Photos from Roots and Shoots Apple Day 2010 - Autumn is here

The changing of the seasons is easily missed in a large metropolis such as London.  In Kennington, during autumn, the leaves take the same course from the trees as they do in the countryside.  It just seems easier to miss the seasons it if you spend three quarters of your week cooped up in an office (as I do).  But Roots and Shoots Apple day always makes me feel as though autumn has arrived properly...  Except, of course, that today was so warm, that you might have missed the autumnal cheer had it not been for the apples.  This post forms the second part of a belated series started in 2009 on "Reasons I love SE11".  Apple Day really is a great opportunity to meet local people, and do something a little bit different.

Whilst we're on the topic of apples (and cider), you should all go and take a look at Sid Boggle's post on beer in Kennington.  That, of course, was a failed attempt at word association, just to promote his blog post about Kennington beers, but do take a look any way as I think he'd appreciate comments from local piss-heads (erm, beer appreciators etc).

In the meantime, I want to share with you the miles of wonderful apples I saw today.  I bought one of the "Pitmaston Pineapple" variety, but I'm afraid I lack the developed sense of taste possessed by wine appreciators (and apple describers too).  It was delicious, but just tasted  like apple :

A bathing falcon and a cat.  No, it's an owl.  Or maybe it's a cat.  Today I learned that any owl with yellow eyes is diurnal (awake during the day), although the eyes on this one are hard to see on account of the fluff:

The falcon mid-launch.  We were treated to a fantastic display of falcon flight and owl handling.  The falcon was considerably better behaved:

The apple trees pictured (top) are dwarf trees that only grow to 6 feet, and are thus possibly suitable for a balcony (my main growing arena).   The dwarf variety labelled "Cellini" is apparently local to Vauxhall:

Naturally, I could neither resist the lure of the barbecue nor the apple juice.  The fuzziness of the barbecue is due to the smoke from the sausages.  The leaves on the wall were as lovely as they appear:

The woman in charge of the corn dolly instruction was great, and the children looked to be having fun.  Example corn dollies can be seen in the photo just below.  The chap at the bottom was at Roots and Shoots representing Solar Aid, a charity that is working to enable local entrepreneurs in the developing world to build and sell solar powered products under a franchise named SunnyMoney.  Their solar products eg. lights and phone chargers should reduce CO2 emissions and benefit the people who buy and sell them (they're much safer than kerosene lamps).  

I'm guessing that the solar people were present on account of the fact that the electricity in Roots and Shoots is generated, in part, from solar panels.  I also had a chat with a guy representing SolarCentury, a company that install solar panels and photovoltaic cells on private houses and on behalf of Housing Association.  If you install photovoltaic cells on your roof, they'll take between 7 and 12 years to pay for themselves.  They will last at 100% capacity for about 25 years, but will continue on at 80% until they eventually decay and need to be replaced.

You can't beat locally sourced food.  As you'll likely be aware, I can never resist photographing cupcakes.  The food from Arfa's kitchen was absolutely delicious.  If you see Arfa around, I recommend sampling her chicken curry:

Apple day always offers an opportunity to purchase bulbs and seeds.  I didn't buy any tulips, but I'm hoping for a crop of Lambeth-produced daffodils and crocuses in spring, and the Lambeth Horticultural Society (with whom the Kennington Gardens Society is affiliated) were very helpful in giving instructions about how to plant and look after the bulbs:

That's all folks, until next year...

Another accident on Kennington Park Road and accident on Camberwell New Road. Traffic chaos.

There was another accident this evening on Kennington Park Road (just opposite Kennington tube station) at about 19:40, involving three cars, a Volvo, a Renault and another unidentified car.  The driver of the Volvo had to be cut out of the car, and the roof was removed (similar to the accident last week on 30th September).  There were no fatalities, but the accident in SE11 was serious.

Another accident also occurred at some time this evening (approx.18:00) on Camberwell New Road near to Taximedia and the southern entrance of Kennington Business Centre between a motorcyclist and a small car.  A neighbour reported that the motorcyclist flew across a car and on to the pavement.  Unfortunately, the motorcyclist was killed and the fatality has been confirmed by police.  A witness photographed the police's arrival.

Due to the above accidents and another unconfirmed accident in Peckham (possibly this was the one on Albany Road / Urlwin Street), and the earlier accidents in Elephant and Castle (at least one motorcyclist fatality on New Kent Road), buses were diverted and traffic chaos began at 16:00 (estimated time of New Kent Road accident) and is still ongoing late this evening.  There was also a person under a train at Charing Cross, which closed off the Bakerloo line during rush hour, and a gas leak on Kennington Park Road near to Magee Street.  The traffic chaos that ensued caused much of South London to come to a halt.

If you have further information about any of the accidents, please feel free to comment.

The standard of driving in South London is atrocious, but four accidents

Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park bulb planting and gardening (of the non-guerrilla variety)

There's a fantastic park, just over the SE11 border, named Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park.  It opened in 1934 and was dedicated to the "struggling mothers of Southwark", see here.  Many people, I suspect, probably just consider it to be part of the grounds of the Imperial War Museum.  As a park managed by Southwark Council, it's fortunate enough to have two full time park rangers, who hope to build on the work started last year to bring extra Spring colour to the park.  This is the part where you come in...

Over the next few weeks, 5000 bulbs will be delivered to the park and the rangers could use some helpful volunteers to plant them all.  Consequently, Sunday 24 October, from 10am – 1pm has been named "Bulb Planting Day".  Anybody wishing to plant bulbs needs to show up on the Kennington Road side of the park wearing outdoor clothes.  You can stay for as long (or leave as soon) as you like.  Gloves will be provided.  I know that Spring feels a long way off, but the reward for taking part in this activity will be an amazing display of colour next year, and you can't beat the pleasure that comes from back breaking hard work, right?  In any case, voluntary projects are a great way to meet local people and contribute to making London a better place to be.  I wonder whether any of the regular Tweetup/bloggy people might be interested?

Roots and Shoots Apple Day on Sunday October 10th (this week)

Roots and Shoots (Walnut Tree Walk, SE11 6DN) are holding an Apple Day this Sunday, from 11am - 4pm.  I've been to a couple of these over the last couple of years, and they're always offer a great way to experience a taste of the countryside in central London. 

It's a fun day for all of the family, and there's plenty of activities for both adults and children.  There's usually a chance to watch fresh apple juice being pressed, make a corn doll, sample a variety of different types of apple and meet some wildlife (be it bees or owls).  More info at Roots and Shoots website.

VNEB Exhibition - Tideway Wharf - Part 3 of 5 from Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Exhibition

I'm not going to provide any commentary on these (not this week, anyhow), as the Tideway Wharf section of the VNEB proposal is nowhere near SE11 and thus I've no knowledge of it at all.  I've added these boards and models on account of requests to upload the entirety of the exhibition.

Part 1 (Ballymore section) of VNEB exhibition is here.
Part 2 (Lambeth Council section) of VNEB exhibition is here.
Part 4 (Sainsbury's Towers section) of VNEB exhibition is here.

Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea (VNEB) Exhibition - Part 2 of 5 - Lambeth Council

This is Part 2 of a series of posts detailing the photos taken of all display boards at the Vauxhall Nine Elms and Battersea (VNEB) consultation held on 2nd and 3rd October 2010.  This post details the plans displayed by Lambeth Council.  The opportunity area that falls within the geographical region of Lambeth is much smaller than the area that falls within Wandsworth.


You'll see from this map (the purple line indicates the Lambeth/Wandsworth boundary) that all of the developments at Vauxhall fall within Lambeth.  The yellow line indicates the Opportunity Area boundary, so you'll see that the Lambeth VNEB Opportunity area reaches all of the way up to Lambeth Road and includes the entirety of the Albert Embankment.  The Lambeth area also includes the Nine Elms Sainsburys, but does not not include the New Covent Garden flower market:

(Image taken and bodged   from  Streetmap)  

I'm afraid that the following Lambeth Planning images don't include anything that we don't already know about, but they're here for posterity.  I apologise for the slightly odd reflective effect, but somebody from Lambeth is obviously using up the lamination budget:

First up, St George's Tower / Vauxhall Tower.  Vauxhall will be stuck with the ugliest, tallest tower in London at 50 storeys/180 metres (even taller than Strata / The Ladyshave).  Never mind.  As somebody pointed out, the stamp duty paid by residents will fund plenty of Section 106 developments and projects for local people.  The tower represents regeneration, which is generally a good idea in Vauxhall.  Unfortunately, their swimming pool won't be open for public use:

Next up, we have the proposed Vauxhall Island site.  For more on the consultation/plans on that, see over here.  It's 41 storeys/140 metres high, and I can't see these iconic towers being turned down by Lambeth.  I'm not sure when the decision on this is due. The towers have a much more attractive shape than the Vauxhall Tower above and the Vauxhall Island site is just a barren wasteland of advertising hoardings at present.  The exciting thing about the Vauxhall Island site is improvements made to the surrounding area in terms of shops, restaurants and pedestrian access:

Vauxhall Sky Gardens was approved when nobody was looking at the beginning of 2010.  It's only 36 storeys, so I'm sure nobody will notice it:

81 Black Prince Road would fit in quite nicely if it were nearer to the Vauxhall cluster of towers.  It's going to look rather odd rising up to 77 metres (23 storeys) at the end of Black Prince Road, which is mostly low rise housing.  I'm not sure whether I photographed the consultation documents (I've wised up over time), but the view from Kennington Cross is horrific.  I'm not keen on the design at all, but I suppose it's a matter of taste:

Nobody really liked the Bondway Tower, except the Lambeth Council Officers.  Here are some of the reasons why local residents didn't want the Bondway.  Despite the Council's refusal, the developer appealed, and a huge public enquiry was held.  I was going to write a series on the Bondway appeal, but I didn't get any further than a post summarising the opening arguments.  I might continue, if anybody expresses interest, but some of this material is mightily dull to plough through.  We should hear a decision from the Planning Inspectorate by December 2010, or January 2011, and I'm guessing that this one might end up being heard by the Secretary of State:

Here's the one I was missing earlier.   It's 20 Albert Embankment and it already has planning permission. I think it might look rather strange, being so tall, neighbouring the other buildings.   At least part of it will be a hotel.  Another hotel:

I commend the enhanced links between Vauxhall and the river, and improvements to Spring Gardens.  I'm hoping that it will mean the abolition of the gyratory and improved cyclist and pedestrian accessibility.  Here's the overall concept plan:

I am amused that the Development Management Development Plan Document (it can't really be called that!), which will be used to assess planning applications, will emerge in early 2011.  I can't imagine that there will be many planning applications for buildings in the Vauxhall part of VNEB left to submit by that time!  I look forward to the site allocations document that will advise where new schools, mosques and health centres might be placed.  That document will also emerge in early 2011:

Finally, here's a quick overview of the "new heart for Vauxhall" that the Council has planned:

So, what's missing...?  We don't yet know what's planned for the Sainsburys site (you'll have to wait for the disappointing 4th part of the series for that, but there's no significant information in the public domain yet). I'm not sure whether there are towers planned for the Market Gardens residential section (it's technically in Wandsworth), but it looked like it from the 3D model, and those will have some impact on Vauxhall.  I imagine that the Texaco garage plans (38 - 46 Albert Embankment) will rear their head again (more info on the old application here).  We're waiting for revised Fire Station at 8 Albert Embankment to be submitted.  1 - 9 Bondway (the new Travelodge) wasn't on display, but it's either considered too small or too new.  There probably wasn't time to laminate it before the ink had dried!  Also, the "new heart for Vauxhall" board above seems to indicate that development will take place on Vauxhall Walk, and the "South East Regeneration Arc".  I'm not sure we've seen submissions for either of these yet, so I imagine that there must be more developers still to consult in Lambeth.

VNEB exhibition Part 1 of 5 - Ballymore can be found here, if you find planning matters thrilling and exciting :-)

Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea (VNEB) Exhibition - Part 1 of 5 - Ballymore

This is Part 1 of a series of posts detailing the photos taken of all display boards at the Vauxhall Nine Elms and Battersea (VNEB) consultation held on 2nd and 3rd October 2010.  This post details the plans on display by Ballymore.  (Yes, this is well outside SE11 territory, but as far as I know, there's nobody else blogging about this part of the world).

Ballymore appear to be developing approx. 15 acres around Ponton Road. The road lies in the heart of the proposed VNEB area.  It falls under the remit of Wandsworth Council, so we've not mentioned it before, but whatever is done with this land is likely to be viewable from parts of Lambeth.  I believe Ponton Road is going to be moved (just shifted along slightly) when the new US Embassy is built:

This plan shows (see the red dotted line) the size of the huge area owned by Ballymore, even once the Embassy Quarter (now sold to the US government) is taken into account.  Note that Ballymore also own Kirtling Street (further down Nine Elms Lane):

I shall reiterate (as I'm tired of doing) that whilst Vauxhall is a fine transport interchange, the tube station is at capacity during peak times.  Note that the Ballymore plans do not mention the proposed new Northern Line underground station:

I commend the idea of improving the railway viaducts and wouldn't contradict the notion that Nine Elms suffers from being "placeless", on account of its industrial use.  I've certainly never met anybody that claims to live in Nine Elms!  I would query where the current industry on this (and the surrounding sites) will move to, since the industrial capacity of the entire new VNEB site will be significantly reduced, despite significant demand for light industrial land:

This double spread plan illustrates part of the difficulty I had in considering the site as a whole.  The area is so large (and there are so many different developers) that it's very difficult to imagine how it will look on one plan.  Without more labels, one has to guess at what the buildings are.  The 3D models (which were present on the day), are more useful for imagining how the eventual new town will look:

I've not commented much on the new US embassy, but I think it's interesting that the embassy is being used as a catalyst for the revival of Nine Elms.  In Mayfair, the US Embassy is hated by the neighbours and is known for being particularly inhospitable (guns pointed through car windows and giant ugly tank traps all over the place), but the new location is being used to transform the way the US government build embassies, which shows some promise.

You can see that item "2" on this plan (you'll have to zoom in) is already ear marked for a supermarket.  I expect now to hear cries of "is is going to be a Waitrose?"!  More exciting is number "8", the proposed new pedestrian bridge over to Pimlico.  Not sure anybody has spoken about funding yet though! I'm intrigued about "17" and how Nine Elms Lane might be a tamed cycling route.  It would be very useful to see a proper cycle plan developed for the entire area.  

I never managed to wade through the last VNEB document (it was about 200 pages long), but I remember that one of the criticisms made at the time was a lack of green space.  I'm not sure that's yet been addressed, but I like the idea of a green park in front of the embassy (the green banks are the well hidden and environmentally friendly tank traps).  When I spoke to the US representative at the Vauxhall Civic Society AGM 2010, he seemed to think that the park would be open to the public.  Some kind of provision has been made for organised sports (see the next board).  I have visions of the moat being used as a boating lake, but I suspect that's going one step too far:

I like the look of this.  My favourite part of the US Embassy discussion (which took place at the Vauxhall Society AGM) is when somebody asked where the protests would take place.  The US embassy had thought about this carefully and pointed out that whilst it would be up to the police, there was plenty of room for protests on the new plaza:

It was difficult to photograph this 3D model, in which somebody must have had to lovingly and laboriously place drawing pins, but I wanted to show absolutely everything present at the exhibition, so here it is:  

This one's even more exciting.  I believe the embassy is due to be about 10 floors high, with one basement level, (that they're admitting to).  If this model is accurate, it looks as though the rest of the development, with the exception of one or two towers will be medium and high rise, but I didn't see any mention of heights on the preceding boards:

VNEB Exhibition - Part 2 of 5 - Lambeth Council
VNEB Exhibition - Part 3 of 5 - Tideway Wharf
VNEB Exhibition - Part 4 of 5 - Sainsbury's Towers

Keeping it real - the reason for the tube strike at Kennington

At the moment, we don't know which tube lines will run or at what times because nobody knows how many staff will strike tomorrow.  Tube strikes are always a nuisance for Londoners.  Listen to the chatter of the ordinary working folk on the buses tomorrow.  They won't see why the train drivers need more money.  There's always somebody who argues that strikes are called to early, and never as a last resort.  Somebody else will argue that they're only paid when they go into work, and that they don't have the luxury of striking.  The current tube strike is not about money though, it's about jobs.  TfL currently employ 4 full time staff at Kennington station.  If the TfL cuts go ahead, only 1 full-time member of staff will be employed at the station, and they'll only staff the ticket office for 3 and a quarter hours each day (during the morning).  If you want to speak to a member of ticket office staff (if the machines break, or you need a season ticket), you'll have to go to the underground ticket office at Elephant and Castle or Oval.  Perhaps you can't see a good reason for retaining so many staff members with the current degree of computerisation.  I'd tend to argue that staff members who know the station are more important for emergencies (eg. fire or terrorist attacks), but then London's only on "severe" threat for a terror alert, so the risk is slight, right?  Arguments can be made in several directions.

One of the members of staff that will lose his job is Paul.  Say "hello" to Paul if you see him at Kennington.  I only know him by sight.  The strikes (in my view) are unlikely to prevent the job losses, so he probably won't be around for much longer as his job (as with the other 2 full time Kennington staff members) is on the line.   I'm not sure I can make a convincing argument about why one particular member of staff should be retained so I'm just putting one name to a face.  When you're on the rammed buses or can't find a Boris Bike tomorrow, don't moan about the strikers, just ask whether you'd be willing to justify the redundancy of an ordinary man named Paul.

When they came for the communists...

Riverside Community Development Trust and Lady Margaret Hall Settlement (LMHS) to form joint board

I know that Lurking about SE11 can sometimes appear rather whingy, so I've decided to share some interesting local news.  The RCDT (Riverside Community Development Trust) and LMHS (Lady Margaret Hall Settlement) have formed a joint committee for the running of their operations.  This looks to be a positive development as it allows them to share buildings, resources and expertise.  Whilst the two organisations will remain separate on paper, they will share the same board members.  The LMHS appear to have rewritten their website, and in a nod of gratitude towards our forebears, (as with the Vauxhall Civic Society website), we'll receive additional access to history and imagery from the LMHS archives in the months to come.

So, what are they up to at the moment?  20 Newburn Street has been leased to Real World UK for the provision of free computer training.  This is a an important project, and (for those with long memories) is how the centre was used when it first opened back in 2003.  I'm a firm believer in digital literacy because without being online, a great many people in our society are simply cut off from information about services (benefits information, train/tube times, community initiatives, bus route changes, holiday deals, money saving deals, council services etc).  The aim of this project is to open the world of employment and training to people who are not confident using the internet or computers.  Once I find out a little more about when they'll be up and running, I'll post the times of the free classes here.

I fear that we're about to enter a challenging time in the UK's history, but I hope we've developed local friendships that might see us through.  We've the Kennington Oval Vauxhall forum to form an umbrella which should feed views from all local organisations to Lambeth Council.  There's the new Vauxhall Civic Society (who cover the entire Vauxhall constituency down to Brixton and Clapham), the stalwart Kennington Association (open to anybody who might claim to living anywhere near Kennington), the combined RCDT/LMHS, more friends groups than you could wave a stick at eg. Friends of Kennington Cross, Friends of Kennington Park etc.  I've counted 11 local "friends of" groups.  See if you can identify anybody that I've missed (I've updated a "friends of" post made in September 2008).  Additionally, there's the Kennington Gardens Society (now with a new section on their site so that you can ask them questions), the Onion Shed folk, intent on greening North Lambeth, the Kennington People on Bikes (KPOB) keeping an eye out on cycling and safety in the area...  What more could we want? 

I have a theory that people committed to the community attract more people committed to the community.  That we've so many local groups demonstrates the commitment of south east Londoners to look out for one another.  Such networking and community spirit will be essential over the next few years (and are arguably at the root of maintaining anything that might be described as "civic" society). There is (as far as I know) nothing in the rest of the London blogosphere comparable with the network forged by bloggers in South East London.  Last night's Battle of the Blogs being one such demonstration).  The world will look considerably different after PE (Public Expenditure?  Physical Education? Punishing England?) Day on the 20th October.  That's the day the government will outline their cuts. I think we'll need all of our community groups (and more) to coalesce to ensure that the vulnerable on all of our patches still receive some semblance of service.  If the Big Society / Co-Op vision ever comes to fruition, we'll need our friends and neighbours more than ever, because I don't see the State popping in to visit us when we're sick or ensure that our bins are emptied regularly or that we maintain a commitment to recycling and re-use.

Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall are all great areas to move to if you're looking to be involved locally, be that in committee work, gardening, bike projects or Tai Chi.  I often complain that central London can be an isolating place, but the people that runs the committees, hold the meetings and get their hands dirty all help to build the links we need to make us a community and not just another Zone 2 location.

Proposals for a new Vauxhall hotel at 1-9 Bondway and 4-6 South Lambeth Place

The excerpt from the plan above has been cut and paste from Lambeth Planning Database under the section for Application 10/03151/FUL, "Indicative Facade Section - Bondway".  Copyright Dexter Moren Associates.

My good bloggy commentator, Transport Mark, pointed to a planning application submitted in mid-September for a new 148 bedroom Travelodge in Vauxhall.  (It's 10/03151/FUL in the Lambeth Planning case the link doesn't work).  The first submission was invalid for some reason, but now it's definitely back on the table and residents have until the October 20th 2010 to respond.  Salmon Developments Plc own the land, and you can see a vague sketch of how they think the hotel might look on their site here.  Although Salmon plc have suggested the hotel will contain 155 beds, permission has been sought for only 148.

The application has been submitted for a 6 storey (and additional lower ground) building which would comprise a hotel with bar/restaurant, along with a variety of commercial units (retail, financial services, restaurants/cafes and drinking establishments) as well as a "roof level plant".  (I'm presuming that's some form of machinery).  It sounds as though they've hedged their bets somewhat, hoping for a complete range of planning permission for different types of establishment, but it looks the type of application that could be amended were they unable to find a particular type of tenant.  The hotel makes a change from the high rise proposals, which is good.  I imagine they'll have to replace what's currently in place, so it doesn't make sense to build up. I vaguely wonder whether there's a risk of over-hotelling, considering the level of hotel building currently taking place in Waterloo, but no doubt these companies know what they're doing!

There's currently a budget Comfort Inn hotel in Vauxhall, but it's some distance from the tube down South Lambeth Road.  There's a Park Plaza at 18 Albert Embankment (quite close to Lambeth Palace).  Lambeth Council granted planning permission for a new 168 bedroom hotel at the Oval (eventually, once the area was deemed "safe").  A hotel will form approx. half of the lower portion of one of the Vauxhall Island Site buildings (see here).  And I've this vague feeling that we had another hotel proposal suggested for Vauxhall, but I can't remember where, and I've searched my archives with no success.  Anyhow, none of the proposed hotels are huge, so there's probably no reason that the hotels can't happily co-exist.

I can't think of any reason not to support this application, although I'm wondering whether the proposal includes the land currently occupied by the Big Issue offices.  I don't think I'd be thrilled to stay in a hotel opposite Vauxhall bus station, (maybe they'll open up the South Lambeth Place side too), but I think retail units opposite the bus station would perform well and improve the area no end, and you can't beat the transport links!