26 August 2014

Planning Application: 110 Wood Vale

The Forest Hill Society have written to Lewisham Council objecting to the application to build seven houses at 110 Wood Vale.

The planning application (DC/14/88392) can be read at: http://planning.lewisham.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=_LEWIS_DCAPR_75239

Our main concerns were relating to poor Internal layout and daylight, unsuitable external amenity space, and over development of the site. Full details of the Forest Hill Society objection can be read here


Note: This application was withdrawn by the applicant on 23rd September

Road Improvements to Brockley Rise and Stondon Park



Lewisham Council has secured funding from Transport for London through the Local Improvement Plan to develop proposals for improving the public realm along various sections of the ‘Brockley Corridor’ - the main north-south route between the South Circular and Brockley Cross.

They are now consulting with local people in order to gain a better understanding of issues within the Corridor and potential for improvements, in order to inform more detailed designs.

Full document is available at http://lewisham-consult.objective.co.uk/file/3081917
And you can respond to the consultation at http://lewisham-consult.objective.co.uk/portal/regeneration/t/brockleycorridor

19 August 2014

Watercolour - at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve

Suitable for the terrified and the gifted this is a uniquely inspiring course. Watercolour will be explored in the natural beauty of the reserve. Personalized and friendly tutoring will enable everyone to gain experience, confidence and direction. You will experiment; gather knowledge, and paintings as you progress.






New term Starts September 10th 2014
Wednesday evenings 7 – 10, Pay per class £8 or £80 per term. All day Saturday sessions to be confirmed.

Tea and coffee provided, anything stronger – bring your own!
Led by Artist Naomi Leake – A regular watercolour tutor for Tate Britain.

Some materials will be provided but please bring student quality paints and brushes.
To book a place and for more information on all classes contact naomi@naomileake.co.uk

12 August 2014

Mayow Park Community Day - sunday 31st August



In addition to the cricket fun, there will be the official opening of the new cafe, Brown and Green, in the Pavilion. However, unofficially it opened yesterday, so it is not too early to try it out and enjoy some time in Mayow Park.


31 July 2014

Lewisham Elders Resource Centre - Open Day

Saturday 9th August, 11:30am-3:30pm, Stanstead Lodge, 260 Stanstead Road, Forest Hill, SE23 1DD

There will be stalls with Bric a Brac, Cakes for sale, and an AUCTION of porcelain dolls and other items.

There will also be short demonstrations of Tai Chi - line dancing - Vista Reminiscence and their Choir. This will Start around 2.00pm to 2.30pm and all proceeding will be going back into the rebuilding funds for Stanstead Lodge which is a Grade ll listed building and urgently needs funding for its restoration.


29 July 2014

Honor Oak Pub - Reopening on 14th August

The Honor Oak Pub has announced their opening date:
 "The grand reveal will be on Thursday 14th August when we open our doors to everyone from 8pm with free canapés and surprises at our preview night. 
Kitchen opens for bookings from Friday 15th August. Everyday from 10am"
 

15 July 2014

Public Invite: Forest Hill Town Centre design workshop - vision 2023


Open feedback session from 4-5pm this Saturday 19th July at 6 Havelock Walk (off London Road)

This Saturday the Forest Hill Society and SEE3 are organising a creative workshop for local architects and designers to develop ideas for improving Forest Hill Town Centre. At the end of the workshop there will be an open feedback session for the wider community to come and find out what we have been up to, to hear about the ideas, to ask questions, and input into our emerging town centre vision. 

The workshop is intentionally about looking broadly at the identity of the town centre, key sites (including the station, Perry Vale and Dartmouth Road) and any areas which could benefit from improvement or change.  Over the course of the day the teams attending will help define some of the problems in the town centre and start to develop creative ideas for solving some of them.  This workshop will be focusing on physical issues and spaces rather than building uses and what goes on inside of the buildings. 

The results of the workshop will be published over the summer and we hope they can be used to help support applications for funding to improve the town centre as well as encouraging private developers to make investments and improvements. 

Everyone involved in the day is volunteering their time to help Forest Hill and the town centre and we would really love to have wider support from the community.  If you have any questions please email hilary@fhsoc.com

Please come along between 4pm and 5pm and see what we come up with.

There are some background documents that might make useful reading:

Lewisham Council's 2003 Urban Design Framework for Forest Hill Town Centre (in three parts):

Forest Hill Ward Assembly funded 2010 Street Clutter report on the Town Centre.

07 July 2014

Call out to local architects, urban designers, landscape architects and related professionals

Forest Hill Town Centre - Design Charrette, Saturday, 19th July 2014
The last area specific vision and planning guidance for Forest Hill Town Centre was produced in 2003 and much has changed since this time. The town centre has seen a considerable increase in new businesses and new residential development over the past 3-4 years, a new swimming pools complex has opened and the Horniman Museum and Horniman Triangle attract ever more people to the area. There is also an established arts community focused on Havelock Walk and new workspace for artists is due to open this year in Louise House. The addition of London Overground to connect Forest Hill into the underground network has been highly successful and the area is in high demand to new residents. BUT at the heart of this the south circular still passes through the town centre and has a big impact on people and spaces, in addition key streets lack coherence, some connections are poor and key sites are an eyesore.

The Forest Hill Society, SEE3 and members of the wider community have identified that there is
a strong need for a new creative vision for the town centre and related areas, based on:
• evidence of how it works today;
• a community led vision for change and action; and
• creative ideas for making the town centre a better place.

Achieving this will be a significant piece of work and in order to start this process off we are holding a community led design charrette to be held on the Saturday, 19th July 2014 in Havelock Walk. 

The idea is to harness the analytical and creative skills of the local community, to focus on using the skills of local architects, urban designers, landscape architects and related professionals and to run the workshops in the format of a short design charrette or creative workshop. The written outcomes of this work will become supporting documents and content for further placemaking and regeneration work, to help support future funding applications and to help inform future policy guidance.

This workshop will be run between 10am and 5pm in a central venue that enables site visits, investigations and ideas testing. This is a realistic amount of time to expect local people to contribute initially and that we hope a sufficient number of people with creative vision and useful experience will be able to attend (ideally we are looking for around 20-25 in total for the charrette plus more for a feedback and review session at the end of the day). Those attending will comprise both invited local built environment specialists, including architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners and other specialists, and others that have identified they would like to attend in response to a local call for support. We would like those attending to include local traders, community groups, and people from a range of ages and ethnic groups.

Specifically we want to bring together a creative mix of skills, experience, local knowledge and new ideas.

THE SITES AND OPPORTUNITIES
The sites and areas that have been identified to look at include:
• Forest Hill Station forecourt and related sites, including the visual approach into Forest Hill from the South Circular
• Perry Vale pedestrianisation ideas and related sites, including the Perry Vale Car park
• The connections between Forest Hill and Sydenham along the railway line
• Dartmouth Road spaces and pocket park opportunities

If you are interested in taking part please contact Hilary@fhsoc.com

05 July 2014

Froglife comes to Dacres Wood Nature Reserve

12th, 13th, 19th & 20th July Dacres Wood will be open for the Sydenham Arts Trail.

The weekend of the 12th & 13th July, 11-5pm artists Kay Bromley, Lilian Chow, Diana Mckinnon, Lisa Muten, & Jill Tse will be showing their work varying from paintings, textiles, prints and jewellery.

On the 19th July Froglife are coming to the reserve, 10-4pm. On this day there will lots of activities for all the family including pond dipping, making plaster cast frogs as well as talks and information on the amphibians and fauna of the pond.

We look forwrad to seeing you then.
Also if you are able to volunteer a few hours on any of these days to help with making teas or greeting visitors please contact us.
 

Devonshire Road Nature Reserve Open Day - 20th July