Best New High Street Business 2014 - The Brockley Deli

Congratulations to The Brockley Deli, winner of this year's Best Newcomer Award, thanks to a record public vote. The Deli and The Proud Sow butcher dominated the vote in a highly competitive field and were able to mobilise their fan bases very effectively.

In the end, the right newcomer won. The Proud Sow and third-placed LDN Beer Dispensary set similarly high standards, but they were standing on the shoulders of giants - building on the goodwill of established businesses and the popularity of existing high-streets. The Brockley Deli came from nowhere and settled in the most unpromising of locations, to become a smash hit.

In terms of the evolution of Brockley's town centre, the arrival of The Brockley Deli ranks alongside The Broca on Coulgate Street (which begat Brown's and Degustation) and The Orchard (which showed that Brockley was ready for a different kind of night-time experience than the Barge offered and paved the way for The Gantry). If it succeeds in dragging the town centre towards Brockley Cross, it will have achieved the impossible.

Any business whose founders have more powerful rose-tinted spectacles than even ours deserves to win this award. And for the first time, this year's winners will be given an actual certificate, to decorate their loos with, as they wish.

The pantheon of legends now includes:

Best Newcomer 2014 - The Brockley Deli
Best Newcomer 2013 - The Malaysian Deli
Best Newcomer 2012 - Gently Elephant
Best Newcomer 2011 - Brockley Market
Best Newcomer 2010 - El's Kitchen
Best Newcomer 2009 - The Orchard

Did 2014 go to plan?

Jonathan Jo has a mouth like an "O" 
And a wheelbarrow full of surprises; 
If you ask for a bat, or for something like that, 
He has got it, whatever the size is.
- AA Milne

Before we make our predictions for 2015, here's a recap on what we foresaw this time last year:

1. Lewisham Way would buck its ideas up, led by a new-look Albertines pub and an expanded Meze Mangal. 

Well fire put paid to the Albertine's dream (although it's been repaired quickly) and for the most part, Lewisham Way remains stubbornly moribund. The race is on to see whether a new pub can establish itself before its new residents snuff that prospect out. However, we called it right when we said the Tyrwhitt Road corner shop would finally get a new tenant. So we're giving ourselves half a point.

2. Goldsmiths would start to transform New Cross (for the better)

As we said at the time, we had some insider knowledge on this one, but the prediction relied on things working out as hoped (which they often don't). A raft of refurbishments and announcements for new facilities means we can give ourselves a point without blushing.

3. Posh developers would move into the area, proposing all sorts of grand residential designs

Not really. Though we did see a few grands projets in the Telegraph Hill and Brockley Conservation Areas and a hell of a lot of other schemes, but they were mostly for small homes, not mansions. No points.

4. The area would join Primrose Hill as a retreat for celebrities, following Professor Green's lead

Did it hell. Still, we got Joss Whedon, Chris Evans (not that one) and Damon Albarn at the Rivoli and Shia Lebeouf having another punch up at the Hobgoblin. Richard Bacon was spotted at #ModelMarket. Does that earn a point? No.

5. We would finally get a new restaurant in Brockley

However strong the wind in our sails, never underestimate Brockley inertia. The LDN Beer Dispensary opened and served a mean burger. The Brockley Deli provided another place to sit and eat a croissant. Lewisham Arthouse turned itself into a pop-up dining venue. But none of these things counts as a proper place to sit down and have a full meal from a varied menu, 52 weeks a year. We came close, but all this adds up to merely half a point.

Two points out of a possible five. 2014 was a surprising year, but in all the wrong ways as far as our predictions were concerned. This is a disappointing result - BC will strive to do better with our 2015 predictions, coming up.

2014

Rabbi Scott: You have to see these things as expressions of God's will. You don't have to like it, of course. 
- A Serious Man

This was a year for deeds, not words - a moment when promises finally materialised and everything in Greater Brockley got bigger and better until we tweaked the nose of God.

At the end of 2013, we reflected on a frustrating year of pub and shop closures and of promise unfulfilled. We consoled ourselves that "the pipeline for 2014 looks strong." In fact, we had a gusher.

Most excitingly, the gap between demand and supply for places to go at night narrowed. This was a vintage year for local pubs. The Honor Oak, The Waverley and The Montague Arms were all reopened by passionate new owners, while great new bars including The LP Bar, Vinyl, The Job Centre and The LDN Beer Dispensary launched. Existing places like The Talbot, The Fox and Firkin and The Brockley Barge upped their games and The Catford Bridge Tavern got a new owner who means business. Local nightlife is no longer a contradiction in terms.

Everywhere burst with energy and optimism.

In Deptford, a raft of new major new developments began or were revealed, promising a new urban landscape of remodelled wharves, re-used arches and ramps and regenerated creekside. The whole area will be a building site for the next few years, but there will be circuses as well as bread.

The Goldsmiths masterplan began to take shape in New Cross, with a new music studio, a remodelled church, facelifts for two of the area's most iconic buildings, and detailed plans for a new gallery.

Peckham reached a tipping point, so that it no-longer has to put up with being labelled "the new" anything. It now stands alongside Dalston and Brixton as one of the most important and exciting parts of young London, with rooftop cinemas, hardcore gyms and arcade game bars dribbling from the Peckham spring.

Lewisham, which produced a summer blockbuster in the shape of #ModelMarket, showed there's more to #Newisham than just the copse of tall buildings that has begun to sprout this year.

Brockley doesn't have the same space or potential for development, but every available scrap of land caught developers' attention and every gap will be filled, producing more floor space on our high streets in 2015. The most important site in the area is 180 Brockley Road, the former MOT garage, which was demolished in 2014, to pave the way for a new mixed-use building. Next year, we'll find out whether it will create a coherent town centre or set the area's progress back - but the news that its main tenant will be another supermarket was underwhelming.

Developers' appetite for Brockley wasn't a surprise, but the public appetite to sit on the pavement at Brockley Cross was gobsmacking. The Brockley Deli pioneered the double-roundabout's transition from gang culture to cafe culture and epitomised Brockley's freshly-grown chutzpah by taking a punt on an abandoned newsagent to create a destination venue. A hairdresser, an estate agent and a hardware store followed suit. Brockley Cross is still SE4's most unsightly spot, but it's heading in the right direction, given a shot in the arm by its new enterprise village.

The Greater Brockley explosion forced the hand of our central planners, who delivered an expanded ELL in double-quick time, released plans to calm two of the area's busiest roads and pictures of Crofton Park's shiny new trains, confirmed plans to bring the Bakerloo line this way, mooted a new circle line to connect Brockley and Peckham, a foot bridge to connect Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf and a rail terminus to connect the ELL with the Central Line.

In 2012, Michael Bloomberg said: "Talent flocks to where the most exciting things are happening – in music, art, design, food, shops and technology. Economists may not say it this way but the truth of the matter is: being cool counts.” In 2014, the former NYC Mayor moved to London to be closer to the excitement of SE4 and the talent flocked to Greater Brockley. Hipster is a lazy word to throw around, but it's a pretty useful catch-all term with which to describe a year of urban railway garden dreams, sourdough pizza places, kitsch names, kickstarter fishbars, winning street art festival bids and Joss Whedon.

But hipsters, on-trenders, developers, media industry professionals, young people, pop-up entrepreneurs, Hollywood moguls - none of these newcomers could dent the area's essential Brockleyness. No sir - in 2014, Greater Brockley proved you can have it all: Falling crime and poverty; Improving schools; Rising house prices that somehow remain below the London average; Better transport links; Cool new stuff; Cool old stuff. And no comeuppance!

But our God is a vengeful God. We flew too close to the sun and he clipped our wings, sending 'biblical floods' to an unfloodable area, causing buses and pubs to burst spontaneously into flames and raining a plague of Labour councillors down upon us to dominate the Lewisham dojo.

The prospects for 2015 look even brighter. A pop-up furniture shop should become a new cafe, a new restaurant will open on the west side, parents will get a new place to stash their young kids, #ModelMarket will morph into a permanent roof top venue in central Lewisham and a clutch of new high street businesses will open in Crofton Park.

We've never had it so good. Expect locusts to descend on our new community gardens in 2015.

Dig This repotted

New Cross plant shop Dig This has found a new home, moving up the hill from next to the Hobgoblin to a shop next to the Venue, at 6 Clifton Rise. On the New Cross forum, Tamsin writes:

"Lovely shop space, café area at the front. Same goods as before but the vinyl easier to browse and playing as background music. Another plus point is selling re-fills of olive oil by the half litre."

Two major new developments proposed for Deptford Creekside

Major residential developments are one of the defining themes of 2014 and squeaking in before the close the year are these two consultations, down the road in Deptford, either side of the Laban Centre.

Creekside East (above) would create two new tall buildings and 249 apartments for rent, next to the Creekside development, which is at last starting to fill up at ground level, with a gym, contemporary furniture shop and nursery helping to fill the units.

Kent Wharf (above) runs alongside Deptford Creek itself and its redevelopment would add another 143 homes to the area, housed in three main blocks.

Although the existing Creekside development looks like an ungainly grey slab from a distance, up close it has succeeded in creating a promising public square, shielded from the busy Creek Road. All it needs now is people to use it.

Creekside square - just add people

Pedestrians coming from Deptford town centre rarely make it past the Laban Centre and no one walking from Greenwich ever bothered negotiating the unforgiving road system to explore Creekside, so if the community at this end of town is going to have a chance of being self-sustaining, it's going to need more residents of its own. Filling these locations with decent residential buildings will help.

Please vote for Newcomer of the Year 2014

Time to vote for the Best Newcomer 2014 - an award which celebrates the best new local high street business of the year.

As is tradition, only businesses in the Brockley, Telegraph Hill and Ladywell areas are counted - which is a mercy, because this is the year when Greater Brockley blew-up, with sour dough pizza restaurants in Honor Oak, controversial bars in Deptford, hipster nirvanas in Lewisham and themed cafes in New Cross. We also saw the welcome return of great pubs including the Montague Arms, the Waverley Arms and The Honor Oak. More on the Greater Brockley explosion in our round-up of the year, coming soon.

Even excluding the wider area, this has been another great year for local start-ups, with twelve new places shortlisted for the vote, serving a wide range of needs and constituencies.

Ladywell's entries on this year's list are new custodians of retiring local heroes, including a new deli, a new butcher, a new art shop and a new park cafe - but each is doing things in their own way and so earns their place on the list.

It's been another big year for local pop-ups, but only permanent new businesses earn a place on the shortlist. Some pop-ups, such as the new furniture shop on Tyrwhitt Road, may morph into permanent residents and earn a place on next year's list.

Here, in alphabetical order, are this year's candidates:

The Brockley Deli
The CCC Club
Cooper's Bakehouse
iMove
KR's Barber Station
The Larder
The LDN Beer Dispensary
Morells
The Proud Sow
10,000 Hands at Ladywell Fields
Safika
Zenubian

Please vote now using the poll on the right hand side. The winner will be announced on December 31st. For a list of the previous winners of this illustrious title, please click here.

Happy Christmas 2014

Charlie: I don't know if I will have the time to write any more letters because I might be too busy trying to participate. So if this does end up being the last letter, I just want you to know that I was in a bad place before I started high school, and you helped me.
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Happy Christmas to all Brockley Central readers - and particular thanks to everyone who has contributed articles and ideas this year. Couldn't do this without you.