Cafe Society

We’ve been featuring some of SE23’s new coffee shops and, in this issue, we move further away from Forest Hill town centre to find out what makes the perfect coffee experience. This time we speak to Ben Morris from Hop Scotch in Honor Oak Park and Anna Marciniak at The Brothers, Dartmouth Road

Hop Scotch

Ben was asked about his coffee: “Good, balanced, middle-of-the-road beans (not too strong or weak but 'rich'), freshly ground coffee bean dispensed by knowledgeable, trained baristas on a classic manual / lever machine for maximum flavour, cream and perfect froth!”

The Brothers Cafe

Anna, who is introducing a touch of Eastern Europe to SE23, gave her views on cafe culture: “A great café is a convivial place where people can sit and meet surrounded by friendly and helpful staff who are willing to bend over backwards for their customers.”

Great news for North Londoners!

The extension of the Overground from Dalston Junction to Highbury and Islington opened on 28 February, bringing even more North Londoners easy access to our hidden gems.

All Overground trains through Forest Hill now run the full length of the line. This will give more footie fans a far easier journey to see their South-East London teams play. It will also open up some great places for people to visit – Crystal Palace, The Horniman Museum and all the other lovely spots in our area!

Top soccer at the Crystal Palace

The May timetable will continue to include three late trains through Canada Water to New Cross Gate. These will connect with the last Southern services, to enable a late night return home.

The new route from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction is expected to open late in 2012.

Rumour has it that this is also good news for South East Londoners! Happy travelling

A Fond Farewell

With a mixture of sadness and happiness we say goodbye to Liz Hannaford, one of the very first members of the Forest Hill Society.

Liz has been with the Society from the first meeting and has provided all manner of communications including the excellent newsletters for all of this time (with a couple of short breaks on maternity leave). She has also been wonderful in organising stalls, walks, and lots of other fabulous events. Her cheerful smile will be sorely missed.

Pictures of Liz are rare as she is always dashing around, but she was caught in the attached photo celebrating our victory in the battle to keep the swimming pool in Forest Hill. Alas, she may now never be able to swim in the pool, but since she is moving to Manchester, where it is apparently always raining, she may never be dry again.

More little Russets

In the last Newsletter, we told you about Tom and Sara Russet’s plan to celebrate their daughter’s birth by planting some Russet apple trees on Albion Millennium Green.

Well, on 23 January the planting ceremony was carried out and we hope that in years to come Nell Margie Russet - and the rest of the community - will be able to enjoy the fruit planted in her honour. We would love to hear from other members of any similar stories!

To the right: Tom, Sara and Nell enjoying the planting

An Oscar for SE23?

Well maybe not quite. Lionel Logue, speech therapist to King George VI, lived for some years in our area on Sydenham Hill.

The film ‘The King’s Speech’ depicts the relationship between the two with Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth playing the roles respectively.

Logue had come to England with his family in 1924, supposedly on a holiday. Instead he took jobs teaching around London and then enjoyed a successful career as a speech therapist.

In the 1930s he lived at Beechgrove, a Victorian villa on Sydenham Hill, which had 25 rooms, five bathrooms, five acres of garden and a tennis court. The house is now gone but interestingly you can still see the folly, rockery and remains of an ornamental stream. The area, part of Sydenham Hill Woods, is open to the public.

Grand May Day on Albion Millennium Green

Sunday, 1st May: 12 – 3.00pm

The Bedlam Bunch return to offer two shows (12

and 2.00 for children aged 3 – 8. Parents welcome.

Bring your own picnic lunch (1.00pm – 2.00pm).

Face painting, (squirrels, badgers, hedgehogs galore), May Kings and Queens, bird boxes, cakes and much more.

With support of The Localities Fund, LB Lewisham.

Honor Oak Park Station Improvements (continued)

Following our report in the last newsletter, work is continuing. The stairs are being replaced and newly painted ironwork is emerging from under the tarpaulins. The cutting behind platform 1 is being re-graded and at some stage the platforms will be repaired and extended. When all of that is complete, the station is going to receive its Phase 3 upgrade with improved lighting, new signage and redecoration.

But we have not been informed how long this will all take. Getting information from Network Rail is proving very difficult; however the Society has been told that the stairs should be in place at the end of April.

We have suggested that getting the level of platform 1 rather closer to the level of the trains, either by raising the platform or lowering the track, might also be a worthwhile improvement. Getting Landscaping at Honor Oak Park station.

Looking more like the Pompidou Centre or Lloyds buildings, the stairs under construction! on or off trains is a nightmare for anyone who is not reasonably agile, or who has a buggy to contend with. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that this objective will be achieved any time soon.

Planning Matters

The last few months have seen a lot of new planning applications around Forest Hill, some that may be considered good, and some bad.

The former post office on Dartmouth Road has been given approval for conversion to a restaurant/bar by Antic, the owners of Jam Circus and the East Dulwich Tavern. The flats above will get a face lift and an additional floor. Whilst the Society expressed concern about the additional floor, we believe that the overall changes are very positive. The Perry Vale fire station, (see below), a listed building, had an application rejected despite Council officer recommendation. Lewisham’s planning committee agreed with us that some affordable housing should be provided on a development of this size.

St. John's Church on David’s Road had massive signs, and a concreted over garden. The Council deemed this not in keeping with the conservation area and the signs were removed. A suitable way forward for the garden area and footpath between David and Devonshire Roads is now being discussed.

A planning report would not be complete without mention of the Tyson Road development. The landscaping plans have been approved and building can now commence. Local residents had provided videos of bats in the gardens, but the Council’s ecologist said there was no evidence they were in the trees due to be removed.