You are about to be horrified. Foxtons coming to Rye Lane

[Louisa]

Foxtons, yes FOXTONS have submitted a planning application to open up a large Estate Agent on Rye Lane in Peckham.

Plans are here:

http://planningonline.southwark.gov.uk/DocsOnline/Documents/418030_1.pdf

http://planningonline.southwark.gov.uk/AcolNetCGI.exe?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=9558474

I never thought this day would come.

Louisa.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Come back Waitrose, all is forgiven?

Actually even I'm quite shocked by that one.

[Seabag]

They're in Crystal Palace too

Mind you, what would shock would be 'Foxtons Sydenham'

[Louisa]

Or Penge? Proof that this gentrification lark is just getting ridiculous.

Louisa.

[ruffers]

I am not horrified.

[healey]

Not really surprising at all. In an age of heavy traffic and the increasing inconvenience of car ownership professionals with money to burn now seek to live in inner cities with amenities and transport links. Outer city suburbs aren't the attractive proposition they were in the post-war period.

Plus Peckham has been rather upmarket the past...

[Jeremy]

Strange move. Can't say this is the way I envisaged Rye Lane going.

Where are they going to park all their silly cars?

[MissMadMoo]

I dont see this as a strange move at all. Area on the up, opportunity beckons.

Crystal Palace was one of their most successful new offices last year.

Good news!

[Jason]

I'd love to see the face on the agents when the email lands informing they are being transferred from the Notting Hill office to 'Bellenden Village' AKA Rye Lane!

[Louisa]

At least there is some good justification in the name 'bell-end village' now this lot are arriving.

Louisa.

[fleur]

It's all making sense now as there are 'luxury' flats planned for above this spot.

[Jeremy]

Vibrant and Edgy Rye Lane is really coming into its own.

[Peckhamrye]

Looks like they are taking over the fantastic furniture shop - will be interesting to see how they settle down amongst the established traders...

[steveo]

Mogadishu branch next

[strae]

Very interesting given they could conceivably serve this market from the branch at LL, which is huge and always appears to be empty

[Cyclemonkey]

I thought that was odd. When we were house hunting any SE15/SE5 properties Foxtons were marketing came out of the Lordship Lane branch and they didn't seem overly busy to be honest. Although the fact it was being marketed by Foxtons often put me off as their properties were always priced at the top end and their sales agents were almost always aggressive bellends.

[miga]

.

[Cyclemonkey]

I think a lot of buyers avoid them if they can as they have a reputation for being pushy and pricing very high.

[Louisa]

According to the theory, Foxtons and Waitrose only settle for certain postcodes - either fully gentrified, or in the process of. With Rye Lane being the battle ground between gentrified 'Bell-end' village, ED and PR and un-gentrified North Peckham, Old Kent Road areas - would the arrival of Foxtons at this early stage be unusual? The Lane contains few if any shops that would fit this category of gentrificatjon, so is this some sort of tipping point at which big chains and Indy Boutiques follow? To me, it seems a bizarre stab in the dark from Foxtons, unless they know something we don't?

Louisa.

[Jeremy]

My thoughts were similar... unusual for Foxtons to open up somewhere which is essentially ungentrified (or at best is in the embryonic stages of gentrification)

[MissMadMoo]

^ isn't that the whole point. An emerging market, new opportunities

[Jeremy]

Yeah but such foresight doesn't really seem typical of Foxtons.

[DuncanW]

We moved recently and Foxtons hardly had anything in SE22, but they did seem to have a few properties up into SE15/SE5. Maybe they are thinking of chopping in the LL branch and replacing it with this??

Also they have something like 50 branches and have an expansion plan, so once they have secured branches in the most desirable areas, they have to work their way down. So having a Foxtons in your neighbourhood may not have quite the same cache (if you see it that way) as it once did...

[Louisa]

I know Peckham has had a tonne of media attention the past 3 or so years, and the side streets off Rye Lane are rather gentrifying at a pace, but Rye Lane is just so out of character for a firm which sets up shiny dazzling offices in neat trendy locations heavily in the gentrifying process. If they have an office like the LL one or Putney, it will look entirely out of place along Rye Lane. I can envisage a whole year of commercial rent rises and big names moving in again.

Louisa.

[Bluerevolution]

The plans http://peckhampeculiar.tumblr.com/post/110622173714/foxtons-plans-confirmed