Who started the regeneration of East Dulwich as a shopping centre?

[macroban]

My memory tells me that the regeneration started in the early 1980s. Many of the pioneers - such as Tiger Lily in Grove Vale - are no lomger with us.

It certainly was not William Rose.

[Keef]

Bit later than you're talking, but for me, going away to uni, then coming back to find the EDT full of young beautiful people on a Friday night was a big shock, and to me marks the start of it all.

[lozzyloz]

Wasn't regeneration partly due to the estate agents (pre Foxtons) who marketed ED and a steeply rising property market that made ED good value (then)? Just my guess as I only emigrated here in 2004.

[Brendan]

Personally I don?t think there is any such thing as ?regeneration? in the sense that people seem to take it. Places just evolve and change along with the people who live in them. There are peaks and troughs of recession and affluence but the human race and the society it creates is a, fluid ever changing and evolving organism.

I moved here 4 years ago because it was cheaper and nicer than places like Clapham, Balham and Herne Hill.

[Keef]

Agree with what you are saying Brendan, but also what Lozzy is saying. The shops we have today wouldn't have chosen the area to open in if it hadn't been for the estate agents flogging the area to a certain clientele.

In turn, more nice places have opened, making the area more desirable, and leading to even more shops coming, like the new baby place, and the chandelier.

[citizenED]

OK, OK, I admit...it was me. Sorry!

[Brendan]

Well I?m always up for pinning anything I can on estate agents. So I propose that estate agents get blamed for all the negative effects of regeneration and local resident?s and community spirit take the credit for the positive effects.

[kford]

Wasn't the Palmerson's makeover a big reason for the recent regeneration?

[Keef]

Again, chicken and egg. Don't think The Palmerston would ever have been done up in the way it has if it hadn't been for the area changing.

[peckhamasbestos]

Franklins as a forerunner?

[Ant]

Not so sure, wasn't it already well underway when they did the Palmerston?

[cathg]

well, when we moved here in 1995 house prices had just hit rock bottom after the last slump and the only place you could get a capuccinno was blue mountain. how times change...

[kford]

Le Chardon?

[Jeremy]

Nothing to do with estate agents... surely they don't market any area to a certain clientele? People go to them because they've already decided they want to move into the area.

[blinder999]

When I came here in 2001, I liked:

Blue Mountain, ED, Chichirara, Mrs Robinson, Dulwich DIY, Le Chardon.

Blue Mountain in particular seemed to sum up the slightly Bohemian vibe of the place.

(and if you subscribe to Naomi Klein's theories in 'No Logo', Starbucks' (and probably Caffe Nero's) business strategy is to find an area with an existing cool coffee shop and open one up in direct competition)

[blinder999]

oh yes, Franklins was another one, and the EDT too

[Keef]

Blue Mountain was definitely a front runner!

Franklins has had a couple of different guises. Was "SE22", but always looked a bit dodgy to me.

Inside 72 opening up was notable for me.

[lozzyloz]

The Palmerston facelift was quite recent. What attracted Mrs LL and I to the area in 2004 (apart from it being grean, leafy and open) was Franklins, The EDT, Cheese Block, ED Deli, Northcross Rd and of course Sainsbury's. We hadn't discovered SMBS foods until we moved in and the Bishop and the Palmerston were nothing special.

[kford]

It's a tricky one, this.

Clapham High Street, and indeed Clapham's regeneration can be traced back to the moment the Clapham Picture House opened its doors.

There wasn't such a seismic event in ED recent history.

Word of mouth from new residents must've played a big part. That's how we heard it was a great place to come.

[Mr Bojangles]

Its people / residents who start regeneration

Initially, regeneration is caused by a decent and affordable housing stock plus good transport links. People look for more affordable options when they get priced out of more "established" and expensive areas. Estate agents don't generally tend to encourage people to move to a new area; people tend to seek them out.

Shops and pubs change as a result of the new residents. Makeovers and places like william rose encourage and accelerate a process that has already started

So lets thank the pioneers who first settled in ED. Any of them still left??

[blinder999]

oh yes, the Cheeseblock, that was a revelation!

[Rolo Tomasi]

For me it all started with the Avent Gallery/Clothes Shop on the Corner of Lacon & North Cross Road. I think Blue Mountain came in just after that.

[rob]

When me and Mrs Rob moved here in 1999, Franklins, Chardon and Blue Mountain were all regular haunts. I used to love Chopstics when it was a takeaway, but have never been back in. As keef said, Inside 72 opening was big news - an actual bar! As was The Palmerston makeover (though The Foresters becoming The Bishop was even better). EDT had great comedy that moved to the (bizarrely decorated, pre-sportsbar) Magdala. Mr Liu's Peking Cuisine still had that broken venetian blind in the window.

[Brendan]

It started when the residents first had a bit of extra money to spend on superfluous rubbish or on eating out more. Nowhere would have opened if there wasn?t a market for it.

From there it just spiraled with things like estate agents and the fact that it is situated very well having an exponential effect.

But what about the fact that anywhere that is ?regenerated? has to become a homogenised inside-out American shopping mall? Well I blame that on the fact that millions of people have gone to university and studied things like communications, marketing and advertising.

[SimonM]

I think "Blue Mountain" was the first straw in the wind - in its original incarnation I mean. Although North Cross Road had been described to me as ED's very own "Bohemian Quarter" long before that.