Abbey Wood towers and 245 flats on the up

Two towers near Abbey Wood station are making their mark on the area as they rise up.

The two blocks will contain 245 flats and are aimed at the build-to-rent market. The primary target are younger people without families who will use nearby Abbey Wood station to reach work and leisure activities.

With Crossrail opening now imminent, they’ll have excellent links. The station already has Southeastern and Thameslink services (before recent cuts which are hopefully to be reversed soon) which reach various destinations across London.

When Crossrail opens, trains will run every five minutes enabling Canary Wharf to be reached in 10 minutes, east London in 15 and the City in 20 minutes. Then there’s stops in the West End before Paddington and trains out to west London cutting current journey times substantially.

That gig in east London that could have taken an hour or more? Now it’s 15 minutes away. The service will be a game-changer.

Thus commonly heard complaints about car parking shouldn’t really apply. Your average 25 year old looking to move here will not drive.

Of course, out of 245 flats even a minority driving (or people visiting by car) could cause problems, and recently multi-million public space has started to become a car park again near the station – and Sainsbury’s next door to the development.

At the moment it’s just a couple but head back about five years and you’d see ten cars all over paving each night blocking pedestrians leaving the station. That could easily happen again.

Considering it cost many millions, the public space looks distinctly unfinished with ugly concrete blocks dumped down.

This surely isn’t the long term solution?

The concrete blocks don’t prevent drivers heading off and parking in the majority of the area. If they’re a safety measure, something a lot more attractive is needed.

One concern from day one with the new station was little focus towards those arriving on foot from the north. Considering the hundreds of homes planned (and some now being built – thousands more are coming) did designers not know this would an area of major footfall?

It already was even before planned housing, as any daily user would have known.

Did councils not feed that into plans? The borough boundary between Bexley and Greenwich runs directly through this area.

In 10 years there should be thousands more homes to the north within walking distance, including Felixstowe Road industrial estate, Eynsham Drive blocks at the site of PDSA vets plus homes lining Harrow Manorway from Peabody. Bexley Council also propose towers on part of the station car park.

However, generally the area is much better and Wilton Road has improved a lot. It still requires those promised trees, and finishing touches are lacking. Hopefully they appear before trains start running, but neither council has offered any sort of update during meetings for some time.

Running a site alone takes time and a fair bit of money. Adverts are far from enough to cover it and my living costs as a private renter.