ArchieCarlos

Hi, I went to the council's planning portal to look at the application, and I encourage others to look at it. It looks like a pleasant building, with thoughtful landscaping. as Pugwash said, the big oak would be retained, only two smaller trees are supposed to be cut, one of which is already dead according to the Tree Survey. It sounds like 38 people in great need of it will gain supported housing thanks to this development, a very positive change. Of course a solution has to be found for the 3 who will need to find other accommodation during the works, but that doesn't seem enough of a reason to oppose the development. The current building is 4 stories, so I would be surprised if one extra storey was considered objectionable, especially considering the big oak stands between the building and the neighbours' back gardens and the fact that the neighbours it's backing onto are all 5 stories houses themselves or only have blank walls facing the building. In the context where affordable housing is sorely missing, a 100% supported housing development is great news. Personally I've never seen a less objectionable planning request

The lease has come to an end, and the Dulwich Estate is going to raze the building. They consider the building unsafe. They don't currently have plans to develop the site, so it will remain as a empty plot until that changes.

The uncle is so grumpy, I agree. But the nephew is really chatty, friendly and knowledgeable. It's a bit of a lottery, depends which one of them you get serving you!

I like Ripon because it's an oasis of cool on a hot day and the selection is great, but I find the owner a bit too pushy for my liking. It's also pricier than the cheesemongers in Dulwich. Heritage Cheese I don't particularly like, and if as Glemham says it's going away I won't miss it. It's not a very good cheese shop (their selection is generic / not better than what you'd find in M&S), their deli section is poor, their art gallery is meh, their wine selection is unexciting. It strikes me as a shop that tries to be too many things and ends up being below average at all of them. The owner is quite weird. The Cheese Block is great (as long as you don't get served by grumpy uncle), a very wide selection with several unusual cheeses and good deli supplies. Mons is also fantastic, a more restricted range but everything is great. As a cheese lover I find myself going to both regularly.

I brought 3 big pallets to the recycling centre on Old Kent Road last month and had no problem dumping them in the wood pile, so hopefully you won't have an issue either.

Hi The 20p charge is for receiving SMS reminders from Paybyphone. You can turn this feature off and the parking will actually be free. Paybyphone is awfully slow at processing payments and if you close the app/lock your phone before it’s done doing that (while still on the buffering wheel logo), the payment won’t go through and parking won’t be registered. Sometimes it takes 2-3minutes for the payment to go through. If you follow my advice above and get actually free parking, there is no payment processing and you get instant confirmation.

Good news! After reports that it was not happening, the fruit & vegetable merchant Taylor's of Maltby Street will be opening in Dulwich Village after all. They announced this week that they were closing their Maltby St shop and working opening in the old Jigsaw show on the North parade asap. They've just created an instagram account for it https://www.instagram.com/taylorsofdulwichvillage/ It will be great to have an alternative to the expensive and average quality SimplyFresh in the village.

Indeed Tesco will replace Poundland soon. They've asked for permission to add an ATM

An absolute specimen decided yesterday to ram the plastic fences by Derwent Grove and drive his Golf over them

That Co-op is such a depressing shop (like all Co-ops sadly) I wouldn't mind seeing it replaced by something else. Even a Tesco would be nicer, which is saying something!

Went to try Hausu this weekend, the restaurant which has replaced the Peckham Coal Rooms inside Peckham Rye Station after they closed down. We had a really good meal, served with very friendly staff. Trendy and creative modern British food in the same vibe as Levan, with an interesting selection of wines. The strawberry eclair for dessert was divine, I wish they would sell it as takeaway! Only criticism is no coffee at the end of the meal as the coffee shop at the front is on a separate lease that still has a few months to run before they can take over. I wish them much success.

Foxtons is well known for overvaluing. A good approach is to contact 3 agents in your area and ask them to do a valuation. If you see notable differences ask them to explain, they shouldn’t mind doing that. Look at who is often selling local flats similar to yours on Rightmove or Zoopla.