A happy new year from the Greenwich Peninsula Demon. Image: The Greenwich Wire
We’ve made it to the end of another year. Thank you to everybody who’s helped keep The Greenwich Wire running over the past 12 months – genuinely, none of this could have happened without you.Site founder and editor DARRYL CHAMBERLAIN explains why.
Your generosity and support has helped this website through what’s been a bumpy 12 months for one reason or another — I juggle this with other work and it’s been a delicate balancing act this year. We’ve made it to the end, though, and we’re definitely stronger with your help. For those who pay into the site, you’ve made this into a part-time job and for that I’m very grateful.
Thanks also to those who have tipped me off or trusted me with your stories. Journalism doesn’t have the best of reputations at the moment, but without your help, this website would be scratching around for material. Thank you.
The big change for this website has been a long-overdue rebrand, goodbye 853, hello The Greenwich Wire. We’ve made other changes: one in the way we send newsletters, while how we handle your generous donations is going to change in the coming weeks. This will hopefully put us in a position to grow a bit next year. More on that when it happens. I’d like to thank Philip John, who’s been working on all these changes.
Firstly, a bit of a rant.
A bad year for the big boys
It’s been a gruesome year in the local news business as full-on market failure takes hold. There were 400 redundancies at Reach plc, the owner of MyLondon (as well as the Mirror, Star and Express), after it found that creating websites that are literally unusable because they are covered in ads wasn’t a sensible way to run a publishing business.
But to an extent, we’ve all fallen into the same traps — relying heavily on the benevolence of search engines and social media, something that’s pretty much dried up now. All publishers are at the mercy of Google and Facebook algorithm changes, and this affects The Greenwich Wire as much as it affects everyone else. It’s part of the reason why we’re not on Twitter/X much these days. (Have a guess about the rest.) Your regular donations have insulated us from the worst of this, and continue to do so, but it’s still an issue.
Really? Have you seen a copy of the News Shopper lately? Image: The Greenwich Wire
Of course, the giants like to blame the BBC. Earlier this month an absurd ad appeared in the US-owned News Shopper (and titles across England) claiming that the corporation was a threat to the future of local newspapers, branding it the “neighbour from hell”. The dear old Shopper even ran it as a story on its website.
More front than Harrods, you might say. Or to quote Catherine Tate’s Nan… maybe not, this is a family website, after all. Local newspapers in SE London, including the Shopper, are actually pretty much kept alive by the BBC through its Local Democracy Reporting Service, which funds reporters to cover councils, although they don’t like to talk about that these days, or give the reporters their proper credit. (We use it as well, though it’s not as useful as it was.)
Indeed, one new paper, South London Weekly, has been launched largely off the back of BBC-funded reporting. In our part of the world, the BBC is not so much a threat, but an opportunity for publishers who enjoy already enjoy massive structural advantages thanks to state-funded help like public notices and government advertising. That’s revenue a website like this simply can’t access, even though even a fraction of that of cash would utterly transform what The Greenwich Wire does.
There is a the kernel of a point in the major publishers’ tantrum — the BBC has been taking an axe to its local radio stations (Radio London is less affected than others, but the cutbacks are sadly obvious if you switch to Kent) and putting the cash into regional/local online services instead. It is a worry — particularly outside London — and there are certainly times where the BBC website has strayed into running news that a real local outlet would be better placed to cover, even in the capital. But in part, that’s a reaction to market failure.
If the BBC wasn’t there, the local news giants would still be cutting back. The News Shopper‘s American owner, Gannett, is doing just that back at home. And there’d still be toys being thrown from fur-lined prams.
The value of royal boroughs can go down as well as up… Image: The Greenwich Wire
A good year for The Greenwich Wire
We’ve had a good year. I’m really pleased with the level of donations we get, considering the tough times that continue to dog us all. As editor, reporter, sub-editor, publisher, picture editor, business development manager, subscriptions manager, legal adviser and general dogsbody, I’m very grateful. Our page views are up too.
We had to close The Charlton Champion in the summer because it simply became too time-consuming, and that meant a small financial hit, but we’re back on track now.
And the signs are good for the independent sector, with outlets like the Manchester Mill and The Bristol Cable, which I visited in October, showing ways forward. Some of what they do is hard to replicate in individual London boroughs, but there are little green shoots of hope around the place. That said, this sector is fragile and needs nurturing, even if we don’t have the lobbying power of the giants mentioned above. I’m grateful for the Public Interest News Foundation weighing in for us, and for the support of fellow Independent Community News Network members.
On a local level, dealing with a secretive council — determined to control the message and burnish its “royal borough” self-image — has been as frustrating as ever. You’ll see some quite shifty behaviour in the top 20 below, most notably when council officers were caught out closing part of Woolwich town centre because they didn’t trust the locals to behave, and the press office kept changing its story. It’s not uncommon to wait days for responses.
It’s not like that elsewhere — Lewisham once got back to me in just 10 minutes on a story about hire bikes during the summer, while Greenwich took so long its non-response never even made it into the story.
Southeastern was also difficult to deal with — seemingly choosing to use a Tory MP as its spokesman rather than making key announcements itself. Not good.
But we’re still doing what nobody else does — original stories, not stuff ripped off from elsewhere — and hopefully doing it well. And if you’re a reporter who wants to pitch a story, I’m all ears — it’s boring when it’s all just me.
Getting to Abbey Wood on railways the aren’t the Elizabeth Line remains somewhat fraught. Image: The Greenwich Wire
So what happened this year then?
We had a very healthy year in terms of page views. Most of our most-read stories were about trains, tunnels and towers.
1. Link to Elizabeth Line would cost £5 million to bring back, Southeastern boss says(March 22nd) The reverberations of the Conservative government’s cuts to our train services continued to be felt. Routes run for the public good found themselves individually costed — yet somehow the wider economic and environmental benefit to southeast London (and the City and West End) of frequent, reliable trains never was costed. We had to lump it.
And for people on the Sidcup line who were using Southeastern trains to Abbey Wood, Woolwich and Charlton, they were effectively told their journeys on a little-promoted but much-appreciated service — to study, to work, to watch football, to spend money — were worthless.
Southeastern’s business model is now redundant — fat profits from Kent commuters that used to subsidise Metro trains have disappeared. A new model needs to be found – ultimately, we’ll need to find the money in London. We’ll get to that later.
2. Knock them down: Greenwich Council orders developer to demolish riverside towers in Woolwich (September 26th) A genuinely sensational story. People stopped me in the pub to talk about this. It is incredibly rare for councils to order developers to demolish buildings like this. For it to happen in Greenwich, which for years had nurtured a reputation as an extremely developer-friendly borough, was mind-blowing.
If the developers’ appeal succeeds, then at least Greenwich actually stood up for itself. If it fails – what will happen? The symbolism of a Labour council knocking down new homes in the midst of a housing crisis is bleak, but the charge sheet against the developer is long. Perhaps there’ll be a fudge, but maybe there’ll be another surprising twist or two to this tale.
The hoardings at Woolwich Poundland were painted over after we ran our story. Image: The Greenwich Wire
3. Poundland told to erect anti-homeless hoardings by Greenwich Council(January 6th) A reader tip-off led us to a grim story about homeless people being forced out of their corner spot in Woolwich. Equally grim was Greenwich Council’s attempt to pin the blame on Poundland, rather than admit it threatened the chain with enforcement action if it did not put the hoardings up. Council officers need watching just as much as councillors do.
4. We’ve had enough: Sign our petition for TfL to run Southeastern Metro(February 27) Instead of whining and bellyaching about the trains, I thought we should do something. If Southeastern’s business model is broken because Angry of Tunbridge Wells can now work from home, there needs to be a different solution for the trains we depend on in SE London, particularly for those who can’t work from home. In the end, 5,901 people signed up.
The answer is staring at us from across the Thames and at New Cross Gate station — let Transport for London take charge, and in turn, find a sensible way of funding TfL so the finances stack up. It’s something that both Labour and Conservative politicians have called for, but not something that any of them have the courage to actually campaign for.
It was always a long shot to get to the 10,000-signature target for a direct response from the current government. And influential resident groups — full of people who don’t have to worry about the effect of the higher fares charged compared with the Overground — fear the loss of their personal contact with Southeastern bosses. But it got coverage, particularly in the Evening Standard. And we’ll return to this once the election is over.
This time next year, this will look rather different… Image: The Greenwich Wire
6. Photos show inside the Silvertown Tunnel as tunnelling work comes to an end (August 10th) You can tell how uncomfortable TfL is with the SIlvertown Tunnel because it never made a big deal of this like it would do for, say, a Tube extension. The photos were slipped out on the website of Riverlinx, the builder/operator of the new tunnel.
The row over the Vanbrugh Park Estate was a well-read story. Image: Phineas Harper
9. Storm in a flowerpot as Greenwich Council tells residents to clear front gardens (May 16th) A very well-executed resident campaign highlighted a major issue with the council — senior councillors often have no idea what their staff are doing. Over 30,000 people signed the petition and it appears that the council eventually backed off.
10. 1,700 homes and high-level park could replace Lewisham shopping centre (November 2nd) Lewisham having no local media of its own meant many people read about the shopping centre plans through The Greenwich Wire instead. You’re very welcome. Next year’s going to be a big one for Lewisham town centre as work on the high street begins, the final part of Lewisham Gateway opens and the shopping centre plans progress. We’ll keep an eye out for the big landmarks in these projects.
12. Luxury party yacht Oceandiva arrives on River Thames to uproar(Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporting Service – May 23rd) This is the kind of story we’re signed up to the LDRS for — a massive floating night club that’s based outside the area but could become an issue once it appears at the end of your road. Neither councils nor the mayor have much power over the Thames, and — like music from a nearby club at 2am — this will rumble on.
Hallowe’en in Woolwich was different in 2023. Image: The Greenwich Wire
There was a happy ending though. For Hallowe’en 2023, the square was used for an autumn festival of lights instead, which by all accounts was a roaring success. It’s amazing what happens when you treat your residents with a bit of respect, isn’t it?
14. Thousands back call for TfL to run Southeastern Metro as rail firm adds Charing Cross trains (March 2nd) One particularly unsavoury aspect of the Southeastern farrago was that any minor reversal of the cuts has been announced not by the rail company’s communications team, but by a Bexley Tory MP, Louie French, on his social media account. It’s not healthy when politicians are allowed to own the (miniscule) wins but disown the damage they’ve caused, but that’s the place we’re in at the moment.
Stewards put a brave face on things, but council staff failed to put the BBC coverage on full screen (inset). Image: The Greenwich Wire
16. Woolwich’s big screen coronation is a washout as locals stay away (May 7th) Bafflingly, the council decided to issue tickets for the screening of Charles’ big day at Westminster Abbey rather than just allowing the public to gather. The lasting image of a soaking wet morning was not poor souls under brollies, but someone at the council forgetting to set their laptop to “full screen”, leading to the whole thing looking a bit silly.
17. 30-storey Lewisham Gateway development will open a year late(October 15th) The tower blocks next to the station were first approved back in October 2007, with the full-throated backing of the council, who said it would provide “excellent homes, shops and entertainment, great community facilities, a clean safe environment and better transport links … a town centre fit for the 21st century”.
It will have taken nearly 17 years to finish, but the near-certain Carbuncle Cup contender will open its doors during the summer. It may make more sense when you can walk through it.
Lewisham Gateway is coming in the new Yyear. Image: The Greenwich Wire
20. Big stores are unlikely to return to Woolwich, Greenwich Council concedes (August 5th) It only took 40 years after Cuffs department store closed, but the council finally realised that hankering after a long-gone past was never going to work for Woolwich. This story came out of the council’s Local Plan consultation – a big and important document for the borough that went completely uncovered elsewhere.
Woolwich: under reconstruction. Image: The Greenwich Wire
So what’s happening in 2024, then?
There’ll be a general election, but also a gruesome mayoral election which — thanks to the imposition of first-past-the-post and a possible ULEZ hangover — may not go the way the Labour Party thinks it will. There are 2008 vibes about this one. Will voters still furious with Sadiq Khan over the Silvertown Tunnel vote for him? Never mind tunnels, bridges will need to be built. Speaking of the Silvertown Tunnel, we’ll have an idea of what the tolls will be, and maybe even an opening date.
Watch out for yet more austerity cuts — the underreported end of the government’s household support fund, which paid for many of Greenwich’s initiatives to tackle the cost of living crisis, together with a projected £26 million overspend, is likely to mean yet another grinding year of “tough choices”. Half of that overspend, by the way, is on temporary accommodation due to the housing crisis, something I missed in a pre-Christmas rush of stories. There may also be a leadership election in Greenwich Labour, as councillors can challenge Anthony Okereke after two years, while — by contrast — the whole of Lewisham will be able to choose the successor to elected mayor Damien Egan, who is off to Bristol.
At some point we’ll get some form oflow-traffic neighbourhood in Greenwich and Blackheath. While the last one went largely unnoticed beyond SE10, I’m not sure that Greenwich Council is prepared or even has the ability to deal with the level of media scrutiny that will hit it this time, particularly if an election is on the way. It’ll be a saga, but you’ve probably already made up your mind already.
Big changes are coming in both Woolwich and Lewisham. In Woolwich, the high street revamp is well under way while work is supposed to start on Woolwich Exchange, the major development around the covered market. In Lewisham, we’ll hear more about plans for the shopping centre, its own high street revamp will begin and Lewisham Gateway will finally open.
Hardly anyone wanted to read stories about the London borough of culture bid but Greenwich is almost certain to win the prize in the coming year — it’s the only borough to have two entries in the contest — and so is likely to be the borough of culture in 2025 or 2027. The prize brings £1.35 million in largely unscrutinised cash from City Hall to spend.
The Woolwich Works and Borough Hall fiascos mean there are red flags about this that can be seen from space — if Greenwich does win, hopefully control is handed over to people who know what they’re doing. The people behind We Are Lewisham are only down the road…
That’s your lot for 2023. Thanks again for your support. We’ll do it all again next year, shall we?
Thank you for your support: The Greenwich Wire’s top 20 stories of 2023
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We’ve made it to the end of another year. Thank you to everybody who’s helped keep The Greenwich Wire running over the past 12 months – genuinely, none of this could have happened without you. Site founder and editor DARRYL CHAMBERLAIN explains why.
Your generosity and support has helped this website through what’s been a bumpy 12 months for one reason or another — I juggle this with other work and it’s been a delicate balancing act this year. We’ve made it to the end, though, and we’re definitely stronger with your help. For those who pay into the site, you’ve made this into a part-time job and for that I’m very grateful.
Thanks also to those who have tipped me off or trusted me with your stories. Journalism doesn’t have the best of reputations at the moment, but without your help, this website would be scratching around for material. Thank you.
The big change for this website has been a long-overdue rebrand, goodbye 853, hello The Greenwich Wire. We’ve made other changes: one in the way we send newsletters, while how we handle your generous donations is going to change in the coming weeks. This will hopefully put us in a position to grow a bit next year. More on that when it happens. I’d like to thank Philip John, who’s been working on all these changes.
Firstly, a bit of a rant.
A bad year for the big boys
It’s been a gruesome year in the local news business as full-on market failure takes hold. There were 400 redundancies at Reach plc, the owner of MyLondon (as well as the Mirror, Star and Express), after it found that creating websites that are literally unusable because they are covered in ads wasn’t a sensible way to run a publishing business.
But to an extent, we’ve all fallen into the same traps — relying heavily on the benevolence of search engines and social media, something that’s pretty much dried up now. All publishers are at the mercy of Google and Facebook algorithm changes, and this affects The Greenwich Wire as much as it affects everyone else. It’s part of the reason why we’re not on Twitter/X much these days. (Have a guess about the rest.) Your regular donations have insulated us from the worst of this, and continue to do so, but it’s still an issue.
Of course, the giants like to blame the BBC. Earlier this month an absurd ad appeared in the US-owned News Shopper (and titles across England) claiming that the corporation was a threat to the future of local newspapers, branding it the “neighbour from hell”. The dear old Shopper even ran it as a story on its website.
More front than Harrods, you might say. Or to quote Catherine Tate’s Nan… maybe not, this is a family website, after all. Local newspapers in SE London, including the Shopper, are actually pretty much kept alive by the BBC through its Local Democracy Reporting Service, which funds reporters to cover councils, although they don’t like to talk about that these days, or give the reporters their proper credit. (We use it as well, though it’s not as useful as it was.)
Indeed, one new paper, South London Weekly, has been launched largely off the back of BBC-funded reporting. In our part of the world, the BBC is not so much a threat, but an opportunity for publishers who enjoy already enjoy massive structural advantages thanks to state-funded help like public notices and government advertising. That’s revenue a website like this simply can’t access, even though even a fraction of that of cash would utterly transform what The Greenwich Wire does.
There is a the kernel of a point in the major publishers’ tantrum — the BBC has been taking an axe to its local radio stations (Radio London is less affected than others, but the cutbacks are sadly obvious if you switch to Kent) and putting the cash into regional/local online services instead. It is a worry — particularly outside London — and there are certainly times where the BBC website has strayed into running news that a real local outlet would be better placed to cover, even in the capital. But in part, that’s a reaction to market failure.
If the BBC wasn’t there, the local news giants would still be cutting back. The News Shopper‘s American owner, Gannett, is doing just that back at home. And there’d still be toys being thrown from fur-lined prams.
A good year for The Greenwich Wire
We’ve had a good year. I’m really pleased with the level of donations we get, considering the tough times that continue to dog us all. As editor, reporter, sub-editor, publisher, picture editor, business development manager, subscriptions manager, legal adviser and general dogsbody, I’m very grateful. Our page views are up too.
We had to close The Charlton Champion in the summer because it simply became too time-consuming, and that meant a small financial hit, but we’re back on track now.
And the signs are good for the independent sector, with outlets like the Manchester Mill and The Bristol Cable, which I visited in October, showing ways forward. Some of what they do is hard to replicate in individual London boroughs, but there are little green shoots of hope around the place. That said, this sector is fragile and needs nurturing, even if we don’t have the lobbying power of the giants mentioned above. I’m grateful for the Public Interest News Foundation weighing in for us, and for the support of fellow Independent Community News Network members.
On a local level, dealing with a secretive council — determined to control the message and burnish its “royal borough” self-image — has been as frustrating as ever. You’ll see some quite shifty behaviour in the top 20 below, most notably when council officers were caught out closing part of Woolwich town centre because they didn’t trust the locals to behave, and the press office kept changing its story. It’s not uncommon to wait days for responses.
It’s not like that elsewhere — Lewisham once got back to me in just 10 minutes on a story about hire bikes during the summer, while Greenwich took so long its non-response never even made it into the story.
Southeastern was also difficult to deal with — seemingly choosing to use a Tory MP as its spokesman rather than making key announcements itself. Not good.
But we’re still doing what nobody else does — original stories, not stuff ripped off from elsewhere — and hopefully doing it well. And if you’re a reporter who wants to pitch a story, I’m all ears — it’s boring when it’s all just me.
So what happened this year then?
We had a very healthy year in terms of page views. Most of our most-read stories were about trains, tunnels and towers.
1. Link to Elizabeth Line would cost £5 million to bring back, Southeastern boss says (March 22nd)
The reverberations of the Conservative government’s cuts to our train services continued to be felt. Routes run for the public good found themselves individually costed — yet somehow the wider economic and environmental benefit to southeast London (and the City and West End) of frequent, reliable trains never was costed. We had to lump it.
And for people on the Sidcup line who were using Southeastern trains to Abbey Wood, Woolwich and Charlton, they were effectively told their journeys on a little-promoted but much-appreciated service — to study, to work, to watch football, to spend money — were worthless.
Southeastern’s business model is now redundant — fat profits from Kent commuters that used to subsidise Metro trains have disappeared. A new model needs to be found – ultimately, we’ll need to find the money in London. We’ll get to that later.
2. Knock them down: Greenwich Council orders developer to demolish riverside towers in Woolwich (September 26th)
A genuinely sensational story. People stopped me in the pub to talk about this. It is incredibly rare for councils to order developers to demolish buildings like this. For it to happen in Greenwich, which for years had nurtured a reputation as an extremely developer-friendly borough, was mind-blowing.
If the developers’ appeal succeeds, then at least Greenwich actually stood up for itself. If it fails – what will happen? The symbolism of a Labour council knocking down new homes in the midst of a housing crisis is bleak, but the charge sheet against the developer is long. Perhaps there’ll be a fudge, but maybe there’ll be another surprising twist or two to this tale.
3. Poundland told to erect anti-homeless hoardings by Greenwich Council (January 6th)
A reader tip-off led us to a grim story about homeless people being forced out of their corner spot in Woolwich. Equally grim was Greenwich Council’s attempt to pin the blame on Poundland, rather than admit it threatened the chain with enforcement action if it did not put the hoardings up. Council officers need watching just as much as councillors do.
4. We’ve had enough: Sign our petition for TfL to run Southeastern Metro (February 27)
Instead of whining and bellyaching about the trains, I thought we should do something. If Southeastern’s business model is broken because Angry of Tunbridge Wells can now work from home, there needs to be a different solution for the trains we depend on in SE London, particularly for those who can’t work from home. In the end, 5,901 people signed up.
The answer is staring at us from across the Thames and at New Cross Gate station — let Transport for London take charge, and in turn, find a sensible way of funding TfL so the finances stack up. It’s something that both Labour and Conservative politicians have called for, but not something that any of them have the courage to actually campaign for.
It was always a long shot to get to the 10,000-signature target for a direct response from the current government. And influential resident groups — full of people who don’t have to worry about the effect of the higher fares charged compared with the Overground — fear the loss of their personal contact with Southeastern bosses. But it got coverage, particularly in the Evening Standard. And we’ll return to this once the election is over.
5. Blackwall Tunnel closed again this weekend for more Silvertown Tunnel work (July 4th), Blackwall Tunnel closed for two weekends as Silvertown Tunnel works step up (June 16th), More Blackwall Tunnel closures coming as Silvertown Tunnel flyover work continues (September 18th), Another Blackwall Tunnel closure coming as Silvertown Tunnel flyover finished (October 11th)
We did warn you there’d be a lot of construction hassle, didn’t we? (Counted individually, these were the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th top stories of the year, which may tell you something about how search engine algorithms work.)
6. Photos show inside the Silvertown Tunnel as tunnelling work comes to an end (August 10th)
You can tell how uncomfortable TfL is with the SIlvertown Tunnel because it never made a big deal of this like it would do for, say, a Tube extension. The photos were slipped out on the website of Riverlinx, the builder/operator of the new tunnel.
7. Crossing to Woolwich Elizabeth Line station could be redesigned to stop people walking in the road (October 25th)
I’m long enough in the tooth now to remember a senior officer in Greenwich Council — now gone — boasting to councillors about the “super crossing” being built outside the new station. Of course, it was anything but, and will cost a lot more money to fix. Eventually.
8. We won’t let TfL run Southeastern Metro trains, says government (Noah Vickers for Local Democracy Reporting Service – April 17th)
So, Labour, what are you going to do once you get in?
9. Storm in a flowerpot as Greenwich Council tells residents to clear front gardens (May 16th)
A very well-executed resident campaign highlighted a major issue with the council — senior councillors often have no idea what their staff are doing. Over 30,000 people signed the petition and it appears that the council eventually backed off.
10. 1,700 homes and high-level park could replace Lewisham shopping centre (November 2nd)
Lewisham having no local media of its own meant many people read about the shopping centre plans through The Greenwich Wire instead. You’re very welcome. Next year’s going to be a big one for Lewisham town centre as work on the high street begins, the final part of Lewisham Gateway opens and the shopping centre plans progress. We’ll keep an eye out for the big landmarks in these projects.
11. No Blackheath fireworks for 2023 – and we’ll need help for them to return, says Lewisham Council (October 13th) The story for Blackheath fireworks will probably be the same in 2024, unfortunately.
12. Luxury party yacht Oceandiva arrives on River Thames to uproar (Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporting Service – May 23rd) This is the kind of story we’re signed up to the LDRS for — a massive floating night club that’s based outside the area but could become an issue once it appears at the end of your road. Neither councils nor the mayor have much power over the Thames, and — like music from a nearby club at 2am — this will rumble on.
13. Plan to fence off Woolwich square was secretly agreed seven weeks in advance (March 7th) Another story about senior councillors having little clue about what their officers were up to. Instead of just moaning, we followed up the story of just why Greenwich Council fenced off part of Woolwich town centre for two years in a row at Hallowe’en, despite the strategy to stop antisocial behaviour failing in the first year.
It took months to get answers from the council and police and Greenwich’s press office kept changing its story. A later story found that they didn’t even keep any records of whether it was effective or not. Rumbled!
There was a happy ending though. For Hallowe’en 2023, the square was used for an autumn festival of lights instead, which by all accounts was a roaring success. It’s amazing what happens when you treat your residents with a bit of respect, isn’t it?
14. Thousands back call for TfL to run Southeastern Metro as rail firm adds Charing Cross trains (March 2nd)
One particularly unsavoury aspect of the Southeastern farrago was that any minor reversal of the cuts has been announced not by the rail company’s communications team, but by a Bexley Tory MP, Louie French, on his social media account. It’s not healthy when politicians are allowed to own the (miniscule) wins but disown the damage they’ve caused, but that’s the place we’re in at the moment.
15. Mind the gap: Southeastern passengers lose out again as fare rises outstrip TfL’s (January 31st)
Travellers in zones 5 and 6 — such French’s Old Bexley & Sidcup constituents — were disproportionately punished when the fares went up in March.
16. Woolwich’s big screen coronation is a washout as locals stay away (May 7th)
Bafflingly, the council decided to issue tickets for the screening of Charles’ big day at Westminster Abbey rather than just allowing the public to gather. The lasting image of a soaking wet morning was not poor souls under brollies, but someone at the council forgetting to set their laptop to “full screen”, leading to the whole thing looking a bit silly.
17. 30-storey Lewisham Gateway development will open a year late (October 15th)
The tower blocks next to the station were first approved back in October 2007, with the full-throated backing of the council, who said it would provide “excellent homes, shops and entertainment, great community facilities, a clean safe environment and better transport links … a town centre fit for the 21st century”.
It will have taken nearly 17 years to finish, but the near-certain Carbuncle Cup contender will open its doors during the summer. It may make more sense when you can walk through it.
18. South Circular set for changes as Catford town centre plan revealed (April 24th)
Big changes that have also been in the works for decades are also on their way to Catford. Again, with no local media in Lewisham, it was The Greenwich Wire that outlined what was planned.
19. Big dig to find Greenwich Park’s lost Giant Steps set to start next month (August 2nd)
Page views for this story have crept up with the start of work to restore the long, long lost “giant steps” in recent weeks. You’ve had your last summer to sunbathe underneath the Wolfe memorial…
20. Big stores are unlikely to return to Woolwich, Greenwich Council concedes (August 5th)
It only took 40 years after Cuffs department store closed, but the council finally realised that hankering after a long-gone past was never going to work for Woolwich. This story came out of the council’s Local Plan consultation – a big and important document for the borough that went completely uncovered elsewhere.
Bubbling under: Trouble at the Brew By Numbers brewery in Greenwich (it went into administration and was bought out), Woolwich Exchange (construction is supposed to start in 2024, though we wouldn’t bet on it), the Eltham tunnelling machine, Woolwich’s town centre facelift, what no Superloop? and the end of the Brookhill Close estate.
So what’s happening in 2024, then?
There’ll be a general election, but also a gruesome mayoral election which — thanks to the imposition of first-past-the-post and a possible ULEZ hangover — may not go the way the Labour Party thinks it will. There are 2008 vibes about this one. Will voters still furious with Sadiq Khan over the Silvertown Tunnel vote for him? Never mind tunnels, bridges will need to be built. Speaking of the Silvertown Tunnel, we’ll have an idea of what the tolls will be, and maybe even an opening date.
Watch out for yet more austerity cuts — the underreported end of the government’s household support fund, which paid for many of Greenwich’s initiatives to tackle the cost of living crisis, together with a projected £26 million overspend, is likely to mean yet another grinding year of “tough choices”. Half of that overspend, by the way, is on temporary accommodation due to the housing crisis, something I missed in a pre-Christmas rush of stories. There may also be a leadership election in Greenwich Labour, as councillors can challenge Anthony Okereke after two years, while — by contrast — the whole of Lewisham will be able to choose the successor to elected mayor Damien Egan, who is off to Bristol.
At some point we’ll get some form of low-traffic neighbourhood in Greenwich and Blackheath. While the last one went largely unnoticed beyond SE10, I’m not sure that Greenwich Council is prepared or even has the ability to deal with the level of media scrutiny that will hit it this time, particularly if an election is on the way. It’ll be a saga, but you’ve probably already made up your mind already.
Big changes are coming in both Woolwich and Lewisham. In Woolwich, the high street revamp is well under way while work is supposed to start on Woolwich Exchange, the major development around the covered market. In Lewisham, we’ll hear more about plans for the shopping centre, its own high street revamp will begin and Lewisham Gateway will finally open.
Hardly anyone wanted to read stories about the London borough of culture bid but Greenwich is almost certain to win the prize in the coming year — it’s the only borough to have two entries in the contest — and so is likely to be the borough of culture in 2025 or 2027. The prize brings £1.35 million in largely unscrutinised cash from City Hall to spend.
The Woolwich Works and Borough Hall fiascos mean there are red flags about this that can be seen from space — if Greenwich does win, hopefully control is handed over to people who know what they’re doing. The people behind We Are Lewisham are only down the road…
That’s your lot for 2023. Thanks again for your support. We’ll do it all again next year, shall we?