WTF is happening on teh bellened road ?

[Ted Max]

Some numbers as at March 2005.

http://i48.tinypic.com/r0797p.jpg

Taken from http://moderngov.southwarksites.com/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=9467

[david_carnell]

woodrot Wrote:

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> I popped into teh Vic at the weekend with a

> woodrot junior for an unscheduled bog stop - it

> was indeed packed to the rafters with thrusting

> breeders and their offspring - as I was

> disshevelled, scowling and unshaven, lurking

> around the bookcase area waiting for them, several

> of 'em started eyeing me suspiciously and moved

> their bags behind them/ phones off the table.

>

> not one of us

>

>

> *sucks teeth*

Oh, don't get me wrong. It's a far from perfect pub. I have issue with it on many levels, from the average food, poor service and over-priced drinks.

BUT....it's busy. All the time. So they're doing something that a lot of people like. You may not like it. You may not like the people either. But I refuse to believe that it would be preferable to go back 5 years to before it existed.

[woodrot]

Chick Wrote:

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> >

> > I popped into teh Vic at the weekend with a

> > woodrot junior for an unscheduled bog stop - it

> > was indeed packed to the rafters with thrusting

> > breeders and their offspring - as I was

> > disshevelled, scowling and unshaven, lurking

> > around the bookcase area waiting for them,

> several

> > of 'em started eyeing me suspiciously and moved

> > their bags behind them/ phones off the table.

> >

> > not one of us

> >

> >

> > *sucks teeth*

>

>

> Woodrot, I always thought you were a woman.

I am.

[DulwichFox]

david_carnell Wrote:

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> Bullshit.

>

> Did you ever go in the Wishing Well? Mostly empty,

> mostly unfriendly and mostly a dump.

>

> The Victoria Inn opens, and despite having

> problems, it's consistently full of locals and

> families spending money.

>

> Nothing to do with the council. Everything to do

> with the landlord and the punters.

>

> Build it and they will come. These places are for

> locals. Just different locals to the ones you

> imagine. There is room for both.

The Wishing Well was great pub in the early days..

It's decline arose from people 'Like Myself' staying away because the area became unsafe at night.

Due to poor lighting and general neglect from the local authorities.

The Victoria was just an other Capital Inns pub like The Bishop & The Actress and the other 50 or so pubs it then owned.

Now mostly in the Hands of Greene King a Multi National.

Hardly a New Local Business.

There area has gone through several phases in the last 50-60 years.

You seem to only go back 5 Years.

Foxy.

[healey]

> It's decline arose from people 'Like Myself'

> staying away because the area became unsafe at

> night. Die to poor lighting amd general neglect from the authorities.

Yet now the area is attracting money and investment you oddly choose to pour scorn on those who help bring it.

[woodrot]

oh dear

there is a clothing shop, named after a rather horrifying 1980's BBC drama documentary about a nuclear attack on Sheffield.

Tis all a bit too post ironic irony chris morris for me now.

[edhistory]

It has been several months since I visited this part of East Dulwich.

What new investment are you reporting?

John K

[Annette Curtain]

I loved that drama.

Specially the not so special-special effects.

Just can't remember the name.

[david_carnell]

> It's decline arose from people 'Like Myself'

> staying away because the area became unsafe at

> night.

> Due to poor lighting and general neglect from the

> local authorities.

Well that's really the fault of "the locals" isn't it? They're the ones committing the crimes. Not people from Clapham. Whilst the council/police could have perhaps mitigated the situation, let's try and place blame where it's due.

> Hardly a New Local Business.

>

> There area has gone through several phases in the

> last 50-60 years.

And it'll go through several more. You're like King Cnut standing against the tide. The council have invested money, businesses have come (and gone) and yet you still pine for shitty back street boozers and boarded-up units. Utterly insane.

[woodrot]

King Canute actually did the tide thing to show how powerless he really was when it came to Gods will innit

[Ted Max]

edhistory - I guess by investment the poster was referring to the money spent by a recent clutch of new businesses opening on the street: General Store, Begging Bowl, Flock & Herd, Threads, Bias, Worn Not Torn, Quaint & Belle.

[El Pibe]

There's a clothes shop called "QED: A Guide to Armageddon"? Weird.

[*Bob*]

I don't think we've ever had a shop as atrociously named as 'Quaint & Belle' round our way.. unless there are some contenders I've forgotten about?

Bellenden wins!

[Chillaxed]

I agree with david_carnell insofar as I use the new businesses. But it seems to me that the beneficiaries of the regeneration scheme and the new businesses it's attracted are the people who've moved to the area as a result (incl. me), rather than the 'locals'.

[david_carnell]

You live here, you are local.

No one has dibs on an area because they've lived there longer than someone else.

And everyone has benefitted from the regen. Facelifts to Bellenden and surrounding residential streets. New street lighting and furniture. That's not for us blow-ins but the whole community.

What shops/services are meant to have opened that would have better served the "local" community?

[KidKruger]

What DC said. You live in / move to an area, longer you're there more chance it will change. Some comments above are almost like a localised xenophobia. If you want something to be 'how it was', then create / resurrect it yourself if you feel that strongly. I.E. A vintage 1986 greasy cafe, or whatever it is you wich hadn't vanished. Just like the people locally have created shops/stalls for what they think should be available.

There's no right to zero / controlled change, in life or work, unless you live in Lacock village perhaps.

[maxxi]

Last time I looked the Crossroads cafe was still there for a bacon batch and Sam's kebabs or Codfellahs - so it doesn't have to be overpriced noodles served in saucers.

And yesterday I got about 2lb of firm but ripe (not rotted) cherry tomatoes 'in a bowl' for an Alan dahn-the-Rye and would rather buy them than the same merch unwrapped from its wholesaler's plastic and tipped into a wooden crate with some straw judiciously strewn around - oh and a teensy price hike to-boot.

And clothes... what arse would really buy clothes around here??

[Vicanna]

Putting it bluntly, the incumbents (as opposed to the ambiguous "locals") of the Bellenden Rd area prior to the regeneration efforts didn't seem to give a damn about the social and aesthetic conditions they were living in (on the surface, anyway). They wallowed in their own mire, and new, forward-thinking arrivals grasped the push for regeneration and crafted it in an image they - as de-facto custodians - wished to project.

It may come as a bone-chilling shock for some of you reading from a two bedroom terrace valued at a quarter of a million pounds (or thereabouts), but in the mid-'90s E. Dulwich was an eyesore. It was a complete dump. Then some likeminded entrepreneurs arrived on their Californain rollerboards one afternoon, scoffed amongst themselves at the plebian thoroughfare they'd set foot in and began formulating a divide and conquer strategy. They spread the word along the upwardly mobile grapevine that promising territory for a new colony had been scouted, and that anyone who had dreams of opening a sandal shop or houmous bar during their business studies degree had better hitch their wagons and head on down. Fast-forward five or so years and the stagnating businesses this area was notorious for have been pushed aside and replaced by a vibrant blend of new businesses.

Colonies established by the Romans across their empire without a large military presence were soon abandoned or stagnated if they didn't attract enough trade. The same set of rules applies today. The only difference is that they now come with WiFi.

[KidKruger]

with you on the clothes locally maxxi, and that's not something that was EVER good around here, you'd have to suffer from dimentia, rather than nostalgia, to remember otherwise.

[*Bob*]

Where do you get a 2-bed terrace for ?250k again?

Is access via a magic wardrobe of some sort?

[Vicanna]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> Where do you get a 2-bed terrace for ?250k again?

>

> Is access via a magic wardrobe of some sort?

Just a poor attempt at sarcasm. Sorry if it caused any offense.

[richard tudor]

Whilst the area has greatly improved and is very welcome not all roads have benefited.

Chadwick Road from Bellenden to Grove Park has never been regened. It always gets forgotten in the great scheme.

Perhaps because most of the properties are Council or Housing Association and repairs do not figure high on their list.

If you doubt this observation take a walk and see.

[*Bob*]

Why would a poor attempt at sarcasm cause offence?

[edhistory]

Vicanna Wrote:

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> Putting it bluntly, the incumbents (as opposed to

> the ambiguous "locals") of the Bellenden Rd area

> prior to the regeneration efforts didn't seem to

> give a damn about the social and aesthetic

> conditions they were living in (on the surface,

> anyway). They wallowed in their own mire

This shows astounding ignorance of the community that used to live in this area.

It is also an outrageoues insult to the respectable working class people who used to live in this community.

Are you a new arrival?

Are you a transient? I hope so.

John Kennedy

[numbers]

Talking of facelifts, forget Bellenden Road, just wait till you see the refurbished Clock House. Looks like they are doing an excellent job sprucing the place up *understatement*. Opens next week I believe.

Doubt very much there'll be misty-eyed nostalgia for 'how it used to be' on here. But you never know.