Any ideas what's happening with the tarpaulin covered 'shop-fronts' nr Dulwich Library/The Plough?

[caro ed]

just curious as live nearby....

[citizenED]

There was a thread about this place a year ago; see here. At the time no-one seemed to know precisely. I've asked around some of the local traders and all of them seem to be in the dark over it. The building work seems to have come to a halt at the moment anyway.

[AdaDoom]

Months ago I asked someone on site and he told me it would be 5 shops and 10 flats above. Not seen much work going on recently and wondered whether it had come to a standstill, maybe because of financial problems but I did hear some hammering in there last week so either it's still going ahead or they had an industrious intruder...?

[karter]

My hunch is that they have been credit crunched.

[AdaDoom]

That's what i thought til I heard the hammering. Although it sounded like one person, maybe the guy has to do the work himself now...

[karter]

If that's the case he's going to be there a looong time.

[AdaDoom]

Indeed. but maybe I've been watching too much Property Ladder...

[Nero]

I saw someone working in there the other day, after a longish period of quite. Nero

[caro ed]

i'm a mortgage broker (lots of fun at the moment I can assure you)... maybe I can help poor credit crunch afflicted developer..???!

[macroban]

caro ed, if you have a spare ?600k in cash, you might strike yourself a very good deal here.

[damzel]

Last week a guy knocked on my door and told me he and his colleagues were fitting flooring in the flats above those shops and was I interested in any because they reckoned they'd have a lot left over. Sounds dodgy?? Having just laid a new floor I politely declined...

[caro ed]

Nice idea Macroban but if I had ?600k floating around in cash, trust me I would be in some exotic location sunning myself right now!

Re the wood flooring DEFINITELY sounds dodgy... that's always the line that they just 'happen' to have lots left over from some big job...

[SteveT]

The rule is that when purchasing hard wood flooring one orders on average size room, 2 square metres more than you need to cover the area, to allow for cuts and wastage.

If you buy the correct amount and run short you will not usually match it up with your following purchase.

So it may not be that dodgy, but I suspect they would want cash, not a cheque;-)

[patricknicola]

Tesco was what I heard

[karter]

It could never be Tesco, the's no parking for it.:)

[SeanMacGabhann]

I would be interested in the source of that. Several shops just further up would be well in trouble and I would be mightily hacked off. For what it's worth I think karter is right tho'

[karter]

I too be would hacked off. There are two Tescos already in the area both of which have parking.

[SeanMacGabhann]

not to mention nothing new to offer

[BARA]

last time I heard anything was that there were going to be individual units (not sure whether shop of office) to hire.

At one stage some of the units were supposed to be for the temporary use of Dulwich Library whilst they had their refit. But the building work on the shops and flats had taken so long that nothing ever came of it.

[chocaholic]

would be nice to see a cafe open. i work nearby and there's nowhere really close to go for a nice lunch. any place to give me a reason to not go to badger bakery and be called 'darlin' by someone 10yrs younger than me!

[caro ed]

hmmm any up to date news on this? you think it's going to stay tarpaulin for the forseeable??

[TJS]

How long has it been like that now?

[Brendan]

Since at least 1972.

[Jah Lush]

As far as I know; according to my barber across the road, the people who were hoping to develop that old row of shops ran into financial difficulties and hence the building work has stopped.

[Lawboy]

I noticed that Somerfield have applied for a sales licence for these shops. Anybody know anything else?