Mick.

Over the last week I have had a number of readers contact me with their concerns over the redevelopment of the Erith post office site. Many people are concerned about the possible loss of the facility. Consequently, I have been in contact with a number of local councillors regarding the proposed development. I have discovered that Bexley Council have approved the redevelopment plans and the demolition and rebuilding of the site will definitely be going ahead. It would appear that the post office will be relocated during the building works to a unit within Erith Riverside Shopping Centre with the option that once the work is completed they will be able to return to the ground floor of the new apartment block which will have a couple of retail units in it. This is a bit of a mixed bag as not only will the current operators of the post office be able to continue in business and service to the local community but it will create additional income for the the shopping centre which is still somewhat under tenanted. I understand that the Howells and Harrison pharmacy is also relocating from its historic location in Pier Road on the edge of the shopping centre to a unit within the gates of the shopping centre and thus creating a greater rental income for the operators of it. The pharmacy is one of the longest serving retail units in the centre of Erith, having been in the same location since roughly 1969. I have been told privately that it is likely that the post office will stay located in the shopping centre even after the residential tower block is built as it is closer to the centre of the town and likely to attract more business because of this. Although I understand that negotiations between the post office operators and the shopping centre, landlords is not complete and still undergoing discussion. Nothing is certain at this stage, although it would appear that the post office will continue locally in some form. The current location is somewhat worn and scruffy, but the operation of the post office is extremely efficient and very well used and as I have previously written; it will be a major blow to the town if it was completely removed, as it also functions as the only bank and cash handling facility in the area. There have been concerns additionally that if it closed, it might mean a bit of a black hole in the local area for postal facilities. I understand that the post office in Lower Belvedere has closed through lack of business, so that the only ones are in Upper Belvedere in Nuxley Road and then in Bexleyheath. I am aware that overall the post office is suffering from major problems, as it is used by many fewer people nowadays as so much mail traffic now goes by email and by social media. You can see the official announcement about the redevelopment of Erith post office here:-"Post Office Tower block opposed by local councillors. Erith Councillors Chris Ball and  Nicola Taylor told the Planning Committee on Thursday 13th November that Erith deserves better. The plan put forward by Bexley Co to develop the Post Office site into 33 housing units will see the demolition of the grade II listed building with only part of the iconic round wall of the former Post office depot being retained. Cllr Ball told the committee "The plan lacked imagination; the commercial units were not needed, with the focus needing to be on decent homes, that people can afford with somewhere to park. Shops need to be focused on the shopping centre". Cllr Taylor said the plans showed that the council is ignoring our heritage and the needs of residents who have expressed their opposition to the plans via social media.  She said "We need affordable homes so that residents can live in the area they grew up in and our Heritage assets preserved". The plan was approved with councillors with only two votes against". 

A reader sent me the period photo above some years ago, which looks like it was taken in the late 1970's or thereabouts. It shows Station Parade - the row of shops which used to exist in Bexley Road, opposite Christ Church Erith. The shops were demolished to allow the construction of Bronze Age Way, the dual carriageway that leads to Lower Belvedere, Thamesmead and Woolwich. I dimly recall the parade - there was a newsagent, an off - licence (which had a reputation for serving under - age customers), an estate agent and a "greasy spoon" cafe, which was run by a rather dodgy bloke who was the uncle of someone I went to school with. My schoolmate would sometimes visit the cafe at lunchtime to get a free fry - up, but I seem to remember he had to go round collecting dirty plates and cups for his uncle afterwards. I never actually went in there myself. So much of old Erith has been destroyed over the years; this is the reason that so many residents, including myself are so keen on preserving the little that is left. 

Matthew Yates - Head of Investment Planning at Transport for London published the following announcement on Friday:-  "We have launched a consultation asking for feedback about our proposals to make changes to the main roads linking Thamesmead to Woolwich and Abbey Wood, and would like to hear your views. The proposals include new bus lanes, improvements to bus stops, new pedestrian crossings and cycling facilities. These changes are intended to make using public transport, walking and cycling a more attractive option for people travelling to, from and around Thamesmead. You can find full details and have your say by visiting haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/Thamesmead-proposals and completing our online survey. You can also email us at haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk. The consultation is open for eight weeks and will close on 15 January 2026".

I feel a rant coming on; I have not had one for quite a while – but there is a subject I feel is hiding in plain sight – so called “Clickbait” – websites that exist only to get as many visits as possible to increase the rates that they can charge for online advertising. You often find photos at the bottom of the page on some relatively otherwise reputable websites with titles such as “Hurry up before this video gets banned”, “Eat this and never diet again”, “Rich people try anything to ban this”, “Diet trick that melts fat like butter” and so on. You will have no doubt come across these many times before. You also get what appear to be ads personally directed at yourself. These have titles like “Moms in Dartford earn $30 an hour” – it does not take a genius to work out that an automated script on the web server looks at the I.P address of the incoming page request, does a basic lookup of the I.P address and where it is geographically located, then inserts the name of a nearby town to try and attract your attention. Obviously the word “Mom” instead of “Mum” and the dollar rate quoted give the game away. Clickbait is a pox on the web – if people did not click on the stories, the companies who ran websites like Timetobreak.com and Healthymumdaily.com - two sites that have re-branded and relaunched under new identities when their scams were uncovered and publicised - would go out of business. Not only do they fill your browser with annoying animated adverts, but some pages have code that hijacks your browser and takes you to other unwanted sites – Healthmumdaily.com also used to market expensive, untested and quite possibly illegal diet pills and “miracle” slimming aids to gullible people with more money than sense. There are numerous new click bait sites, but I will not give them the oxygen of publicity by naming them. What amazes me is that these click baiters have used exactly the same techniques to elicit visits to their tawdry websites in exactly the same way for years; it seems like the techniques still work – as soon as they post an announcement along the lines of “you have to check this out before it is banned” (they love using the threat of something posted online being “banned”) – as to who or what could actually ban something is left unsaid for the reason that the whole thing is blatant tosh designed to farm clicks to create advertising revenue. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The area has been crippled by the lack of cross - river link for decades - the Dartford River Crossing is almost permanently congested, and in any case is a rather long detour for local trips. What many people do not realise is that until relatively recently, there was another way of getting across the River Thames locally. Back in the 1980's, the Ford ferry from Lower Belvedere to the Ford car plant in Dagenham was in regular use; I can recall that several school friends had relatives who worked at the massive automotive factory, and who used to do the twice daily commute across the River Thames to go to and from their place of work. The ferry became a minor local landmark that had started back in 1933 when the Ford works was a relatively new creation. It used to make up to fifty trips across the river every day; each trip would take a little less than ten minutes, and many commuters found it to be invaluable. Ford paid the ferry costs, and the free trip was considered a perk of the job for Ford workers who lived on the South side of the river. When Ford ceased to make complete cars at Dagenham back in 2002, they converted the factory to make engines and gearboxes which were then transported to other Ford factories around Europe to be installed into vehicles made elsewhere. Ford senior management then decided that in order to cut costs, they would terminate the contract with the ferry operator. There was a great deal of opposition to this move, and it took a further two years, and a court case before the ferry service stopped running in February 2004. A free bus service was subsequently laid on by Ford, which had its pickup point in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. This bus service then used the Dartford Crossing to get to Dagenham, and was regarded by its users as slow and unreliable when compared with the ferry service. Now the Ford factory employs far fewer people than it did in its heyday, and it does not dominate the local area in the way that it once did.

As has been widely reported in the popular press, including the BBC News and the KentOnline website, former local resident Sir Mick Jagger visited Dartford in order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Mick Jagger Centre which is attached to Dartford Grammar School for Boys. If you are not aware of this particular facility. It is a mixed arts centre, open to the general public which hosts music, dance, visual arts and other creative enterprises, and is extremely popular. Sir Mick was a former pupil of the school and now sponsors the arts centre. If you visit platform 2 at Dartford railway station, you can see a blue plaque which commemorates the place where he and Keith Richards first met before they became part of The Rolling Stones, and formed a legendary songwriting partnership. Dartford does not celebrate this as much as Liverpool celebrates The Beatles, but nevertheless it is part of artistic and creative history that one of the greatest bands in the history of music was born in a local town. Photo above which you can click on to see a larger version shows a statue of both Mick and Keith which now exists in Dartford town centre.

The end video this week discusses  the fate of the few remaining BT public telephone boxes, how now that most people have personal mobile phones, many of the phone boxes have become redundant, and are either being removed, or being repurposed. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.