New late night service planned for Lewisham DLR

TfL's plan for light railway growth, which incorporates two new trains per hour on the ELL, also proposes late night services on the DLR, from 2021. They say:

Night services on DLR are planned for 2021 after the Bank station upgrade works are complete, and the current franchise and City Greenwich Lewisham Railway Lewisham route contract have ended. 

Night services are planned to operate from Bank to Lewisham and Bank to Canning Town/Woolwich with a four trains per hour service operating on each route. In early 2015, frequency doubled in the late evenings on Bank-Lewisham and off peak on the Woolwich route.

The document notes that, as with the ELL, this area is a major driver in the growing demand for rail journeys. It says:

Seven stations have contributed 50 per cent of DLR’s growth over the last four years. These are Woolwich Arsenal, Stratford, Bank, Canning Town, Shadwell, Heron Quays and Lewisham... Growth has been strong on the Stratford-Canary Wharf/Lewisham route.

TfL plans for DLR, Overground and Bakerloo extensions in Lewisham

BCer Monkeyboy has sent us a copy of the latest TfL Business Plan. In the section called "Unlocking the Future Growth of London", the document highlights Lewisham as a borough where future capacity is required and alludes to the possible extensions of Overground, Bakerloo and DLR services in the borough:

We are continuing to assess ways to improve access to Lewisham and Bromley. These will be considered through a coordinated approach, which will include options such as a possible extension of the Bakerloo line, the DLR or the Overground. A key focus is how any proposal will be funded.

The Mayor has been teasing us with the prospect of a Bakerloo extension for a long time now, though at best, it appears to be a rhetorical admission that such a scheme makes a lot of sense, rather than a serious plan. However, the steady drip of news and commentary about these three projects is encouraging. Each of them has the potential to unlock huge regeneration benefits.

Reduced DLR service in April to test Olympic service

TfL is celebrating 100 days to go to the Olympics by offering DLR users a taste of what's to come. It says:

From Friday 20 April until Tuesday 24 April, DLR services will be modified in order to test some of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic timetables.

On Friday 20 April, Monday 23 April and Tuesday 24 April there will be reduced frequencies during peak periods between:

Stratford and Canary Wharf
Lewisham and Canary Wharf
Tower Gateway/Bank
Woolwich Arsenal/Beckton

This will allow for increased frequencies on the Stratford International and Beckton routes to be operated for the test period, as they will be during the Games.

DLR link to Stratford opens today

The new 6km DLR route from Canning Town to Stratford opens to the public today, from 11am., according to The Wharf.

The link is an important part of London's Olympic infrastructure, which will facilitate the development of Stratford as a major new centre for London. It will give Lewisham residents an alternative route to Westfield Stratford, when the retail behemoth opens in September.

The BBC reports:

There are four new stations along the new route, which connects the Olympic Park to five arenas in east London.

The extension completes a £500m upgrade of the Docklands Light Railway, which Transport for London (TfL) says will improve capacity by 50%.

Hotel plan for Seager Distillery

The Deptford Dame reports that the developers of the Seager Distillery are planning to substitute the planned office space for a 4-star hotel, shifting the proposed gallery round the corner and installing a restaurant.

The application requests:

Change of use of permitted office (B1) floorspace within International House, and of permitted office (B1) and art gallery (sui generis) floorspace within Holland House to use as a 90 bedroom hotel (C1) with an ancillary ground floor restaurant (A3) on the ground floor of Holland House, along with a change of permitted use of two middle ground floor units of Norfolk House from office (B1) to art gallery (sui generis) at the redeveloped site of Old Seagar Distillery & Norfolk House, 4-12 Deptford Bridge SE8.

As The Dame says:

The developer was originally granted planning permission to convert the old distillery building that fronts on to Deptford Broadway into a ground-floor art gallery and six floors of office space.

But now they are claiming that they've had no interest in the office space, but have been approached by a hotel chain wanting space for a four star hotel with 90 rooms.

The Dame is concerned about the gallery being given a less prominent spot and that's a valid complaint, although galleries tend to cope pretty well in some unprepossessing locations and if we were going to start a gallery, we don't think we'd be too troubled about being shifted from facing on to a busy dual-carriageway to a quieter spot.

In our view, the more significant question is whether the loss of office space is a set-back for local economic development. Lewisham has relatively little high-quality office space with which to attract jobs. These developments are an opportunity to help redress the balance. As with Convoy's Wharf, office space is being lost to hotel space. In the case of Convoy's Wharf, we argued that hotels are an important creator of jobs and driver of economic activity and the same argument can be applied here. However, in this case, all of the office space is threatened. Is a large high-quality hotel in the area better than an office building? We don't know.

The other question is how a 4-star operator expects to make a success of this location. We sometimes accuse critics of other developments of suffering a failure of imagination, but we're experiencing one of those ourselves in this instance. We guess the operators are relying on the ready access to Greenwich and Canary Wharf via the DLR, in which case, Deptford will have to work hard to capitalise on the regular inflow of hotel guests.

DLR upgrade completed, Thameslink milestone passed

TfL has today announced the completion of a £325m project to expand the capacity of the DLR across the network, by converting all of the stations and track for use by three car trains. The new trains began running between Beckton and Tower Gateway yesterday, while the Lewisham upgrade was completed last year. The release states:

The Docklands Light Railway’s (DLR) three-car upgrade was completed on time and within budget with the launch of three-car trains on the Tower Gateway to Beckton route. The £325m upgrade also includes longer platforms, improved track and signalling, £13m of improvements to Tower Gateway station and an entire new station at South Quay. Fifty-five new carriages costing £100m (£80m from TfL and £20m from the Olympic Delivery Authority) were also commissioned.

In related news, the Thameslink upgrade of London Bridge passed a key milestone last week, with the installation of a huge new bridge across Borough High Street. London Reconnections has the pictures.

DLR releases possible route to Ladywell, Catford and Forest Hill

The DLR website has posted a new map of possible future line extensions, which shows a possible route to Ladywell, Medusa, Catford and Forest Hill.

An extension south from Lewisham would require the abandonment of the current station and major work in the Lewisham area. As such, this route is still in the concept stage, rather than fully-developed, but it would add significant capacity to the public transport options in Catford, which suffers from relatively poor connections, and help to integrate it more effectively with the rest of the borough.

Despite the major challenges involved, the DLR has an impressive track record of delivering on its vision, so this map is more than just a pipe dream.

EDIT: Trainspotter found a reference in a document from 2005, which clarifies that an extension south of Lewisham would involve constructing new track, running in parallel to existing overland services:

South of Lewisham the proposed alignment is alongside and east of the Mid-Kent Railway

line. Some complex bridge works are necessary and there are tight alignment constraints at

Doggett Road, to the North of Ladywell Road, and on the approach to Catford Bridge Station.

Whilst some of these issues – together with the necessary modifications to Ladywell Station

and Catford Bridge Station – are significant; they are less critical than the interface near

Lewisham Station.

DLR strike cancelled

Homer: Pretty soon, every boy and girl in Springfield Elementary School is going to come and see this thing.

Marge: Really? Why?

Homer: They're forcing 'em!

- The Simpsons

Sky News reports that:

A High Court injunction has prevented Thursday's planned Docklands Light Railway strike from going ahead.

The strike would have lasted until Saturday.

DLR strike, January 20th -22nd

The Wharf has details of the DLR strike, planned for next week. It reports:

The RMT union has instructed its members not to book on for shifts on the network between 3.59am that day until 3.58am on Saturday, January 22.

Transport for London reports fewer car journeys, more cycling, more DLR

TfL has released its 3rd annual travel report today, revealing that in 2009, the capital saw a 7% decline in car use and a 5% increase in bike use, compared with 2008.

Car journeys still represent the greatest proportion of daily travel in the capital, with 36% of all daily travel involving some car use, compared with 21% for the next biggest categories - walking and catching the bus or tram. Car use is nonetheless in long-term decline in the capital, with "private transport" falling from 1993, when it accounted for 50% of all trips, to 41% of all trips last year.

The total number of journeys made on "TfL-operated services" (Bus, Underground, DLR, Tramlink, Overground) in the capital in 2009 fell by 0.4% - a decline which TfL attributes to the effects of recession, with fewer people travelling for both work and leisure. The data predates the impact of the ELL extension.

Of note is the growth of the DLR as a transport option, which was the only TfL service to experience significant growth last year. At the start of the decade, it accounted for 195 million passenger kilometres. Last year, the figure was 365 million. This growth should accelerate thanks to the expansion of the DLR's capacity this year.

Not Brockley Central: Mudchute Farm

This weekend, a birthday party invitation for our son took us to Mudchute Farm on the Isle of Dogs.

Ridiculously easy to reach via the DLR (Mudchute and Crossharbour serve either end), Mudchute is a 32 acre park, comprising a farm and some undulating grassland, which makes a great picnic spot, so long as you don't mind dining amongst copious amounts of delightfully varied types of dung.

Mudchute is the largest city farm in London and it is home to most of the farmyard classics, including pigs, sheep, cows, donkeys and chickens, as well as some more exotic fare, like llamas and chipmunks. The animals are happy to be hand-fed by gaggles of kids and seem well-kept - one parent commented that it was the least smelly farm she'd ever been to.

It's also a brilliant children's party venue. After a tour of the animals, we went back to the education centre, which doubles as a playroom at weekends. The food served - pizzas, sandwiches, dips - was cooked and prepared on the farm and delicious enough to keep kids and adults happy.

Set against the backdrop of Canary Wharf, the farm is big and rugged enough that you feel like you've escaped even with skyscrapers peeping over the treeline.

DLR capacity boosted by 11%

On Monday, the Docklands Light Railway began operating a new timetable, which increased the number of trains serving Lewisham from 13.3 trains per hour to 15 trains per hour during the morning peak time, enabling the service to carry 1,100 more passengers per hour - a capacity boost of 11%.

Earlier this year, the Bank to Lewisham route saw the introduction of three carriage trains, giving an additional 50 per cent capacity.

Director of the DLR, Jonathan Fox, said:

'We are pleased to be able to deliver this service improvement to our passengers.

'This is the second network capacity improvement step following on from our upgrade programme and there will be more to come as our passenger numbers continue to increase. 'Passengers will see increasing benefits delivered by our upgrade and new carriages."

The expansion of the DLR is a key component of Lewisham Council's plans to redevelop Central Lewisham, with work underway at last on the Loampit Vale project.

June strike planned for DLR

The RMT union has announced a strike from June 23 (England v Slovenia)-June 26. The union's members will also refuse to work any overtime on Monday, June 28.

The RMT wants more money for its members following the introduction of three-car trains on the DLR. The operator Serco Docklands says there has been no change to workers' jobs, terms or conditions.

DLR upgrade works completed this weekend

This weekend is the last scheduled closure of the DLR service to Bank. Services have been disrupted by engineering works to upgrade the line to allow it to handle three-car trains, delivering a 50% increase in the line's capacity.

Transport for London explained in a recent press release:

Three-car operation will be introduced gradually on the Bank-Lewisham route following the completion of the engineering works. DLR has also used the Bank closure to enhance and improve the platforms, lighting and signage at the station.

The investment means that commuters from Lewisham should find their journeys a lot more comfortable and of course allows for greater density of housing in Lewisham, a crucial plank in the Council's regeneration plans.

In other DLR news, Greenwich Council has agreed to a feasibility study for an extension of the service to Kidbrooke and Eltham, although it's most likely that this would be from Woolwich, rather than Lewisham.

London: Land of the Rising Sun (Part 2)

One of our friends works at a major commercial art gallery in London. Like half of his colleagues, his long term ambition is to open his own gallery. A Lewisham native, we asked him whether he'd consider South East London. We weren't naive enough to think Brockley would be a goer, but Dulwich? Greenwich? Blackheath? Deptford?

"Nope. No-one will come to South East London. I could open a place in the grottiest part of Hackney or Tower Hamlets and have a chance of building a successful business. But the art-buying community won't go east of Bermondsey, south of the river. It's too cut off."

For the art world, you could substitute pretty much any other sector or industry. The nature of Brockley Central's job means that we work with virtually every type of organisation you could think of. Big companies, small ones, charities, government departments, quangoes, consultancies. Last week our diary took us to a design company in Camden, a hotel in Mayfair, a client in Chiswick and a media briefing in Kings Cross. In three and a half years of doing this job we have never been anywhere further south east than "More London Bridge" for work.

A city is the sum of its connections - the daily interactions of millions of people. Those interactions are the reason that businesses and communities cluster in certain locations. In our view, the low level of economic activity in South East London is in direct proportion to its limited connections. In part one, we wrote about the East London's economic ascendancy. But without better links, jobs and investment will remain north of the river.

The reopened East London Line and the DLR tunnel at Woolwich will undoubtedly help matters, but there are four other river crossings that are currently on the table: a pedestrian and cycle bridge to Canary Wharf from Rotherhithe, a crossing to Silvertown at Blackwall, the Thames Gateway bridge and a cable car at the Dome. All are needed. Except the cable car, but that would just be cool.

Traffic management experts make the point that if you build new capacity, it just fills up, creating more traffic. That's a key part of the argument against letting the needs of cars shape our city and one that we generally endorse. But South East London needs more cross-river journeys. It needs more business people jumping in taxis to get across the Thames. It needs more tourists strolling or catching a bus across the river from the north bank. It needs to be part of the same city as north east London. The fact that one of the key crossings is a ferry only strengthens the feeling that the two places are foreign countries to one another.

Our Green councillors oppose the Gateway Bridge but we think they're wrong. They wouldn't knock down any of the 31 London bridges west of Tower Bridge, so why do they think that one in Dartford is enough on the east side?

A few days ago, Mayor Boris announced that 50 infrastructure projects would be central to London's economic recovery plan. The details of the plan are due to be published before Christmas. He's already effectively mothballed the cross-river tram scheme that would have served Southwark but we hope that, when the list is unveiled, it includes a few more threads to stitch north and south together.

It's time to build bridges with our friends in the north.

Lewisham 2012

On Sunday, Lewisham celebrated London becoming the official Olympic Games Host City.

The London Olympic Handover Flag was raised by Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, and Lewisham's prospective Paralympian Rebecca Harding, in Cornmill Gardens at exactly 2.30pm along with other London boroughs and regions around the UK.

Sir Steve said: “What a fantastic day and what a fantastic beginning to what promises to be a very exciting and challenging next 4 years.

“Britain has done brilliantly in this year’s Olympics in Beijing and I’m proud to say that Lewisham has made a valuable contribution to the winning team by way of Tasha Danvers who won a Bronze Medal in the 400 metre hurdles. Today we’re flying the flag not only for London but for Lewisham too!"

Lewisham is one of the five "Gateway Boroughs", which are those near the Olympic park, but not actually staging any events. This means that we're lumped together with Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Havering and Redbridge as boroughs trying to market themselves as handy stopovers for international athletes.

The vision document produced by these Boroughs in 2006 is called "Next Stop 2012" and is a slightly odd mixture of inward-investment marketing pitch, training camp prospectus and feelgood exercise for local residents.

The Lewisham website also lists five key projects that are part of the Borough's preparations:

• refurbishing Ladywell Arena


• the development of the Downham Health and Leisure Centre


• improvements to Lewisham Town Centre


• the development of Convoys Wharf


• the regeneration of Deptford Station (10 minute connection to London Bridge).

Of these, there is seemingly no chance that Convoy's Wharf will be complete, while Lewisham Gateway looks like an increasingly remote prospect.

But the list ignores some of the developments that are guaranteed, including the re-opening of Wavelengths pool in Deptford (officially due this month), an increase in capacity on the DLR (lengthening trains to Lewisham from two to three carriages by 2010) and of course the East London Line, due 2010.

Sir Steve continued:

“I hope that everyone in the borough will enter into the full spirit of the Olympics and set themselves a goal to exercise more. Exercise has so many benefits and can really improve the quality of life. In Lewisham we’re working towards developing some excellent sport and leisure facilities for everyone to enjoy and I hope people will take full advantage of them.”

“In particular, my goal is to help Lewisham’s young people achieve their own goals and levels of sporting excellence. Of course, the majority will not go on to reach Olympic status but participating in sport can have great benefits in boosting personal confidence. This in itself helps them in so many other ways and improves their work and life chances.”

2012 is a long way away - so far, in fact, that one of our friends who works for LOCOG just handed in his notice because he realised he had relatively little to do and no chance of promotion for about four years. But nevertheless, the road to Lea Valley starts here! This begs the following questions:

1. What should Brockley do for 2012?

2. What will you be doing to mark the occasion?

Brockley Bites - Philosophy-Free Special

DLR set for Charing Cross

Once derided as a Mickey Mouse service that didn't really go anywhere, the Docklands Light Railway is arguably London's most successful public transport service, successfully growing its tendrils in to new parts of the city. One of the most likely extensions in their future planning appears to be an extension from Bank to Charing X via City Thameslink and Aldwych. Given the speed at which the DLR can be built and that it would use a number of existing platforms, the extension may not be a very distant prospect. An extension to Catford still seems a relatively distant prospect though.

Getting rid of large objects

We have now used both Lewisham Freecycle and the Council's Special Collection service. We used Freecycle to get rid of a sofa, which was harder than we expected. Despite the sofa being in decent condition (and from Habitat, no less) a lot of people turned their noses up at it when we sent them a photo, while a few other respondents either sounded decidedly dodgy or didn't bother with basic pleasantries in their messages. Eventually it went to a good home in Forest Hill.

We used the special collection service to rid ourselves of three large items. They have to be left outside the house, within the boundaries of your property, the night before collection day (which was within about a week of calling) . One of the large objects (we forget what it was) took the eye of someone more resourceful than us, as it sat in our front "garden", so it disappeared overnight. This meant that, when the collection team arrived and saw only two large objects cluttering the front of our home, they concluded that this couldn't be the collection in question and promptly left, without bothering to let us know of their logical deduction. After a second call to the Council, during which we were initially told that we hadn't left anything for collection, we got them to come back and the items eventually went without further hassle. There is a flat charge (£20) for this service and a maximum limit of three items.

Key cutting

We got three keys cut at the hardware shop a couple of doors down from Moonbow Jakes. All three opened the locks they were meant for, which constitutes a recommendation.

Going Local

Brockley Central regular Tom has had the temerity to start his own blog about Brockley stuff. And worse still, it's pretty good.

Lewisham Gateway

Brockley Central received a request to highlight a campaign against the long-awaited Lewisham Gateway scheme - which would lead to the replacement of the main roundabout in Lewisham centre with an h-shaped road system that would free up land for new homes, retail units and offices.

The documentation put together to criticise the plans is certainly comprehensive - the objection runs to 45 pages.

They're concerned that the development will ruin the unique charm of Lewisham Roundabout, reduce the green spaces in which locals reguarly frolic (in preference to neighbouring Blackheath, presumably), impair the unspoiled views of Citibank tower from Hilly Fields and replace the good-as-gold, local, wealth-creating shopkeepers with evil chain stores, who will suck money out of the prosperous streets of Lewisham.

Some of their criticisms of the scheme are valid, of course - better cycle access would be good, the failure to do more with the rivers is a missed opportunity and more affordable housing would be desirable - it's the job of the Council to squeeze the best deal possible from the developers and we hope it does. The developers' website is poor and by releasing only massings of what the new buildings will look like from strategic views (ie: just outlines of the buildings, not realistic pictures) they do nothing to allay the fears of those for whom tall automatically means bad.

Some of the campaigners' criticisms are silly. They claim that there is a "net loss of green space" as a result of this development, but gloss over the fact that the quality of the 'green space' currently on offer is very poor and that the development will create more public space, even if it isn't technically "green". They describe the architecture as though 'high-rise' and 'glass and steel' were innately pejorative terms.

Some of their criticisms are just plain wrong, such as the claim that the development will lead to increased demand for public transport with no increase in supply. This ignores the fact that capacity on the DLR service from Lewisham to Bank will be expanded by 50% with the introduction of 3 car trains by 2009.

Most of their criticism stems from the idea that many of the claims made for Lewisham Gateway are "unproven". The traffic system will cope: "unproven". The development will bring regeneration and employment to the area: "unproven". Improvements to the high street: "a speculative, nebulous and subjective concept."

We find this attitude pretty depressing. It's the nature of all such developments that many aspects remain unproven until they are built. What's required is conviction, money, an element of risk-taking and vision.

So what's their alternative vision?

"An approach that would assert Lewisham's uniqueness, emphasise Lewisham's hills and valleys, its green spaces, its views, its historical buildings and its market and independent shops."

Blimey, sounds great! Just to remind you what that looks like, you can see it here - the greenery under threat is the stuff north of the river channel in the middle of the photo. And of the course, the unusual circular park in the top right, which contributes so much to the area's unique character.

Their vision glosses over the fact that a vibrant streetscape is compatible with new development (all those new people might inject some new life in to Lewisham, maybe?), historical buildings are not under threat. It also ignores the question of who would pay for their scheme.

In fact, though vague, their alternative plan boils down to something much more mundane:

"We believe that a cheaper scheme could improve the roundabout without blighting the area in such a permanent way."

In other words, do nothing that might disturb the traffic flow or bring more people in to the area. The vast majority of the objection seems pre-occupied with traffic flow, which jars somewhat with the new eden they envisage earlier in the document. The argument against the new road layout, reminds us of the opposition to the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square a few years ago - and look how badly that turned out.

It's great to hold developers and the Council to account, which is why we're happy to link to the campaign. Brockley Central was set up to celebrate community action and we believe it can be an incredible force for change. But too often, it's used as a means for reinforcing the status quo, even when the status quo is Lewisham roundabout.

Click here for the campaign website.

Anyway, that completes our axis-of-evil series of articles in which we've failed to condemn Tesco, Lewisham Council or property developers. We plan to write about something less controversial next time. Tennis, anyone?