Daily Photo: 30/11/09 – Drinking Fountain & Cattle Trough

The “Drinking Fountain & Cattle Trough” near the entrance to St Alfege Gardens.

Vehicle Fire Forces Blackwall Tunnel Closure

The Blackwall Tunnel has been closed northbound and is not expected to reopen until Wednesday after a vehicle fire yesterday.

The incident happened on Sunday at around 17.45 and  two people were taken to hospital – one due to smoke inhalation and one with an ankle injury.

Transport for London say that the road surface, lighting and CCTV systems were damaged in the fire and TFL engineers are working 24 hours a day to repair the damage.

The closure of the northbound tunnel has caused gridlock on surrounding roads, with motorists advised to use the Dartford river crossing, Rotherhithe Tunnel, Woolwich Ferry or Tower Bridge to cross the Thames.

Greenwich Council responded to the closure by saying that it underlined the need for additional river crossings.

Cllr Peter Brooks, Deputy Leader of the Council, said, “The travel difficulties experienced this morning – and which are forecast to last at two more days – starkly underline the dangers for Londoners of relying so heavily on the Blackwall Tunnel.

“Greenwich Council has consistently pressed for a package of further river crossings, to relieve the pressure on the crossing at Blackwall, which is why we were extremely disappointed at the decision of the Mayor of London to scrap plans for the Thames Gateway crossing.

“We are continuing to press the Mayor to put the Thames Gateway crossing – together with a new crossing at Silvertown – firmly back on the agenda.”

UPDATE: The Blackwall tunnel reopened tonight after TfL engineers worked quickly to repair fire damage, well ahead of the initial estimate that it wouldn’t reopen until Wednesday.

Garrett Emmerson, Chief Operating Officer, London Streets, said: ‘I would like to pay tribute to the tireless work of the emergency services, tunnel engineers and many others who have ensured we have been able to reopen the tunnel so quickly.

200 more buildings to be locally listed – is your house one of them?

APOLOGIES for delaying last week’s column until this week – I have been waiting, so far in vain, for news of the Olympics planning application (promised by “late November” – only one day left, guys!) and the closure of the foot tunnel (supposed to be discussed by the council’s cabinet on 17 November – but the meeting was cancelled).

I’ll post a new column as soon as I have anything concrete to tell you on either subject – probably later this week – but while we wait, let’s talk conservation areas. There are six in SE10 and the Greenwich borough parts of SE3 – and the council has been reviewing five of them: West Greenwich, Greenwich Park, East Greenwich, Blackheath and Blackheath Park. The sixth, Ashburnham Triangle, was done last year but I will include that too, for completeness. The reviews also consider whether any more buildings should be listed or locally listed.

Greenwich Council reviews always cause small a ping on my sonar – is the agenda to sneak through something we might not like? In this case, however, there appears to be little cause for alarm. The proposals from the six reviews are as follows:

- Listing about 25 buildings, all in Ashburnham Triangle; see below for the full list.

- Locally listing about 200 buildings, including the Greenwich Power Station, the Pavilion tea-house in the Park and most of the Span estates in Blackheath. See below for the full list.

- In West Greenwich, reducing the boundaries of the conservation area to take out flats “of no special merit” around Dutton Street and Winforton Street. Adding two Victorian schools, St Alfege with St Peters (in Creek Road) and James Wolfe (Randall Place). Possibly adding the cabaret club in Creek Road.

- In East Greenwich, extending the conservation area to include the whole of Trafalgar Road from Christ Church to the Royal Naval College, including all of Old Woolwich Road.

- In Ashburnham Triangle, small extensions on the fringes the conservation area. (No changes proposed to the boundaries of the other three.)

All buildings in conservation areas are subject to extra planning controls – on, for instance, the placement of satellite dishes and the size of extensions allowed, fences, walls and railings. West Greenwich, East Greenwich and the Ashburnham Triangle (though not the other three) are “Article 4″ conservation areas with enhanced protection where nearly all external alterations, including re-roofing and new windows and doors, need planning permission.

Listed buildings have statutory protection – that is, it is a criminal offence to change them (inside or out) without special listed building consent. Locally listed buildings have no special extra protection – they are just buildings the council thinks are nice. Having your house on the local list might increase its value, though.

The buildings proposed for listing (in alphabetical order by street) are:

Blackheath Road: 53-75 (odd numbers)
Greenwich High Road: 21, 24, 26, 28, 133, 133a, 135
Greenwich South Street: 80-98 (even numbers)

The buildings proposed for local listing (in alphabetical order by street) are

Ashburnham Place: 18-27 (odd)
Corvette Square: all
Greenwich Park: Pavilion Tea House
Greenwich Park Street: Former Post Office sorting office
Greenwich Power Station and coal jetty
Hardy Cottages: all
Kidbrooke Park Road: 11-29 (odd)
Maze Hill: 75-81, 89-93 (odd)
Orlop Street: all
Point Hill: 29-35 (odd)
Randall Place: All houses on north side
Roan Street: 33-47 (odd)
Shooters Hill Road: 63-103 (odd)
Straightsmouth: Lovibonds Brewery Warehouse
Trafalgar Road: 177
Wellington Grove: St Ursula’s School

Plus most of the Span estates in Blackheath Park, including The Plantation, Corner Green, The Keep, The Lane and The Hall except 1-27 Foxes Dale and 51-63 The Hall.

It’s also nice to see how the Greenwich Park conservation area appraisal waxes lyrical about the park’s “sense of continuity and timelessness” that “acts as an oasis for visitors… hugely significant for historical, cultural and ecological reasons.” The Olympics’ll soon put a stop to all that nonsense, eh!

PS – Nice to see the Mercury and News Shopper following up another one of our stories – on Chris Roberts’ moonlight flit to a safer ward – for the second time in two weeks, though again sadly without acknowledgement. You read it here first…

Daily Photo: 27/11/09 – Santa Arrives at Greenwich Market

A few hours before the Greenwich Christmas light switch on, Father Christmas was mingling in Greenwich Market and talking to shoppers, and entertaining elves with his witty banter, by the looks of it!

Daily Photo: 26/11/09 – East Greenwich Pleasaunce

Some of the graves in East Greenwich Pleasaunce.

New Family Council Homes Approved for Woodlands Park Road

SIX new council homes will be built in Woodland Park Road after the go-ahead was given at a meeting of the Council’s Planning Board last night.

There will be five 4-bed homes built, and one 5-bed home. The semi-detached family sized homes were given the green light along with twenty-eight other new council properties around the borough.

The homes will be paid for with £4.2million worth of funding that has been allocated by the Homes and Communities Agency.

Cllr Peter Brooks, Deputy Leader of Greenwich Council, said, “The new Government programme which allows councils to build homes themselves offers a great opportunity to use local sites in the borough for the creation of family homes, and in particular to help meet the housing needs of larger families.

“It’s also an opportunity to create job opportunities for local people and we will be ensuring that our contractors work closely with Greenwich Local Labour and Business to ensure that local residents have access to work and training on these sites.”

Daily Photo: 25/11/09 – Barclays ATP World Tour Finals

Just another picture from yesterday’s visit to the O2 for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. For some reason I decided to part with an amount that was more than the price of the ticket for the event itself and buy a hideous t-shirt from the merchandise stand. There’s an odd, incongruous Christmas Fair and Market by the entrance, too.

Daily Photo: 24/11/09 – Barclays ATP World Tour Finals

Del Potro and Verdasco warming up before today’s match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the O2.

Tickets are still available for the rest of the week.

Pay As You Go Oyster Arrives in Greenwich

Greenwich commuters will finally be able to use Oyster pay-as-you-go for rail journeys from 2 January, after years of negotiations between Transport for London and the capital’s private rail operators.

But there’s a sting in the tail for some rail passengers, with cheaper off-peak tickets withdrawn for those who don’t use Oyster cards, and higher fares for all in the evening rush hour.

Many local passengers have been using Oyster on local rail services for some time, but because they have Travelcards loaded onto their tickets.

Now all passengers will be able to use the smartcards to pay for individual journeys, just as Tube and Docklands Light Railway users have done for the past six years. On the Greenwich line, this means the cards will be as valid as far out as Slade Green, on the edge of zone 6.

From 2 January, passengers who don’t use Oyster cards will be charged a flat rate of £2.40 from Greenwich and other zone 2 stations to London Bridge, Waterloo East, Charing Cross or Cannon Street, with a return costing £4.30.

Those travelling from Maze Hill or Westcombe Park, in zone 3, will be charged £3.10 single, or £5.30 return.

But passengers who do use Oyster cards will be charged cheaper rates, with all journeys being charged as singles.

From Greenwich, passengers for central London will have to pay £2.10 if their journey takes place in the morning or evening rush hour – between 6.30am and 9.30am, or 4pm-7pm.

If their journey avoids those times, or is at weekends, then they’ll be charged £1.70.

Oyster card holders from Maze Hill or Westcombe Park will pay £2.60 for a peak journey, or £2 off-peak.

The new system also means passengers can combine rail and Tube/DLR journeys. If their journey does not include Zone 1, it’s at no extra cost. Someone travelling from Maze Hill to South Quay DLR via Greenwich would be charged £1.80 in peak hours, £1.50 at other times – the same fare as Maze Hill to Deptford.

But there’s an extra £1.10 added for journeys through zone 1 – so Maze Hill to Goodge Street will cost £3.70 or £3.10 single.

A cap will apply on fares, so passengers making different journeys during the day will find they pay no more than the appropriate rate for a one day Travelcard.

For people using paper Travelcards or season tickets, it’s business as usual.

However, the Oyster deal will not make travel as convenient as some users might like.

Passengers with Travelcards who need to travel outside their zones will be expected to get a free “Oyster Extension Permit” from a ticket machine or ticket office, or Oyster shop, before they travel to a National Rail station.

So someone with a zones 1-3 Travelcard will need to get a permit before travelling to Abbey Wood, in zone 5, for example. However, permits can be picked up weeks or months in advance, and will stay on Oyster cards until they are actually used.

Gold Card holders – who have annual Travelcards – will still have to buy paper tickets to get their usual one-third discount on tickets outside their zones.

And all passengers wanting to travel to Dartford or deeper into Kent will need to buy a paper ticket as normal.

As part of a separate agreement, Thames Clippers river services have already started to accept Oyster pay-as-you-go tickets, offering a 10% discount on normal cash fares, while Travelcard holders will get a 30% discount.

A £5.80 single ticket from Greenwich or QEII piers to central London will be reduced to £4.80 with Oyster PAYG, or £3.55 with a Travelcard.

Daily Photo: 20/11/09: Our Lady Star Of The Sea

The steeple of Our Lady Star of the Sea church in Crooms Hill, as seen from Greenwich Park.

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