Restaurant fire closes Trafalgar Road

Photo taken by @j0annepsi

Traffic came to a stand-still on Tuesday evening as a fire broke out at a restaurant in Trafalgar Road.

Around 20 firefighters and four fire engines attended the blaze at Othello Steak House, 113 Trafalgar Road, near the junction of Lassell Street.

Trafalgar Road was closed to traffic in both directions as firefighters from East Greenwich, Greenwich, Lee Green and Deptford stations got the blaze under control.

There were no injuries and the fire caused damaged to the 1st floor and roof.

Three found guilty of bike shop robbery

A GANG of three robbers, whose ringleader threatened a shop manager that there would be ‘trouble’ if he didn’t show them where the safe was, were found guilty today.

Adrian Martin, 20, Samuel Morrison, 21, and Gavin Walters, 29, robbed £440 of takings from the Cycle Warehouse in Trafalgar Road, Greenwich, on January 12 this year.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court found them all guilty of robbery after just two hours of deliberation.

Earlier the court heard from manager Matthew Munro how three hooded men with scarves covering their faces entered his shop at 5.45pm just as he had finished cashing up for the day.

Testifying behind a screen, he said one of them gestured to his hoodie pocket and demanded to be shown the safe.

He said: “[The first one] came behind the counter and grabbed me by the shirt and said ‘this is what’s going to happen’.

“He asked about the safe and I lied and said we don’t have a safe. I said that all we have is the £100 we took today that was in an envelope on the counter and he proceeded to pick it up.

“Then he said ‘I know there is a safe here, I don’t want there to be any trouble and he grabbed his hoodie pocket implying he had a weapon so I told him where the safe was.”

Mr Munro opened the safe for the robbers who took four days worth of takings that had been left in there, the court heard.

Police who were called by Mr Munro picked up the gang in a black VW Beetle within 10 minutes of the incident and found envelopes containing the takings from the shop in the car.

Martin of Fenwick Road, Peckham, Morrison of Boreman House, Thames Street, Greenwich and Walters of Courtney Hotel, Aldersbrook Road, Manor Park, East London, all denied robbery.

Sentencing was adjourned until August 6 for pre sentence reports.

New flower shop blooms on Trafalgar Road

A brand new florist has opened for business in Trafalgar Road, Greenwich.

Mike Catterall Floral Designs had its grand opening over the weekend and welcomed customers with a glass of champagne.

Mike, who has twenty years experience as a florist, told Greenwich.co.uk a little about how the new shop came about:

I moved to London eight years ago, and would always come to Greenwich at the weekends and decided I really wanted to live here. It was when I was looking for somewhere to live here that I found the shop at the same time and it all fell together very quickly.

The shop will be open seven days a week and Mike even intends to open on Christmas Day for those customers who need a very last minute bouquet.

The new business caters for all floral requirements but Mike tells me most of his intricate work is for funerals and has included a pint of beer, a cup and saucer, Nemo the fish from ‘Finding Nemo’ and even a pair of Dorothy’s shoes from ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

Mike Catterall Floral Designs is at 93 Trafalgar Road.

Council closes mouse infested restaurant

Greenwich Council used an emergency prohibition order to temporarily close down an Indian restaurant in East Greenwich last month.

An unannounced inspection of Moza in Trafalgar Road uncovered an uncontrolled mouse infestation and general cleanliness in the restaurant’s kitchen was found to be below standard.

The restaurant, which boasts “finest Indian curry”, has since been allowed to re-open subject to additional improvements at the premises and by meeting basic guidelines.

Councillor Maureen O’Mara, Greenwich Council’s Cabinet Member for neighbourhood services, said: “The Council will continue to carry out unannounced visits to food businesses and will take necessary action to safeguard customers’ health. I would encourage all local food businesses to follow appropriate food hygiene standards to avoid having their business closed down or even worse face prosecution.”

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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…

Bishop of Woolwich to visit East Greenwich

The Rt. Revd. Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Woolwich will be visiting the Parish of Christ Church East next Tuesday – his first such visitation in four years.

At 3pm on Tuesday 17th November Rev. Derek Clacey will take the Bishop to visit the East Greenwich Traders Association at Greenwich Communication Centre in Trafalgar Road where he will be introduced to representatives of the East Greenwich Traders Association.

The Bishop will learn about projects underway in East Greenwich including the community initiative of the ‘East Greenwich Cultural Corridor’ – a project of culture led regeneration to revitalise East Greenwich in time for the Olympics.

Park Protesters Meet To Discuss Next Steps

Opponents of plans for the 2012 Equestrian events to be held in Greenwich Park held a meeting at the Forum@Greenwich in Trafalgar Road last week to discuss the next steps in their campaign.

Issues discussed at the NOGOE (No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events) meeting included advertising restrictions on local traders near to the venue, enforceable under the Olympics Act 2006, and also a possible partial closure of the park again the year after the Olympics to allow for re-seeding where the temporary 23,000 seater stadium will have been erected.

The protest group also put forward the idea that if the events were not held in Greenwich Park, it could still form part of the games by being a location for large TV screens for viewing all of the events from an iconic location.

NOGOE have so far collected 6,000 signatures against the plans, and appealed to supporters to assist with further signature collections and even a possibly rally which might include a human ring around the park.

Sev D’Souza from NOGOE tells Greenwich.co.uk that they do not yet consider this to be a done deal, and they believe that LOCOG has a “plan B” which they could be forced to adopt if there are enough protests.

Meanwhile, Greenwich Council has called on LOCOG to ensure that they consult local people over possible road closures.  The Government has published the Olympic Route Network (ORN) – roads that could be closed whilst the games take place – which includes 44 roads in the borough of Greenwich.

Cllr Roberts, said, “”It’s crucial that the Olympic agencies take into account the views of local residents and businesses – who are after all the ones who will be most affected – before finalising their transport plans. Local people should be reassured that the Council will not support any proposals that fail to reflect local concerns.”

Major Gas Mains Replacement Starts July 1st

A five month project by Scottish Gas Networks to replace old gas mains in Greenwich town centre will begin on July 1st.  The utility company is spending £270,000 replacing metallic mains with new plastic piping that should last for a minimum of 80 years.

The works are taking place in Trafalgar Road, Romney Road and Nelson road, and require road closures during the replacement programme.

There will be three phases to the project:

Phase One: Work taking place in Greenwich Church Street, from number 8, along Nelson Road to just past the junction between Romney Road and King William Walk. Starting 1 July, for approximately 12 weeks, a series of diversions will be in place to enable the safe laying of a new main in an open trench.

From 1 July, for approximately five weeks, the left turn from Nelson Road into Greenwich Church Street will be closed. Traffic will be diverted via Creek Road and Norman Road to Greenwich High Road, where motorists will continue along their intended route.

In addition, westbound buses on routes 177, 180 and 386 towards Greenwich South Street will also divert via Creek Road, Norman Road and Greenwich High Road to Greenwich South Street. Buses on route 199 coming from Surrey Quays will turn right from Creek Road into Norman Road and Greenwich High Road to Greenwich South Street.

The remainder of phase one will see the reinstatement of the left turn out of Nelson Road and two-way temporary traffic lights installed in Romney Road and King William Walk.

Phase Two: Work taking place along Romney Road to the junction of Trafalgar Road and Eastney Street. From 24 September, for approximately nine weeks, the bus lane will be closed but two-way traffic will be maintained.

Phase Three: Work taking place along Trafalgar Road from the Eastney Street junction to the junction with Hoskins Street. From 26 November, for approximately four weeks, temporary two-way traffic lights will be in place. Maze Hill will also be temporarily closed during this phase with diversions in place.

SGN Team Manager Gareth Lewis said: “We’ve been working closely with the Greenwich Council and the emergency services to find the most effective way to minimise overall disruption while carrying out this essential work.  Advance warning and diversion signs will be in place throughout the course of our work and access to homes and businesses will be maintained”.

Dance and Draw at Forum@Greenwich

Learn how to draw, and learn how to dance… at the same time! Dance and Draw is a cool new experience taking place at the Forum@Greenwich in Trafalgar Road.

The purpose of the sessions is to encourage people to express themselves, gain self confidence and reduce session.

The innovative Dance and Draw sessions are available in an afterschool slot for teenagers and there’s also evening sessions.

Find out more about Dance and Draw here

Daily Photo 24/02/09: Metropolis Motorcycles

Metropolis Motorcycles in Trafalgar Road.

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