Featherstone Co-Housing Open Day

SATURDAY 27^th JULY 

FROM 2PM – 5PM

1 Eliot Bank SE23

Featherstone Cohousing is situated at the top of Eliot Bank, near the junction of Sydenham Hill and Kirkdale. It is a large Victorian lodge with large grounds which could provide 33 spacious self-contained apartments and houses. 

Members of Featherstone Cohousing are holding an Open Day - a chance for you to look round the lodge, the site and the proposed plans for the first cohousing community in South London.

You will be welcome to talk to members of the community about their vision for establishing an ecological community that encourages independent living whilst sharing common spaces, social activities and extending them into the community.

Royal Horticultural Society Review of Forest Hill Edible High Road

The Edible High Road in Forest Hill got a very positive write up in Grass Roots, the magazine of the Royal Horticultural Society.

  

Celebrate Independents' Day

The Americans may celebrate their independence on July 4th, but we're celebrating our independent traders.

As part of their Totally Locally campaign, the Forest Hill traders are running a Fiver Fest which will see thirty of them running special offers over the weekend. Pop into your favourite shop to get a copy of the flyer which has details of all the offers, or download it now.

Planned improvements to Forest Hill Station

We have just heard from LOROL that they are planning some upgrades to Forest Hill's station to cope with the growth in passenger numbers. The works they are proposing include a number of alterations as follows:

• An extra ticket gate to be installed in the ticket hall.
• Open-up two existing windows into doorways on the entrance to the ticket hall, and onto the platform.
• Install DDA access ticket window
• Improve the lighting

Now, if only we could have a decent looking building too...

July Food Fair - Sunday 7th July from 11am

Great food from local producers and retailers.
Wimbledon men's final begins at 2pm, so come early if you are planning to see a British victory in the tennis!

Second Forest Hill Fashion Week

There will be a second Forest Hill Fashion Week (FHFW) this autumn (20-25 September), and they are looking for local fashionistas to get involved right now!

This time they are doing it in association with the Horniman Museum, who are creating a whole Fashion themed ‘Museum at Night’ event for it. The catwalk shows will be held in Gallery Square, with a fashion market in the Conservatory and lots of other fashion-related events and displays, including static fashion shows.

That's just one evening of course. Over the following few days there will be Fashion Fun all around the Forest Hill shops and venues plus another all-day fashion market.

September will come around very quickly indeed, so this is what they are looking for right now:

• Local designer-makers to submit their collections for consideration for the catwalk/static shows.
• Local fashion/textiles/accessories experts, teachers or enthusiasts to run or host an event/workshop either at the Horniman event or in the high street.
• Ideas for fashion events/workshops that you would love to see.
• Market traders selling designer-maker fashion products.
• Models for the Horniman catwalk show.
• Advertisers and sponsors for their website, brochure or FHFW generally.

For more information and contact details, visit their website, foresthillfashion.com. In the meantime, do put 20-25 September in your diary, subscribe to their newsletter and like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter or do both.

Friends of Mayow Park meeting

Are you a regular in Mayow Park? Would you like to find out more about activities and developments there? If so, the Friends of Mayow Park would like to see you at their General Meeting at 7pm on Tuesday, 9 July.

The meeting will be held at the Dacres Wood Nature Reserve Field Centre, which is a single storey building located up a driveway off Dacres Road, between Homefield House & Catling Close. The Field Centre is accessed through gates at the end of the driveway and turn left into building.

View Larger Map

They are particularly keen to invite regular park users including dog walkers, sports groups, young people aged 16+, parents of young children and others to join them. For more information email: friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Chair’s Report - June 2013

It has been a busy three months for Forest Hill Society. Events like the 'Edible High Road' and the Food Fair take a lot of organisation behind the scenes and we are very lucky to have such a dedicated group of volunteers who give so willingly of their time for everyone's benefit.

We would like to do more. However, we need more helpers to make this happen. We also need new ideas and views to keep the Society fresh and proactive.

For example, we would like to extend the planters to the Perry Vale side of Forest Hill station and down Honor Oak parade, but before we do that, we need to make sure that we have enough volunteers to weed, water and tend to them; I do not want the planters to become neglected due to placing too many demands on too few people.

We're also looking for more volunteers to help deliver, write and design this newsletter. Each delivery route takes about half an hour – why not volunteer? It's only four times a year.

The Planning committee are working on a master plan for the future of Forest Hill, particularly the redevelopment of the station area and also looking at the regeneration of Kirkdale. The previous masterplan is now ten years old and many of its recommendations have been implemented so it needs updating. What changes would you like to see?

If you would like to learn more or have an idea which will make a difference in the community, then please drop an email to richard@foresthillsociety.com

Summer Walk on the Pool River - Sunday 21st July

Back in 2011 we had a thoroughly enjoyable walk from Bell Green to Ladywell along the rivers Pool and  Ravensbourne. Two years later we are doing it again.

Despite starting behind Sainsbury’s in Lower Sydenham, this is a remarkably pleasant walk suitable for walkers of all ages.

This year’s walk will take place on Sunday 21st July at 11am. The walk starts at the entrance to the Riverview Walk, opposite the Railway Tavern on Southend Lane (356 goes from Forest Hill Station). We will follow the river through Catford and on to Ladywell Fields, returning back to Catford where walkers may wish to partake in refreshments at the Catford Bridge Tavern.

The walk will take 1½ - 2 hours.

Start point: Bell Green, on Stanton Way, between Sainsbury's Petrol Station and the Southend Lane bridge. Map at http://bit.ly/q9Dt7I 

SEE3

The Portas pilot continues to have a positive impact on Sydenham, Kirkdale and Forest Hill.
Recent SEE3 activities include the Makers Market outside the pools and various activities by the Artists in Residence, Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta. Freed from the restrictions of running a community hub, they have been busy running two NESTs* at St David's Coffee House and the Algae Opera and Metamorphosis Factory on Havelock Walk. Hopefully you had the chance to enjoy these investigations into the future of the High Street.

Meanwhile it's Sydenham's turn for the Pop Up treatment with “Pop Goes Sydenham” - a series of evening events, street art, club night and four pop up shops opening in the high street over the summer. The first of the Pop Ups opened on 18 May at 167 Sydenham Road (just down from The Dolphin) with contemporary jewellery and interiors brand Gunpowder Cherry Pie and vintage furniture and clothing company Flash Trash.

The evening events will include supper clubs through the summer at Blue Mountain. Tickets can be purchased online at www.GrubHub.com/Pop-Goes-Sydenham. There will also be a community party at The Dolphin on 13 June.

Despite the initial projects of SEE3 coming to an end, with the contracts for the Markets Coordinator, Hub Coordinator and Artists in Residence drawing to a close by the end of July, there is still plenty to be delivered. We will be returning to Forest Hill with Jack In a Box (a mobile community hub) and another Pop Up, possibly in October. We are also beginning on the next projects which are focused more on supporting existing traders.

Finally, we are building out the Town Team. It will have four action groups; Community Involvement & Development, Enterprise and Creative, Events Communications and Marketing, Built Environment and the Public Realm, Events Communications and Marketing. If you would like to get involved, please send an email to townteam@see3.co.uk

* NEST is an incubator of ideas, future careers, collaborations and projects.