Site behind former East Greenwich library to become flats

Plans are in for 23 flats behind the old library site in East Greenwich on Tunnel Avenue. The planning reference is 16/3858/F. Thanks to a comment from Gordon of Greenwich giving me the heads up with this.

It joins a large number of small to mid-size plans around there. This one is over the road behind the old fire station:

student flats 3d model

This one the other side of the former library on Denham Street:

denham street 33 flats student

And a fair few more down by the ugly junction, as well as the large Greenwich Square scheme:

cycle shop
Former cycle warehouse shop
greenwich-square-4
Greenwich square development on former hospital site
greenwich social club
Greenwich Social Club rebuild

With all the homes coming to the Peninsula and Charlton Riverside it looks very short sited to have sold off the former Greenwich hospital site. A&E patients in an ambulance are not going to reach Woolwich (or Lewisham) quickly with traffic levels.

And is it too much to hope that all these developments, and the money they bring, be used to improve the poor public realm and streetscapes around there? Even a lick of paint on the railings would help. The money from Greenwich council’s £400,000 HILLS scheme two years ago was supposed to improve street furniture but there’s scant evidence of it. This is from that time and was supposed to be carried out by 2016:

woolwich road flyover public realm

The answer is often do nothing as a bigger scheme is coming along sometime and hopefully not too far away. Often it’s a mythical wait for jam tomorrow meaning nothing happens today and for years after. We saw it for 20 years in Abbey Wood with Crossrail coming hence do nothing. Then the station related public realm upgrade was announced and it didn’t cover 90% of the main adjacent shopping street. So a separate scheme still had to be drawn up.

Could it now be that Silvertown Tunnel and a future Cycle Superhighway mean little is being done – even simple things such as painting and installing higher quality street furniture and paving which could be re-used? If so those potential schemes are many years off, if ever coming, and no excuse to do so little day to day.

 

 

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J Smith

I've lived in south east London most of my life growing up in Greenwich borough and working in the area for many years. The site has contributors on occasion and we cover many different topics. Living and working in the area offers an insight into what is happening locally.

7 thoughts on “Site behind former East Greenwich library to become flats

  • Could it now be that Silvertown Tunnel and a future cycles superhighway mean little is being done – not even simple things like painting and installing higher quality street furniture and paving which could be re-used?

    Yes. AFAIK the only scheme not directly related to Silvertown Tunnel is noise barriers on Westcombe Hill/Siebert Road (painted by Greenwich Council as a victory, even though these have been promised since 1969, and the residents on the Charlton side get nothing).

    But everything else on Woolwich Road is waiting for Cycle Superhighway 4, which Sadiq Khan has shelved beyond Greenwich town centre. This was pretty much admitted at the Charlton riverside masterplan meeting on Wednesday.

    Reply
  • Do you know what is being monitored in SE10?
    There is temporary CCTV install on scaffold poles these are padlocked on to posts going along.
    Trafalgar Road, Romney Road, Nelson Road, Greenwich Church Streert, Creek Road, down towards Creek Bridge

    Reply
  • Again – you know what I am going to say. While I agree that Woolwich Road needs a wash and brush up – can I point out that £300,000 was spent on it about ten years ago and that the street furniture and stuff, which you don’t like, was all decided on at a series of meetings with local residents. I suppose I could say ‘you should have seen it before that’. Darryl is right about the Siebert Road noise barriers which local councillors have been trying to get installed for at least twenty years. (I will not raise the issue of the American trees which TfL put in instead). I also guess Gordon of Greenwich knows a lot about the flats at the back of the library – they are on an old LCC bus garage site, by the way, later used by Lewis Coaches. ( Please give Gordon my regards).

    Reply
  • Last thing needed is more disastrous cycle stupid highways! Here’s hoping the one along Creek road is cancelled before even more damage is done to this once great city!

    Reply
  • Hi Mary, I am still here! The main issue since Lewis Coaches went away (thank goodness), are the huge number of HGV tippers that rat run down Westcombe Hill – Combedale Road – Denham Street – Tunnel Ave. There is a local Facebook group called ‘Westcombe Traffic Campaign’ which is working with RBoG to raise the issue. A resident in Westcombe Hill is leading this. Just to clarify this planning application relates to 3 and 5 Tunnel Avenue. This is Browns Motor Works and TPS Printers. It would appear that the Landowner is looking to cash in on all the work that’s going on around here. As planning apps go I think this one is much better than some of the recent ones around these parts. With regard to the former Lewis site. The brick built part in Denham Street will be ‘student accommodation’. The partially covered part of the site (aka 10 Denham Street) is currently home to a rather down at heel car repair business. I should imagine that we’ll see a planning app for this sooner rather than later.

    Reply
    • Gordon – good to hear from you. I know about the Westcombe Hill campaign although I haven’t been involved in it directly – although I am a member of the Westcombe Society’s Environment Group. There was previously an attempt to stop lorries down Halstow Road – in which Steve, now councillor, Brain was involved. You may remember when we had the Liveability meetings that one resident of Ormiston Road had been involved in an incident with his toddler and a tipper, although i forget the details. I am also sure you will remember some of the goings-on before the planning consent in Denham Street on the Lewis site went through – and I was at the planning meeting where the first plans were turned down. Its a complicated site and if I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t some problems with building there – no one has ever explained to me exactly why half the library fell down in 1998 – quite suddenly too – and the bit that fell is adjacent to Browns. See you sometime – I am around but less than I was, obviously.

      Reply
  • in the time is had taken bus route 422 to get to the top of Westcombe Hill, nine private hire coaches from the medway towns came off the A2 going down Westcombe Hill and onto local traffic roads as a short cut and a rat run.if they were not making a profit they wouldn’t provide the service. if they were taxed for causing congestion on our local road they would say on the A2.

    Reply

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