Greenwich flight centre and cycle hire shop could convert into residential use
A Greenwich shop could be be changed into residential usage under a newly submitted plan.
The east Greenwich unit at 95 Old Woolwich Road is home (or at least I think it still is?) to the Greenwich Flight Centre and cycle hire shop.
Now the owner wants to change from a “ground floor commercial unit from a travel agency (Use Class E) to residential use, integrating the space with the existing first-floor residential flat to form a single, unified two-bedroom dwelling house (Use Class C3) under Permitted Development Class MA”
Click here to view plans.
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Hi Murky, thanks for the publicity, though sadly a little late to save me! C’est la vie.
Several reasons behind this, the main one being that locals do not use little corner shops like they used to! Sad, I know, for me especially, having been trading here 40 years in 2026, and having been born in the old St Alfeges Hospital, which was on the same site on Vanbrugh Hill as the ‘New Greenwich District Hospital ‘, which was later demolished to make way for the new Greenwich Centre complex, with the hospital being moved to the QE Woolwich. I then, as a child, lived nearby, in Westcombe Hill.
Impossible to keep paying my commercial mortgage (more expensive and harder to get than residential) without an income from the shop. And pointless having a shop when there’s nobody interested in using it.
Every other corner shop in the area closed long ago. We either board it up and go bust or convert to what is desperately needed in this area of Greenwich, which has a plethora of mostly high-rise apartments already, -a family house.
Travel bookings, of course, are now almost entirely online, and I will continue to trade online myself here for those interested.
Greenwich Cycle Hire, I was extremely sad to have to wind down across this summer too. That was started by me here in 2007 when the 2012 Olympics were announced for London. Across almost 20 years, we have helped families, couples and solo cyclists from across the planet, and met some amazing people. And then came Lime, followed by Forest and 1 or 2 others. People wanted e-bike assistance and convenience of having them on their own street corner. Councils across London were too slow to act in containing them, or in encouraging Santander here in Greenwich, who still had self-propelled cycles in a docked system. You either love em or hate em but they seem here to stay and serve a purpose I guess. Though Surgeons are not too happy with the extra workload (Lime Bike Leg). Ad surveys show the proportion of brain injuries on dockless e-bikes is higher- rarely do you see a Lime Bike Rider using protective helmets or clothing, and they are damn heavy to fall on you too. No guesses on my feelings. Take even 20-30% of a business away to a large US corporate with massive funding, and you take away a livelihood. We have lost too much to them, and it’s time to close.
I hope there’ll be those who wish me well for the future without bad feelings about the loss of yet another street corner shop. In my own children’s words (not at all in a malicious way!)…”Dad, you’re a bit of a dinosaur now, aren’t you? ” Well, I didn’t last quite as long as they ruled the Earth, but I’ll take it as a compliment haha!
Derek – I didn’t realise you ran this!!! I often use to walk past it and wondered if it was operational.
sorry to hear that you are going to wind it up, but it was always going to struggle in that location (it’s away from the footfall).
This is one of the rare instances that it’s good to convert to residential use and it’s great to hear that it will be a 2 bed dwelling and not converted into a HMO!!!
Hopefully it can be restored sympathetically to the period.
All the best!