Dead Shops
Can't you just see YOUR lovely shop here?
Just for an albeit sick kind of laugh yesterday, I decided to count the dead shops along Trafalgar and Woolwich Roads. It was a depressing experience. It wasn't an easy job. Some shops are so dead that it's easy to miss them totally, blanking them out in your mind. Some are actually just about still alive but are so tatty I almost took them for empty. Some I couldn't tell where one shop ended and another began. For the record I counted along what can be at most a third of a mile, 33 empty premises. THIRTY THREE. Now albeit I'm counting a couple of gigantic ex-offices which are total eyesores and the Caffrey's joint but really - that's terrible.
It wasn't always so grim. The place must have buzzed once - only a few days ago I met a guy on Romford Market selling dress fabrics who said his old shop had been on Trafalgar Road. He said that the rents, the traffic and the lack of footfall drove him out.
There's such opportunity here. With all the new builds coming - at the horridly-named "Selection" (how much precious and expensive time did it take the marketing company to find the letters "SE10" in a word, I wonder) and its rather bizarre unnamed opposite number (am I the only person that thinks it looks like a bunch of portacabins stacked on top of each other?) not to mention whatever goes into the Old Hospital site, there are going to be loads of new people moving in - all of whom will need to buy stuff.
There's one shop in particular I've had my eye on for some time. My next door neighbour and I fantasise about setting up a really good quality cafe and cake shop a la Buenos Aires in the old Wavy Line store (see above) It's a fab little shop - with a side entrace for vans/ horses and carts. I have no idea what it's like inside as it's got filthy windows and net curtains and it seems to have been shut for ever, but it must be similar to the others which are a fair size. It was recently painted (probably part of the little push to brighten things up a bit round East Greenwich)and it wouldn't take much, I'm sure, to make it really exciting.
It's also got those lovely coloured ceramic tiles either side of it, nearly intact and little cast iron 'parapets' above the side entrance. There are several shops down this road with fabulous little quirks and flights of fancy, often in a dreadful state of repair or even painted over in vibrant colours (see the little obelisk-ball things over the newsagents next door to The Old Friends, a pub I won't discuss just now) for a particularly vomit-inducing yellow colour.) I've never understood why shopkeepers don't cherish these little bits of decorative history the way that homeowners have started to. I can only hope the trend back towards keeping original detail within homes will start to permeate the retail emporia of historic towns...
Together my neighbour and I dream of having lovely mis-matched furniture - squashy old sofas and wooden tables and chairs, proper crockery and good quality coffee (Union Roasters, natch...) The cakes would be under big glass domes and very much of the homemade variety - you know the sort of thing. My own favourite addition would be a secure buggy park in the back bit where the vans used to go so that there would be lots of room for pushchairs. There are plenty of schools and nurseries around - I'm sure there would be the clientele - and the rents must be dirt cheap for shops shut for so long, but I really can't do it.
Anyone who actually knows me will tell you that I haven't the temperament - I have patience neither with regular hours nor the General Public. I would be the original Grumpy Old Phantom - and would be forced to do a Very Bad Review Indeed of myself.
So my idea's up for grabs, guys. Someone must find the challenge attractive? I'll be a regular customer, and so will my next door neighbour, for starters...
If you don't like that shop there are 32 others to choose from - some in appalling condition; others recently refurbished. I got all excited recently when a shop a few doors up from my dream shop was totally gutted and refurbished - only to find that it had merely been done to give the flat upstairs a separate entrance so it could be let out on its own. The brnad new shop has whitewashed windows and an extremely dead feel to it. Depressing stuff indeed.
In case you don't fancy a coffee shop, here's my East Greenwich Wish List:
What we need:
A greengrocers (though for now the little market stall by Rick's Place is an excellent substitute)
A GOOD bakers (sorry - I just don't count Greggs)
A butchers
A bank
A GOOD QUALITY cafe down Woolwich Rd end
A stationers
A cheesemongers (well, a phantom can dream...)
A lovely sweetie shop (still dreaming)
A fabric emporium (dreaming on)
Anything interesting and quirky
A small Woolworths (sorry - a particularly peculiar personal perversion of mine - we all have our faults, please bear with me, I'm getting therapy)
Oh, and a truly GOOD restaurant.
What we DON'T need
Estate agents
Bookies' joints
Sandwich bars
Dodgy fried chicken shops
Estate Agents
Pizza delivery places
Takeaways - of ANY variety
Tool hire shops
Dodgy electrical appliance shops
Estate Agents
Funeral parlours
Hairdressers - have you SEEN how many hairdressers there are down these two roads? There might even be more hairdressers than estate agents, though at least the hairdressers do a useful job)
Amusement arcades
Tatty pound shops
Strip clubs
Did I mention Estate Agents?
Travel Agents
Recruitment Agents
Insurance agents
Any other kind of agents ESPECIALLY Estate Agents
Perhaps congestion charging will encourage more people to walk along these currently scruffy rat-runs for out-of-town traffic. They could be a valuable local resource. They're currently a depressing experience, but who knows what the future could bring.
Labels: Regional Greenwich, Streets
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
08:55
25 Comments:
I've been holding a shop idea close to my chest lest somebody grab it. Your post made me realise that I don't really have any desire to do it myself, I just want it to exist. Nearby.
When the post office near The Selection changed hands, we had high hopes it would become something a bit more. We were more than a little disappointed when they tore down the shelves, painted everything a fresh coat of the same colour and restocked the same old poundsaver crap on the new shelves. (and what is with those wavy mirrors?)
If the post office were mine, I would have made it a stationers. Of course it would have boxes, envelopes and tape to send off those packages, but there would also be packing peanuts, bubble wrap, a desk with pens, staplers and binding machines. Useful things. (Who runs out of toilet cleaner and MUST dash out to the corner store for more?)
Beyond the utilitarian side, there would be stacks of beautiful papers, vellums, cards one might actually buy, and more than a couple shelves dedicated to handmade cards - pretty kits and racks of Jolee's stickers. A sort of Paperchase for the elderly and less daring.
In the evening, the shop would convert (maybe someplace upstairs?) into a crafters work space. There would be small, intimate classes on card making, stamping, scrapbooking, cropping photos, heck, even quilling. Students - no more than four or five - would sit in chintzy armchairs and work under ample but soft lighting. Cups of tea and plates of biscuits would make the rounds.
Anyone else think it could fly?
Aw - c'mon - you're just teasing now. I ADORE stationers' shops - they are full of such potential.
I agree about the post office. I got all excited for a while - but then realised that the makeover was only going to be half-hearted. When they revealed the original sign I rather hoped they'd keep it - but at least they have only covered it up, not lost it.
Sadly it sounds as though you are like me - you want the lovely shops, but aren't the type to actually do anything about it.
Tut to us, I guess.
If it helps any, I'd be in your fantasy stationery shop every other day...
Dear Andrekabu & Phantom
I think the idea of a PaperChase style shop in East Greenwich is a great idea, it must have lots of craft bits too, maybe PaperChase mets HobbyCraft, people would flock from far and wide (even as far as Westcombe Hill probably!). I had a dream of opening a Bead Shop recently but I digress, I wanted to say that I too would like somewhere for small classes of crafters and I have the space, although my heart is willing my hands are pathetic and I couldn't teach anything, do you know anyone that could? My quilting teacher said I should start a club here but haven't got round to that yet...
I think the time is right for all these ideas. Ok, perhaps not the bead shop :-). As the Phantom says, East Greenwich is definitely on the up and all the 'new' people will need good places to shop. If they are nearby, they will use them, otherwise they will head into central Greewnwich. I hear that Fishmonger Ltd is doing well and that proves that so-called niche shops can succeed in such a location. Believe me, if you had a cool cafe serving cake PLUS a secure buggy park, you would be packed all day long.
Remember Field of Dreams.
I like the idea of the craft-y stuff, though I hate Hobbycraft with a passion - everything in sanitised packets - 1 metre lengths of braid or ribbon which run out just before you're finished and packets of six buttons when you need seven so you have to buy two packs. Tut.
Out of interest, I recommend Romford Market (I know it's a bit of a long way) for good old fashioned stalls - if you ever need to go, I'll give you a list of where you need to go for stuff (trust me - I'm good on that one...)
Yes - as long as they're niche, I really think people will make the effort.
I haven't done any classes at the Greenwich Craft Foundation - they seem to be situated in places like Lee and Honour Oak and at awkward times - but I'd definitely be interested if there were classes held at places nearer - the schools are shut at night, the Forum or the libraries, for example.
We are a bunch of wimps though, aren't we - we all WANT great shops, but don't actually do anything about it. My excuse is that I'm saving everyone from my bad moods...
Running a great retail shop is hard, hard work. (I speak as the offspring of a couple who did just that for many years.) For all the people who love what you have and make the world a pleasant place, there are another ten who want the moon on a stick, yesterday, and for tuppence...
For what it's worth, andrekabu, if you opened a stationery shop I'd come and have a rummage (and I blush to note that I don't actually live anywhere near the promised land of Greenwich)
I'm absolutely with you - that's why I'm not just about to do it myself...
I talk the talk - I absolutely don't walk the walk.
Having said that, I undertake here and now to be one of the first and most regular customers of anyone who starts a truly good, niche shop near me. Especially a cute stationers.
I disagree with the takeaway point, as East Greenwich (actually, the whole of Greenwich) is begging for a decent old school fish and chip shop.
It would be a lot more useful when starving than a cheese shop, which would probably be visited once for the novelty and then forgotten (fishmongers style).
Frankly there are so many dead shops that I don't think we need to actually close any more at all for a while - with 33 to fill I'd say there was room for everyone.
A really good fish and chip shop? Yes - I'd buy that. I guess what I was thinkin about was those terrible Fried Chicken clones...
I actually remember when that shop in the picture was open - it was run by a very old lady, and I guess it must have closed when she died (probably about 1980 or so).
So - has it got potential, then? It looks like it's just waiting to be transformed but I can't really see inside, however much I press my nose against the grimy glass.
I agree we don't need any more rank fried chicken places; out of interest, that is exactly what the previously substandard Indian takeaway Trafalgar Tandori (sic) has now morphed into. Funny it took them 4 months of renovations to achieve it!
So its reopened at last has it? I don't much relish testing that one out. It will go on the bottom of the list for when I'm desperate for things to review. Not desperate yet...
The lights were on inside the old Wavy Line shop when I went past tonight. Didn't seem to be much happening in there - just like the past quarter of a century!
Well - that's sort of positive. I hardly dare say I don't really care what goes in there as long as it reopens as something, since the last time I said that a bookies, lap dancing club and amusement arcade all put in bids...
I'm a fan of the KFC but firmly believe it should be in Church St(with the other 'big name' fast food brands) It's location means it is always strangely quiet, compared to a lot of London KFCs.
The stationers would be ace. Especially somewhere does basic cheap stationery. When I first came to Greenwich in October '06 I really struggled to find cheap envelopes and had to get a kind lady to steal them from her job.
Trafalgar Road is great, long road and it should have a lot more than it does. I notice there were a lot of Afro-Carribean salons but most of them seemed to have shut down. Hopefully 2012 will see some regeneration.
I find it amazing that no one's thought to put a good basic stationery shop near a university. Oh well, there's another gap in the market, folks...
Dead shops. Trafalgar Road. Shops die because people don`t go in them and buy stuff. Trafalgar Road has actually LOST some fine shops recently [ Finds and Laura`s Wardrobe for a start]. I have wanted to open a Lyons Teahouse art deco-influenced cafe [with cards and stationery] for aeons. There are difficulties with SUPPLY of both the victuals and the sundries for a stand-alone enterprise such as this. Unfortunately you could create your beautiful place and everybody would still be chil-laxing next door in Starbucks, lapping-up the Gotan Project and Zero 7 while you twiddle your apron to the Ella Fitzgerald songbook series. Used to be a wonderful cafe/wine bar/cards and gifts shop called Escape[d] on Greenwich South Street...they even allowed corkage[bring your own bottle] towards the end ...long gone dead. Ocean Blue on Trafalgar Road does a very good fish`n`chips but seems to be begging for decent old school punters to actually come through the door. The reason Trafalgar Road never goes `up` despite all this gentrification is because it`s a nasty,smelly main road with narrow pavements...oh, and because not enough folk use the lovely shops during their brief lifespans. On the subject of dead shops you can expect lots more almost everywhere and SOON. Anything that can be sold via Internet will be - and that means even less decent people in the lovely shops that have managed to dare themselves into existence. Oops there goes all the indie bookshops, whither record shops and so on. The retailers` plight isn`t helped by what is generally known as Total Market Rental Values [this is essentially the same as Total Price of your Tichy House] - the recent practice of landlords/agents putting up the cost of retail leases way beyond inflation...just in time for Broadband penetration....guys,guys, there`s an elephant on the boardroom table! It`s all just another `creative synergy`, of course.
There is a weeny shop on the university campus that does stationery and books. There is a brilliant stationers (S B S Printing & Stationery's) just opposite Greenwich Station that is worth checking out. And pop next door to Stitches & Daughters's for some pretty cards and wrapping paper.
I'd noticed SBS but hadn't gone in. I'll have to take a peek, now you tell me it's so good.
No mention of a sausage shop - East Greenwich seemed to go down hill after O'Hagan's closed down.
A sausage shop in East Greenwich would be a fine thing indeed. Consider it added to the wish list. In the meanwhile GG Sparkes is a good substitute...
I now go to Drings on Royal Hill which sell quality sausages - but not up to O'Hagan's standards.
http://www.topsausages.com/history.htm
A shame indeed. Chichester is a bit far to go for a sasuage, though a pilgrimage every so often might make a nice day out...
I remember there was a butcher's shop called Picketts on Trafalgar Rd in the late 70's. He had a particularly ancient freezer with equally moribund and unidentifiable bits of meat hiding in it. It would be so brilliant to have a Sparkes type butchers and deli, surely with the fishmongers it could kick start something.
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