Lavender-Hill.uk : Supporting Lavender Hill

The cases we previously opposed on dubious projects to litter the street with huge advertising hoardings, using a planning loophole to claim they are “much needed” new payphones, are still ongoing as the developers have appealed the Council’s decision to refuse permission – and the cases are still with the planning inspectorate.  Hopefully they’ll agree with the views of residents rather than those attempting to clutter the streets and block important sight lines at road junctions…

In the meantime there have been some developments by other payphone operators.  BT has been working with Wandsworth in a rather more cooperative way, and have removed many of the old payphones, replacing them with a smaller number of ‘InLink’ kiosks. These are primarily designed as digital adverts, but their placing has been rather more carefully considered to be safe and fit in to the immediate environment, and they do offer free Wi-fi, a screen with a somewhat unstable local information service, and free calls.

It took a while for them to get up and running (and one unfortunate installation on Falcon Road got tagged days before it was even turned on) but our photo at bottom left below – note the headphones plugged in – suggests that these do work.

Installation on Falcon Road

An enthusiastic early user on St Johns Road

These haven’t been entirely trouble free where they have been installed elsewhere, partly as the free internet access in the early versions was free of any ‘parental controls’ (see this New York Times article, reporting that “they have also attracted people who linger for hours, sometimes drinking and doing drugs and, at times, boldly watching pornography on the sidewalks“), but here there don’t seem to be any major issues here yet.

Rival operator New World (also reputable & long-established) has taken a slightly different tack, have been replacing their existing payphones with new ones that have a digital advertising screen, and planting a certain number of trees per payphone replaced.

To their credit, they seek planning permission for the changes in the proper manner, the new kiosks are reasonably similar to the old ones, and we have indeed found some of the trees planted – the image below shows a new tree on Gowrie Road with a ‘New World Payphones’ stake, which we believe is linked to a payphone replacement at the eastern end of Lavender Hill.

These two examples suggest that (a) there is already a perfectly healthy and competitive local payphone market, with no need for added provision, and (b) as these more respectful operators have shown, there are better ways to go about upgrading payphone services and securing long term advertising revenue, than trying to run roughshod over residents’ concerns by using planning loopholes to force giant ‘kiosks’ on every street corner.

The PCS building on Falcon Road

Not strictly a Lavender Hill project, but readers may be interested to hear a fairly large new NHS base is being planned for the first floor of the PCS building on Falcon Road, next to the station (PCS will remain in the building, but using less space).

Hardly any changes will be made to the appearance of the building and it’s unlikely this change of use will be controversial (indeed the new facility should be useful, and the location is certainly convenient).  For those with an interest it’s Wandsworth planning application 2018/2208.

This project follows recent changes in the delivery of many of the Borough’s local NHS community services; these were previously provided by St Georges NHS trust, but since October 2017 have been delivered by Central London NHS trust instead.  St Georges already have various buildings scattered around the area (notably on Stormont Road, just off Lavender Hill – but also in the Doddington estate and further afield); while the Central London trust have a rather motley assortment of smaller sites scattered around the borough, none of which are really suitable for use as a major community facility.

The plans are essentially for a load of consulting rooms, and desk space for around 100 people – a few extracts below.

One minor niggle: the planning documents suggest they’re calling the new facility the NHS “Clapham hub” rather than a more descriptive ‘Clapham Junction’ or ‘Battersea’ (but there’s still time before they apply for detailed signage permissions – we’re tipping off Love Battersea before it’s too late!).

Planning images (c) Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust / IngletonWood

The former Ichnusa gastropub – boarded up after it closed

Many years ago, there was a branch of the Co-op at 47-49 Lavender Hill – a notably large open-plan shop not far from the junction with Queenstown Road, which still feels a bit like a supermarket inside.

It was later converted to a pub / restaurant, and over the years took quite a few names (the Puzzle, the Taybridge, Elephant on the Hill, etc).  Latterly it was Ichnusa, a Sardinian restaurant (which had moved there from a smaller premises further along the street).  This was a popular place and had been doing quite well until an inspection by Wandsorth’s food safety team which revealed “very serious and unacceptable health and hygiene breaches” including an “accumulation f raw sewage” and a “fly infestation”.  The owner was served with a hygiene prohibition order on February 20 at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court, forcing him to close the business, as well as a hefty fine; it never reopened.  The premises has remained empty, looking increasingly sad and abandoned, ever since.

We’ve now heard that there’s a planning application for a change of use (application number 2018/1201), seeking to convert it back from a bar/restaurant to its original use as a shop – and, in an interesting development, the application suggests that if this gets the nod it’s set to become a branch of the Co-op again.

This feels like a welcome and relatively uncontroversial development – after all, this was a shop (indeed, a Co-op) before, the Co-op are generally respectable and not a troublesome neighbour, and a new business here could help the vitality of this section of the street.   It also counteracts the trend for shops in this area to convert to cafes and nail bars / hair salons, keeping some balance overall to the retail.  It follows a fair few recent openings by the Co-op in the area (Wandsworth road petrol station, Battersea bridge, Clapham south, two branches on the same day in Wandsworth town centre a few years back).

We’d welcome your thoughts on this.  Bear in mind that at this stage, the planning application is purely to ‘officialise’ the change of use – any details on changes to the premises to accommodate a supermarket, and what (if any) conditions would be attached, will no doubt be part of another planning application down the line.

(September update:  plans are confirmed and work is now underway)

Redevelopment of the former Clapham Junction Medical Practice building at 263 Lavender Hill has revealed a long-lost sign for the Pearl Assurance Co Ltd.

Perhaps more surprisingly Pearl still exists and is very much a going concern, albeit now called  Phoenix Life Assurance Limited – it’s now one of the UK’s largest insurance providers.  Originally founded in 1857, they were called Pearl Assurance between 1914 and 2005 so it’s hard to tell when this old sign dates from.

The Clapham Junction Medical Practice, by the way, is also still in business but – seemingly faced with an end of lease (they’ve been based here since 1982 – 35 years!) – has moved all activities to its other site at Farrant House on Winstanley Road.

And the new rent for this relatively large (1,155 square foot) retail unit, in case you’re curious, is around 37,000 pounds a year.

The streetscape work by Wandsworth Council to repave the remaining length of Lavender Hill is proving to be pretty much what we were hoping for, with decent quality work now nearing completion.

The new slabs are a smooth ground finish (rather than straight concrete) which should prove more durable and stay reasonably clean.  As part of the works the original granite kerbs have been realigned, and the existing cast iron bollards have been somewhat redeployed in a more logical arrangement, and the scruffy seating area east of BAC has had a few repairs to make the steps at least safe.

Rumour has it a few new trees are on the way along the central stretch of the street as well, which should – with the smarter and more consistent paving – make this a rather more attractive environment for pedestrians.

Slightly surprisingly, the rather scratched and dented guardrail (that’s TfL jargon for pavement railings) at the eastern end has been kept – the general thinking is now very much to remove these where possible, as their net effect on safety seems to be negative.  Maybe this is because there are steps at the other side, and it makes sense to prevent people starting to cross if they can’t access the pavement opposite, but it seems a waste of limited pavement space.

Reassuringly, in most cases the privately-owned shop forecourts that aren’t already restaurant terraces are also being repaved (by agreement with landowners) – in either small block paving or a few cases tarmac.  All in all a decent effort that has rather transformed the appearance of some sections of Lavender Hill.  We’re still optimistic that the dead end streets at the eastern end can be improved further, and that some of the pedestrian crossings at the side streets can be much improved – but this is a very good start.