Environment Update

By Quetta Kaye

Forest Hill station forecourt
General chasing — no, not a little-known military personage, but what has been happening over the last few months, which resulted in a meeting of interested parties (but without a representative of the Forest Hill Society) being held at the station the last week of July. It seems things are beginning to move in the right direction regarding the partial closure of the Forest Hill station car park. If finally approved this will mean a trial closure of the WH Smith side of the car park to allow pedestrians safe access, unimpeded by vehicle movements, with the hope that, if the trial goes without incident, we can then have permanent closure. In anticipation of positive action, we have applied for small grant funding from Lewisham’s Creative Change Fund to be ready to transform the area into a ‘parklet’ as soon as the go-ahead is given — with any luck later this year.

Good news, too, that following a complaint made in September 2020 (which apparently ‘went off the radar’) the collapsed wall in the forecourt next to the pavement is now on the books to be repaired. There is no news, however, on the repair or removal of the hulking loo despite representations to Lewisham Council.

The return of the plant life!
Weather-wise the extremes of hot, then wet, then hot, then wet again throughout spring and early summer have really stimulated plant growth this year, as can be seen in the luxurious greenery in parks, gardens and planters across Forest Hill.

But at Forest Hill station, two days before the judge came to inspect for the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ competition, the white rose overhanging the underpass had reached record measurements, the ‘danger’ hydrangea was in massive full bloom — and then they were cut down and removed, along with all the herbs in the herb container, when a decision was made by some unknown person that in order to tarmac the garden area on platform 1 ‘to relieve the rat problem’ all the plants should be destroyed.

An apology from Arriva for the removal of the plants which we had provided has been received by the Forest Hill Society, and some monetary compensation offered. Undeterred, as the picture below shows, volunteers have already been at work to regreen the area. Small planters have been replaced, the large herb container refilled, and as soon as new planters arrive, they too will be restocked. Meanwhile our wheelbarrow has been stolen from the platform 1 ‘secure’ gated area which had been left unlocked!

Clean air?
Have you ever wondered what the air in your neighbourhood contains? This picture was taken following the annual change of a filter in an air intake sited in the second floor flat of Frobisher Court, some 50 metres from Sydenham Rise — and opposite a park. Imagine what the air quality for someone actually living on the south circular road is!

Can you help?
Volunteers are always needed to support for the Forest Hill Society’s environmental work whether with our planting efforts, litter picking, adding street trees to our area, or to join in our campaigns to protect Forest Hill’s green spaces. Our work towards improving our air quality and our environment generally will continue in 2021 and 2022. No previous experience is needed, so please contact quetta @ foresthillsociety.com.

Marvellous Greens & Beans

By Nicola Johnson

Opening a new business is a risk at any time. Some would say opening a business in the height of a pandemic and the middle of a lockdown is not just risky, it is crazy. Yet this is what three guys from South East London did. And over a year later, Marvellous Greens & Beans has become part of the fabric of Honor Oak Park.

Marvellous Greens & Beans are business partners Mat, Mattia and Berouz. Now in their early 30s, they are childhood friends. Mat and Mattia met as toddlers, then when Mat met Berouz at college, he introduced him to Mattia and the trio was formed.

They agree that growing up in South East London can be challenging for young men, but with their solid friendship and the values instilled in them by their families, they kept out of trouble. They fondly recollect hopping into their car for mini-adventures, driving for miles and parking up to embark on hikes through woods to find lakes and other landmarks they’d pinpointed on Google maps. Even back in those days, they would excitedly discuss going into business together, mulling over gaps in the market and Unique Selling Points, but their ideas never quite translated into actions and they each embarked on their separate careers.

Mat studied business, moving into hospitality and building a CV packed with managerial experience at London hotels. Meanwhile, Berouz worked his way up to managerial positions in the short-term rentals industry and Mattia worked for 10 years for an autism charity. Whilst on their individual career paths, Mat and Berouz started families and the trio remained firm friends. Then, in early 2020, Covid-19 struck and Mat and Berouz lost their jobs in the hard-hit hospitality sector. Although Mattia’s job was not affected, he was on hand to support his long-time friends, and the trio came together and reframed the pandemic challenges as an opportunity to finally fulfil their childhood dream of going into business together.

Passionate about great coffee, their aspiration was to open a coffee shop. But they realised the market was saturated and that it would be difficult to come up with a concept that stood out. They were attuned to the collective desire, resonant at the start of the first lockdown, to support communities and individuals facing restrictions and isolation, and the idea of a bespoke fruit and veg box delivery service was born. They then decided to open a shop too and invest in a top-notch coffee machine in a nod to their original intention.

When the unit on Brockley Rise came up, they jumped at the opportunity — they’d seen how Honor Oak had transformed over recent years and they instinctively felt it was a great community to invest in. It took just two weeks from getting the keys to open their doors, doing the entire fit-out themselves whilst being welcomed by locals passing on their daily lockdown walks, who’d heard about the shop via street WhatsApp groups and community Twitter accounts.

They quickly established themselves as a business selling good quality fruit and veg at competitive prices and, of course, great coffee. But it’s their congeniality and personal touch that makes them really stand out. When you visit Marvellous Greens & Beans, you feel amongst friends. The boys say it was important to them to place their personal values at the heart of the business, and they’ve done just this.

Touching stories abound of them surprising customers with impromptu deliveries or complementary coffees when they’ve heard that someone’s experiencing a challenging life event. Involvement in community initiatives has been a priority from the outset — they donate to FareShare, are in partnership with Lewisham Food Bank, fundraised to provide fruit to Stillness School pupils, and give out free fruit during the morning school run. Their creativity was showcased when they organised fun, interactive window displays and activities at Halloween and Christmas, to the delight of their younger customers.

Another Unique Selling Point is their fruit and veg box delivery service, which differentiates itself by its flexibility, again reflecting Marvellous Greens & Beans’ commitment to personalised customer service. They cater for weekly subscribers and one-off purchases and provide customers with as much freedom as possible — you can choose whatever you want, however you want it, with next day delivery for orders placed by 10pm.

Going into business with friends is undoubtedly challenging, but these guys have the most solid of friendships and an impressive ability to transmute challenges into growth opportunities. And growth is the name of the game for Marvellous Greens & Beans — with the opening of their second shop on Grove Vale in East Dulwich on 1 July, we ask them where they see Marvellous Greens & Beans in 5 years’ time. They say the dream would be to have at least a couple more shops, with a family of staff that embraces the trio’s ethos, whilst expanding their uniquely flexible delivery service beyond South East London and continuing to be involved in community projects.

Marvellous Greens & Beans is open weekdays from 8am to 7pm, and on weekends too. Next-day delivery is standard for all orders placed by 10pm.

72 Brockley Rise, SE23 1LN
https://www.marvellousgreensandbeans.com/
Twitter: @MarvellousBeans

Taste of Greek, 63 Dartmouth Road

By Rob Owen

Greek cuisine is, at its best, a combination of simple ingredients, prepared in traditional style. The mainland and islands offer a wide range of local variations and dishes, but in each Greek town there are thriving local grills offering the reliable staple of fresh, spiced and grilled meats, served with salad, chips and homemade tzatziki – reasonably priced and with no silverware in sight.

In recent years, Taste of Greek’s owner Andreas (Andrew) studied the techniques and ingredients of such grills across Athens, with a view to bringing the best of this concept to London. Luckily for us, Andrew found suitable premises in Forest Hill’s Dartmouth Road.

In March 2021, along with his supportive parents, Andrew began serving classic gyros and skewered meats (kanonaki) in Forest Hill. In typical Greek style, there was no major opening event, but rather a steady focus on sourcing and preparing the best Greek food around — and working efficiently to meet the growing peak-time demand.

Taste of Greek has become available for delivery on all major fast-food ordering platforms, but we also recommend stopping by to collect your order from time to time — to witness the dedication and craft that goes into the perfect gyros.

Taste of Greek is open from noon to 10pm each Friday through Wednesday.
63 Dartmouth Road, SE23 3HN
https://tasteofgreek.co.uk/order-now

Me and Mr. Jones

by Jason Kee

Last November a new business, Mr. Jones Watches, opened at 61 Dartmouth Road in a unit once occupied by the Forest Hill Supermarket.  

Glimpse inside through the coloured shutters and you’ll see a bright and airy workshop with a team of artisans leaning over tables surrounded by an array of small tools. If you’re really lucky you’ll see Stanley in the window, the owner’s dog keeping a close eye on local shoppers. Our new arrival is only open by appointment, but a look at their website shows off a collection of the most ‘unique and unusual’ watches. The designs range from the colourful and fanciful to the monochromatic and macabre. But with names like ‘a Perfectly useless afternoon’ and ‘the Promise of happiness’ you feel each must have their own story, perhaps just as mysterious as some of the watch movements themselves.

Mr. Jones is Crispin Jones and on one hot summer day (there have been so few) I met up with Crispin for a chat about this new business, watches and his unusual journey from artist to watchmaker.

Mr. Jones Watches’ new Forest Hill location was born of necessity. With customers from around the world, many of them collectors, Crispin found himself in need of more space after 13 years of operating in the Oxo Tower and Camberwell. Now living in Honor Oak Park, Crispin and his partner Amy had fallen in love with the area. Saturdays included visits to Dartmouth Road, lunch at Aga’s Little Deli and visits to the many independent stores. So when the shop at 61 Dartmouth Road became available they had no qualms in buying it. This was followed by a complete refit with part of the rear turned into a double height space bringing it lots of natural light and perfect for a new workshop for their exquisite watches.

This is their third location. Mr. Jones Watches first opened in a small unit in the Oxo Tower in 2009. Crispin describes this as the smallest unit in the building but from there he assembled his watches and sold them to the public. After repatriating production to London from China around 2012, they opened a dedicated workshop in Camberwell. This Forest Hill location was intended to house their entire team, but business has been good and now they plan to keep both Camberwell and Forest Hill operating along with the store in Bankside.

Crispin did not start out as a watchmaker. His undergraduate degree at Kingston University was in sculpture through which he developed a fascination in Photoshop (then a new design tool) and in graphic design. His output focussed on the documentation of imagined pieces through photography. A Masters at the Royal College of Art in computer-related design encouraged him to look at the social function of technology. In his own words, this was a ‘playful’ way to look at the world using technology and the interface with it. Following graduation, he began work with Phillips Design (of shaver fame) and for IDEO London — a multi-national design and consulting firm.

It was while with IDEO, in the early 2000s, that he created ‘Social Phones’, an exhibition of mobile phone designs that forced users to be more aware of their environment. This included a phone for people who spoke too loudly (think Dom Joly), delivering an electric shock to the user dependant on how loudly the person on the other end was speaking. Another recreated the phone as a musical instrument with the numbers ‘played’ to dial the phone.

This led naturally to Crispin’s next project, an exhibition of watches designed to question the function of the watch itself. He produced seven designs, among them Fallax, a lie detector and Summissus a watch to remind the wearer of their mortality. The exhibition and these watches were a success and gave Crispin an international profile.

While a success, Crispin also found the process unsatisfying. The watches were one-offs and while provocative in their function, they were simply exhibition pieces. He began to imagine a watch that was both unique in its design but affordable in price. It is here we see the fine artist with a computer design degree become the watchmaker.

In 2006, Crispin’s first five watches were all self-designed. Some drew inspiration from past exhibition work, like the Summissus — now re-created as ‘Remember you will die’, this has become one of his best sellers. By replacing the conventional hands with transparent disc hands, he was able to explore designs that step away from traditional watch faces allowing the face itself to be an integral part of the movement. Today the watches move between the macabre to the sublimely beautiful.

At first Crispin designed his own watches. Often the designs did reference mortality. As he himself noted, timepieces by their nature offer a narrative on death. After four years, he began to collaborate on designs, where his collaborators were people with a connection to time. For instance, a collaboration with Graeme Obree, A Scotsman who twice held the world hour record in cycling.

Today most of Mr. Jones Watches’ new designs are realised through collaboration. Many are from artists known to Crispin, though some originate through unsolicited submissions. This includes their best-selling watch ‘A perfectly useless afternoon’ which came from working with Kristoff Devos, a Belgium illustrator and author. Keeping with the theme of ‘time’ and storytelling, this watch serves as a gentle reminder to take it easy and spend time enjoying the moment.

Britain once had a clockmaking industry, but after the war, much of this art was lost to the Swiss and then the Chinese. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that Crispin’s journey to watch making was unconventional.

His first attempt to manufacture came by randomly contacting Chinese manufacturers, finally finding one only requiring a minimum order of 500. After visiting the manufacturer in China in 2012, he became confident he could shorten the design process by printing the prototypes in London. By bringing this process in-house, Crispin also discovered he could introduce more colour, texture and affects. He found he could create a scene inside the watch face, and the time becomes part of it.

Today all the watches are designed AND produced right here in London including in Forest Hill. This makes Mr. Jones Watches a very rare business today. Watches are still designed in small production runs, but the printing is now done in house and by the hand of artisans. Crispin continues to create a few new designs each year, with the most popular joining the permanent collection.

Speaking with Crispin it is very clear he is passionate about his watches, proud of the design collaborations and their accessibility to the public. These are truly unique artworks, designed and produced right here in Forest Hill, and enjoyed by customers and fans all over the world. When it comes time to buy a gift that special person, be it a friend, a loved one or even you give some thought to a Mr. Jones Watch. After all, a timepiece is timeless.

61 Dartmouth Road, SE23 3HN
https://mrjoneswatches.com/

Pantry, 14 Perry Vale

By Rob Owen

Opened in April on Perry Vale, Pantry is a bright and airy produce shop and coffee bar run by husband and wife team Niya and Septembre.

Offerings include seasonal British produce from London and the South East. There's a vibrant vegetable selection and daily-fresh doughnuts and pastries, along with a range of natural wines. Excellent coffee comes courtesy of Herne Hill roasting company Press.

Septembre is working up a schedule of collaborations with other local outfits, starting with a pop-up oyster bar from Rocks Oysters in Dulwich. Details of these events are shared on Pantry's Instagram feed.
Pantry is open weekdays from 8am, with late opening until 10:30pm each Wednesday through Saturday — perfect both for your morning coffee or evening purchase of a great bottle of wine.

14 Perry Vale, SE23 2LD
https://pantryforesthill.co.uk
Instagram: pantry_foresthill

Review of 2021 in Forest Hill

By Claus Murmann

I’m sitting at my desk reading former chair Michael Abrahams’ 2019 AGM invitation where he announced he was standing down and also the impressive list of achievements throughout his 8-year tenure. A few months after that he tapped me on the shoulder saying the Forest Hill Society was looking for a new chair, would I be interested. Long story short, here I am another year later wondering how time could fly by so fast during such an unprecedented period. Thanks to everyone for the friendly welcome aboard.

Firstly, I hope that everyone has managed the pandemic as best they could. It’s difficult to say “hope you’re OK” because I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected in one way or another. For the Forest Hill Society it has perhaps also been more subdued; we haven’t been out much, have partially met as an executive only once all year in person and have had to conduct all our meetings across subcommittees on this thing called Zoom, which most of us hadn’t heard of a couple of years ago.

So, what have we been doing during a year mostly in lockdown? We break down the Forest Hill Society into four committees; Environment, Planning, Transport and Communications. We also organise popular community events and activities as well as engaging in wider local issues such as our response to the draft Lewisham Local Plan.

Environment
Quetta leads our Environment team. She keeps Forest Hill Society involved in various outdoor pursuits, with volunteers engaging in activities to enhance the green spaces around the town centre including the Forest Hill Station and town centre planters. These are regularly spruced up and watered by volunteers, we even have help from the lovely people at London Energy Garden, and more recently we’ve been talking to the Horniman Gardens team about picking up surplus plants to redistribute around the town planters (rather than buying our own) — win-win for everyone. Volunteers are always welcome to help with planting. It’s fun, fresh air and sociable! There’s more about the environment team on page 11.

Planning
The Planning team look at many of the larger planning applications which might affect Forest Hill, regularly investing time and effort into making considered responses both in support of and against various projects. We get many emails asking for advice, comments, or support with various local issues. Notable progress also includes supporting neighbouring societies with opposition voiced about the Mais House proposals on Sydenham Hill and opposition to 5G mast proposals specifically on public land where they would block pavements for pedestrians.

Lewisham Local Plan
We wrote a long response to the council’s proposals contained in their Lewisham Local Plan (available for review on the website). This was fairly involved and consolidated a lot of work and thinking around the Town Centre redesign plans including site allocations, public realm issues, cultural and environmental concerns and of course another opportunity to mention the flight path issue. In general, the Town Centre proposal is something that I hope will pick up steam again as we begin to emerge from lockdown as it has been difficult to get people together on a virtual round table to engage and plan. We’re expecting a response to our response towards the end of the year, so we’ll see what if any impact this has had.

Transport
We’re actually looking for a Transport committee chair so volunteers are welcome — speak to me before the AGM. It’s been a tough year to progress things here: we’re aware of concerns still outstanding about the Perry Vale crossing as well as the crossing in front of the station. We had tried late last year to discuss this with both local councillors and representatives from TfL with a somewhat disheartening Mexican standoff of responsibilities and who owns what in terms of governance and oversight (quite an eye opener in terms of local government function I have to admit). Generally, the message was along the lines of “we have no budget to do anything anyway, even if we wanted to”, applied both to TfL and the Council.

We’ve had questions about traffic and speeding around the area, mostly from residents bounded by the area around the Dartmouth Road and Honor Oak Road which include some popular ‘cut-throughs’. At the suggestion of the council we spoke to Sustrans who offered to run a consultation for a not insignificant amount of money which we had to politely decline. My impression is that the pandemic has thrown a spanner into the works, from everything TfL budget related through to council workers being reallocated to deal with more urgent public health and safety matters. Any kind of consultation on LTNs looks a way off. I should probably reiterate that in this regard we’re facilitating a discussion and not campaigning.

On a brighter note I wanted to highlight the on-going excellent work by Tim and John on flightpaths and airspace redesign by continuing to highlight the issues and tirelessly challenge the airports to address the issue of flight corridors in the skies right above our heads. It was recently even picked up by our MP, Ellie Reeves.

Events & Communications
Our year began with the AGM in October 2020. For the first time this was held virtually, following the trend of most meetings during the pandemic. While we missed the in-person social aspect, this allowed more people to participate and we were very grateful to have Ellie Reeves MP as our special guest. Ellie updated us on her role as an MP and local area issues in which she is actively engaged.

This year the Horniman Museum has kindly agreed to host our AGM in their Pavilion. We’re also pleased to announce that Lewisham Mayor Damien Egan will be our guest speaker. I’m really looking forward to this as it will be great to meet and greet everyone in real life.

All of our events were held virtually over the last twelve months. This included two history presentations. The first centred on a history of Forest Hill, first created by local historian Steve Grindlay, and updated by our vice-chair, Michael. The second was a history panel where we had three excellent panelists who talked about their personal experience of living in Forest Hill, including stories about surviving second world war bombings and businesses long gone but not forgotten.

We hosted two quiz nights. The summer lockdown quiz in July and the Christmas quiz in December included both seasonal and local questions. Thank you to Andy and Gary who organised and compered these events.

Importantly both quizzes raised several hundred pounds for the Lewisham Foodbank which supported families and children in need during the pandemic and beyond. We also organised a collection drive for old laptops, to be refurbished and were donated to a very happy and grateful local school. Special thanks to John for all the work on this.

This year we were not able to organise carol singing in the town centre, but we had a bumper crop of Christmas Trees, with the Forest Hill Society taking particular responsibility for the tree at Forest Hill station, which was decorated by Lee Jackson (a.k.a. Mr Christmas).

We continued to use social media including Facebook, Twitter and occasionally Instagram to promote local events, provide local information and to support local businesses. Our #ShopSE23 highlighted the many local businesses that continued to serve us during lockdown, and promoted their services and wares leading up to Christmas. Thank you for all those the businesses who used our campaign and to our followers who amplified our posts. Thank you to Jason for his work on this.

We also produce two newsletters per year and the March edition was one of our largest. We also produce a monthly e-newsletter and encourage all to sign up for these through our website. Once again thank you to Michael for his editorial work and to our many contributors. Should you wish to contribute an article let us know.

As the world returns to some sort of normality, we are looking forward to organising more events in-person. Keep an eye out for more announcements.

And finally…
Thank you all for staying involved with the community and helping to make Forest Hill a nicer place to live, work and play. Please do stay engaged, email us or get in touch on social media with feedback, ideas or comments. We hope to see many of you at the AGM on 13th October at the Horniman Pavilion.

Gin Tasting

Friday 24th September, 7:30pm.
The Forest Hill Society has teamed up with Subplot 57 to bring you a taster of Gin.

Charlotte Rose — Gin Judge, Gin Blogger and Gin Festival Organiser will introduce us to the world of Gin, including three gins for £10 at Subplot 57 — beneath Leaf and Groove at 57 Dartmouth Road.

Due to social distancing places are available limited and advanced booking required. Please book early via Eventbrite at https://tinyurl.com/FHGin21

Children's Book Sale at Forest Hill Library

Saturday 11th September, 10am-4pm. Outside Forest Hill Library; a fundraiser for the community library. 

Come along to choose from a range of donated children's books and help support Forest Hill Community Library.

Jerk Cookout is Back

As part of the 696 festival of Black music in south London, the Horniman Museum is hosting the Jerk Cookout, a family-friendly food and music festival on Saturday 31st July.

Back in 2009, this proved to be possibly the most popular event ever hosted in Forest Hill. With over 20,000 people attending the event it was a little too popular for a small park!
This year's event will be much smaller and will require tickets to be booked in advance. Adults £13.56, concessions £8, under 16s go free.

To find out more and book tickets, visit:
www.horniman.ac.uk/event/the-original-jerk-cookout/

Planning Application: 59-61 Dartmouth Road

The Forest Hill Society has written to object to a recent planning application at 59-61 Dartmouth Road

 
I am writing on behalf of the Forest Hill Society regarding the proposed development at 59-61 DARTMOUTH ROAD, application DC/21/121195: The construction of an additional storey at 59-61 Dartmouth Road, SE23 together with an additional storey on the existing rear projection at No. 61, a four storey enclosed stairwell to the rear of No.59 and rear dormers to provide a 5 person HMO, 1x two bedroom and 1x three bedroom self-contained units and all associated works.

Recently we have been made aware of aspects of this application that we cannot support, and we wish to register our objection to this application.

 

The plans and application form state that the first floor of this property is an HMO. There is no record of a previous planning application for this change of use in a conservation area, nor is this property registered with Lewisham Council as an HMO. The application states that there is existing permitted use for C4 (HMO) for 131.7m. We believe this to be inaccurate information that significantly changes the nature of this application.

This planning application should be considered with reference to Lewisham Local Plan DM policy 6

DM Policy 6 - Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs)

1. The Council will only consider the provision of new Houses in Multiple

Occupation where they:

a. are located in an area with a public transport accessibility level (PTAL) of 3 or higher

b. do not give rise to any significant amenity impact(s) on the surrounding neighbourhood

c. do not result in the loss of existing larger housing suitable for family occupation

 

The conversion that has already been made (without planning permission) has resulted in the loss of an existing larger housing suitable for family occupation. There have also been numerous reports by neighbouring residents and shopkeepers of anti-social and criminal behaviour in and around the existing HMO.

 

The addition of two units above a poorly managed HMO would make it unsuitable for families due to the existing anti-social behaviour, as a result there continues to be a net loss of family housing on this site, which goes against planning policy.

 

For the reasons set out above, we would encourage Lewisham Council to refuse this planning application.