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The Greyhound opening 23rd February

After an extensive refurbishment, it’s nearly time to welcome you to The Greyhound, and the good news is we’re all invited!

Friday 23rd February they are opening the doors to our community here in Sydenham and excited to get the pub filled with friends and future friends.

To find out more about The Greyhound, what they do and to sign up for opening offers head to their website www.thegreyhoundsydenham.co.uk

For those that don’t know the history of The Greyhound… The first mention of The Greyhound pub on this site was 1720, and it was rebuilt in 1873, demolished between 2007 and 2013 by developers with little interest in the history of Sydenham and the pub’s importance to Sydenham. After over 10 years of campaigning for the rebuilding of The Greyhound this will be a momentous event for all of us to remember and future generations to celebrate! It’s been a long haul that’s for sure.  Another chapter of Sydenham’s history is just beginning.

 

The Greyhound – update

The Greyhound Sydenham is recruiting in advance of the pub opening next month. Sydenham Society have met the owner and manager (Monty) and their plans for the pub sound great, providing us with a dog-friendly, family-friendly pub with good quality food, drink and atmosphere. It’s going to be a great addition to our area and well worth the years of waiting whilst we all battled to rebuild the greyhound! 

Please share the news and help them build on their already great team. Exciting times for Sydenham…

Bell Green Gasholders saved for now!

After a planning committee meeting that lasted two hours at Lewisham town hall, there was a unanimous vote to refuse planning consent for the construction of an Aldi supermarket, restaurant, coffee shop and storage facility for Southern Gas on the following grounds:

The proposed development would result in the loss of green space to the east of the Livesey Hall [the former bowling green] and would harm the setting of this Grade II listed building.

The additional traffic attracted by the development would have a detrimental impact on the Bell Green gyratory system and surrounding streets.

The provision of the additional retail floor space within the retail park would exceed the maximum limit of 16,110sq m as set out in the 2011 Core Strategy, thereby harming the character and viability of adjacent shopping centres.

The application failed to demonstrate that traffic and vehicle movements associated with the proposal would not increase levels of air pollution and would therefore have an unacceptable impact upon air quality within the area.

There is no mention of saving the gasholders in these conditions. However, we’ve got a ‘stay of execution’ for the time being and will continue to press for alternative uses, including the insertion of residential units into these wrought iron structures. Architects who specialise in sustainable development have advised us that flats in the form of pods, made from modern, sustainable materials could be suspended from the gasholders, removing the need for traditional foundations. We will also emphasise the need for green space at this location – echoing the reasons for refusal of the retail application.

A big thank you to everyone involved in the campaign, in particular Councillor Alan Hall @cllralanhall

Station Ticket Offices to Close

All ticket offices at London Overground stations (including Sydenham and Forest Hill) are to be closed within the next 18 months. That’s the conclusion of a new consultation launched by Arriva Rail who run London Overground on behalf of TfL. Arriva describe the changes in their consultation letter as “journey modernisation” and a “planned improvement to customer experience”.

Arriva correctly point out that due to ticket machines, season tickets and Freedom Passes only around five per cent of transactions now take place at ticket offices. However, five per cent of passengers still amounts to around a quarter of a million passengers per year currently using ticket offices at both Sydenham and Forest Hill stations. That’s still more than 600 people per day using each local ticket office.

It simply isn’t acceptable to claim that machine-only ticket sales work on the London Underground, so why can’t they work here. This fails to take into account that tickets sold on the Underground operate largely within six zones in urban London and that there are few rail discount schemes.  On rail services such as the Overground, passengers want to use ticket offices because they often wish to buy a more complex range of tickets to a much wider number of destinations. And they want to purchase them with discounts based on time of travel or which are only available to discount-card holders. London Overground admit that current ticket machines at local stations simply cannot cope with such complexities and that there are no machines currently available which can do this job.

Sydenham Society is in discussions to try to minimise or avoid disruptions to passengers.

Tour of The Greyhound

The Sydenham Society had a tour of The Greyhound with the new owners and have tweeted a few photos.
The fit out is going well although, as with most builds, there are a few unexpected surprises which may impact a launch date. They’re keen to launch ASAP though, hopefully December as planned.
Their vision for the pub is excellent and they are investing in a quality fit out and already secured some good staff. Recruitment will commence shortly, providing 20 or so jobs which is great news for our area.
Full details of what’s coming will be in the next Sydenham Society newsletter but to give you headlines, it will be an open plan pub in an eclectic sympathetic style, serving quality food, will be dog and family friendly and upstairs will be two function / private dining areas.
The owners are extremely excited about opening and very grateful to everybody who has helped the pub get rebuilt. It’s been a long time coming and they’re impressed by our persistence and keenness!!
Watch out for more details on the next newsletter and Twitter…

The Greyhound – internal refurbishment begins!

Work began this week on the internal refurbishment of our beloved historic pub The Greyhound in Sydenham. After too many years of neglect, the pub will soon be brought back to it’s former glory serving our local community.

Assuming no delays with utilities, the owner calculates that the work will take around 11/12 weeks so it will be open in time for a Christmas drinks!

This marks another great chapter for Sydenham Society and everyone who has worked so hard over the years to get this illegally demolished pub rebuilt. Thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign over the years.

We will provide more news in the next edition of our printed newsletter, so please make sure your subscription is renewed so receive all the latest updates first!