a larger redevelopment of the building, which will create new residential units, with an entrance from the mews behind.
The builders have also uncovered signage from a couple of the shop's previous incarnations, as Haydn Estates and Gee Dispensing Chemists.
66 comments:
The signage is rather fetching; I hope they leave it.
Sorry to see the holistic shop is no longer in busines. How will the holistic needs of Brockley residents be met in its absence? It seems the only option to fill the yawning spiritual void at the core of my being is the betting shop.
Another chicken shop?
A chicken shop would only meet the physical (not spiritual) needs of residents. What about the need for pseudoscience and quackery? Perhaps an alchemist or a water-diviner would restore the balance of the high-street?
is the bloke peering in the window wondering how he's going to retrieve his stock of skip salvaged sideboards?
hey, that rymes!
How many more residential units can Brockley cope with.
Thank god, does this mean that crappy junk 'shop' is only a temporary measure, then?
Good to see the building's owner FINALLY take some responsibility for it.
We joke, but what are the chances of it becoming yet another twee artisan deli?
what, on top of the one small deli Brockley?
It's doggers HQ, it's already open.
My concern (not personal with both my children in school already) is that the relative explosion of new residential units in and around Brockley Station (Jude Court, the one down by the Chinese Takeaway, the old scaffold yard ...) will place an unbearable strain on local school provision. John Stainer (the closest to the three developments I mention) is a one-form entry school where this year a purported 20 out of 30 available places are going to siblings ... what will happen if all the new residents want their children (if they have them) educated locally?
The knee-jerk pro-development crowd need to think about these things.
There hasn't been a proper deli in Brockley since the guy opposite the old Homeview now Portland bookies closed 6 or so years ago.
There's Degustation which does French food and the Broca Food which does have some deli type food but has lots of fruit and veg too...
So saying 'yet another twee artisan deli' is just BS...
Could we have a small Waitrose on that corner?
24hr wicker store please
I should think another "twee" deli is better than a bloody scrap yard as it has been for many months...
As for pressure on school places, I shouldn't think that the sort of people who will be living in 1 and 2 bed flats near the station will be the sort of people to have kids who need school provision. I should think the target audience for these properties will be 1st time buyers or other young childless people who work in central London...
I'd rather see a smartly fronted shop selling guns to toddlers than have Steptoe's yard on our high street ;)
Anyone else miss Hugh MkI?
The could put the CPZ office there...?
A massage parlour or sauna would be nice.
I liked the junk shop
Twee delis are fine but they don't sell anything worth buying that Ocado don't do better and more cheaply and drive to your door, and in fact sell far fewer things.
All very well supporting local businesses but I prefer to support good businesses.
Ed CPZ, poor attempt at humour and badly timed considering a 5 year old was shot on Stockwell Rd last night.
5-year-olds being shot? Jesus. Throw more money at Connexions and the like - right, Guardian readers?
A shop selling carbon fibre/titanium brake calipers to lawyers?
@Hugh's Bread
Yes well the internet is a lot cheaper for buying lots of things like books for example.
So let's close every shop that can't complete with the internet eh?
You'll complain when another bookies or fast food joint moves in...
Only if they open an organic espresso bar on the premises and employ a couple of Latvian stunnas to grind the beans.
Node, why would I complain? Businesses that attract custom deserve to grow, don't they? Or are you saying people shouldn't be free to choose which goods and services they want to pay for, including bookies and fried chicken purveyors?
Funny how conservation area lefties are right-on when it comes to preserving public sector (non-)jobs but up in arms when people on that pay grade spend what little they have freely.
I'm drawing up a bussiness case as we speak. I'll also be selling pepper spray and bear traps for those with an exagerated perception of crime levels. I'm confident of attracting some funding.
another junk shop please. just with better, more well-rounded junk.
I think the area needs an Italian furniture store. Since the loss of both the shop on the ground floor of the Venue and the similar outlet on Lewisham Way opposite the Memorial, Gardens there's been nowhere to get the faux-marble bedsted with matching wardrobe that I've always wanted.
I have a large ceiling mirror I no longer need.
in reference to signage can someone please go and take a photo of a cool one on lewisham way? I keep meaning to and just can't be bothered/keep forgetting... It's just before the stretch where the Giant Yellow Storage is being built (on that side of the road), so if you have the war memorial behind you it's diagonally opposite on the right. Anyway it's a nice old 'Home & Colonial Stores' one that I'm sure someone wil be interested in. Jeez, the time it's taken me to type this i probably should have just gone and done it myself :)
Arguably makes it more topical... As I have no responsibility for the shooting and was in fact unaware of it I don't feel bad.
Chances are something bad is happening somewhere at any given moment. I am not a fan of censorship in all but the most exceptional circumstances. Grow up!
Matt Z - domus artistica are still in deptford, for all your gaudy furniture needs.
I wasn't asking you to feel bad, Ed, nor did I suggest censorship. I was just pointing out that it wasn't very funny, and why I didn't think it was funny. There is no need to defend yourself.
i know everyone will h8 me for saying it, but a bookstore along the likes of pages of hackney would be pretty neat.
Don't we need somewhere where pervy conservation area professionals can ogle Goldsmiths talent?
mandy, i believe that spot is called "outside the marquis of granby".
I didn't realise they had any.
@Another Anon (groan). You addressed me by (assumed) name and there was a clear inference that I had posted something offensive and should have self-censored. I merely set the record straight. If I might profer my opinion now: posts correcting others and/or engaging in personal criticism should be thoroughly considered prior to publishing.
Like I said, Ed. No need to get defensive.
I'll be the Judge (Judy and executioner) of that! ;)
@Hugh's bread
But what if Ocado have forgotten to bring you your mung bean humous there's nowhere to get it locally.
When that happens they helicopter it in the following morning.
That van's parked on the road... mung mung... street furniture... mung mung mung...
As Brockley is in central London, affordabe housing would be nice.
Node, why would I complain? Businesses that attract custom deserve to grow, don't they? Or are you saying people shouldn't be free to choose which goods and services they want to pay for, including bookies and fried chicken purveyors?
Funny how conservation area lefties are right-on when it comes to preserving public sector (non-)jobs but up in arms when people on that pay grade spend what little they have freely.
Mr /Ms "Hugh's bread"'s post and I couldn't agree more.
"As Brockley is in central London, affordabe housing would be nice."
True, you're always hearing people get off at Brockley Station saying "right, where's Big Ben then?"
Even if that where the case, why would any city centre housing be affordable? In most cities it's usually anything but unless we're talking slums.
I think it should reopen as a 60's styled cocktail bar
I am afraid you will be disappointed judging by the quality of design. Also, the junk shop is not temporary.
@Vesta
"The knee-jerk pro-development crowd need to think about these things."
The school place shortage is a problem, but these homes don't look to be designed with families in mind.
@Node
There is one Deli in Brockley - Degustation.
There was 2 but sadly it didn't last. Although happily it is Browns of Brockley coffee shop.
I don't agree with the comments that these new flats won't be lived in by families with school age children (although this is a little off topic). Don't know about Jude court but the new flats being built on the corner a little further down include several 3/4 bed units. Anyway it's not a potential problem with school places, its a reality now. But the new residential developments will make it worse. I can't see this government giving john stainer however many £k it needs to expand to a 2 or 3 form entry in the current climate. There should be more joined up thinking on this issue and Vesta's post above is dead right.
On the brockley road topic it really is such a pathetic run of shops at the moment, how anyone can complain about the prospect of a 'twee' shop selling nice food is beyond me... Hope you will be happy with another nail bar, chicken joint, off licence or boarded up empty unit, cos that's more likely? I'm still hoping for a sushi place but I'm not expecting it!
@David S
"I don't agree with the comments that these new flats won't be lived in by families with school age children (although this is a little off topic). Don't know about Jude court but the new flats being built on the corner a little further down include several 3/4 bed units."
Sure, but that's a completely different development, I was talking about these flats.
no twee artisan deli, no 'upmarket' coffeeshop, no boring betting shop,
no SainsTesco metro rubbish
@anon at 15.50 yesterday, here you go: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67078443@N00/5017848130
So another bog standard shop to join the other bog standard shops. Nothing wrong with that as such, I use them most of all. How about a something a little different? Call it 'twee' and gripe if that satisfies your class war sillyness. Plenty of salt of the earth convinience stores around, I like to call it 'choice'.
The new wood-frame windows were in last night and displaying a pile of junk and mattresses the princess and the pea would have been happy to spend a night on.
Surely the landlord will up the rent when the new fronts have been totally sorted to such an extend that a shop that attempts to sell second hand paint would not be able to afford!
Bea
@Brockley Nick 00.12
Well I disagree because single mums with single child are likely to leave in 1/2 bed flats.
Similar orgument to the one I heard recently: "These flats are small and near the station; the people living there will not need/own a car".
Nick - afraid I disagree about families and Jude Court too.
I am a single Mum and looking for a two bedroom flat in Brockley (currently still sharing a one bed flat with my young child).
Jude Court is appealing as with the part rent / part buy if makes it more affordable. Although personally I am put off by the proximity to the station and lack of garden.
@Anon - I didn't say anything about Jude Court either! I am talking about these small flats, above a junk shop and a curry house, which are clearly built with young singles in mind.
To the wider point, yes, there is a problem with school places across Lewisham. The answer isn't to not build new homes, so that people have nowhere to live, it's to build new schools or expand the ones we have already.
Re the Home and Colonial postings above. When we moved into our flat on Tressillian Rd around 3 years ago we had to pull up a few of the floorboards and underneath found a very old food can with the original H&C label still attached to it. I thought it looked quite special/old so kept it, and a while later was walking down lewisham way and saw the actual shop it must have been bought from! The label is an exact match to the H&C shop sign. It's still sitting on my shelf...
thanks for the photo! I don't usually get worked up about shopfronts, but then I see old ones and notice the quality and attention to detail and suddenly a big neon sign looks just lazy really...
These new developments are selling people short who wants to live in Barratt flats? People want decent homes.
@Nick
Which ever side of the same coin you want to look at first it does not affect the result.
Buliding flats in areas with no schools and infrastructure is a problem for the residents of that area.
The idea of solving the house affordability by building cheap flats unsuitable for families only suits politicians, banks and developers.
House prices, like any other commodity, are led by the marginal price increase of the top of the market. So if you want to make houses affordable one needs to build a large number of well built family homes/flats for the midlle and upper classes in areas with good infrastructure. The bottom of the market would adjust accordingly.
I've heard from a reliable source that the ex Holistic shop is being run by the lady who runs Just Thai Thai and that it will indeed be a junk shop.....
I like a good junk shop but does he have to advertise his stock on the footpath and Is there really a big demand for half full tins of paint? Apparently so.
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