The photo above - click on it to see a larger version - shows workers clearing out the shop fittings from the recently permanently closed store The Works last Tuesday afternoon. The Works is merely the most recent in a long series of retailers to abandon Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. The centre has already lost the Mambocino Cafe, Barclays Bank, Wilco, Shoe Zone, Argos and a couple of small independent shops including a hairdresser and a tattoo studio in Pier Road. Although I find this hard to concede, it does seem that the shopping centre is not very far off its' last legs. The demise of the UK high street shop has been a significant and complex phenomenon that has unfolded over the past few decades. The term "high street" typically refers to the main commercial and retail street in a town or city, where a variety of shops, restaurants, and other businesses are located. The decline of high street shops in the UK can be attributed to a combination of economic, social, and technological factors: - The rise of E-Commerce: One of the most significant factors contributing to the decline of high street shops is the rapid growth of e-commerce. Online shopping platforms, like Amazon and various online retailers, offer convenience, a wide range of products, and often competitive pricing. Consumers can shop from the comfort of their homes, making traditional brick-and-mortar shopping less appealing for many. Changing Consumer Behaviour: Consumer preferences have shifted towards more convenient and personalised shopping experiences. Online shopping offers features like personalized recommendations, easy price comparisons, and hassle-free returns, which have led consumers to opt for online retailers over physical stores. Rising Costs: High street shops often face high overhead costs, including rent, utilities, and staff salaries. As operating costs have increased, some smaller businesses have struggled to remain competitive with larger retailers and online platforms that can take advantage of economies of scale. Business Rates and Regulations: Business rates, a form of property tax on commercial properties, have been a burden for many high street businesses. These rates can be particularly challenging for small and independent retailers, contributing to financial difficulties and closures. Out-of-Town Retail Parks: The development of out-of-town retail parks and shopping centres has drawn customers away from traditional high street areas. These larger shopping destinations often provide ample parking, a wider selection of shops, and a more comprehensive shopping experience. Urbanisation and Transportation: Changes in urban planning and transportation infrastructure have also played a role. As cities have expanded, people's shopping habits have shifted to areas that are more easily accessible by car or public transportation, potentially diverting foot traffic away from traditional high streets. Digital and Contactless Payments: The adoption of digital and contactless payment methods has made transactions quicker and more convenient. However, some high street shops were slow to adapt to these changes, potentially leading to a loss of customers who expect modern payment options. COVID-19 Pandemic: The pandemic accelerated the challenges faced by high street shops. Lock downs, social distancing measures, and health concerns limited foot traffic in physical stores, leading to revenue losses for many businesses. During this time, e-commerce saw a further boost. None of these factors bode well for the traditional high street.
Mystery has surrounded the former Flynn's Bakery in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere for several years. The bakery has been closed and empty since around 2018, when I understand the bakery owners retired. Since then the shop has been unused. I am aware that a couple of enquiries from potential new operators were made, but these apparently came to nothing. Recently works to refurbish the interior of the building have been observed; it is thought that the new owner is converting the former bakery into a small restaurant. From the planning details I have seen, the restaurant will only have around twenty covers. Rumours circulating are that the restaurant will either be a fish or Italian one. If you have any information relating to this subject, then please email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
Bexley Fire Brigade Update - From Jim Morford, Borough Commander for Bexley, London Fire Brigade. "Our Firefighters have been very busy working on our community engagement and prevention programmes over the summer. By attending community engagement events such as the Armed Services Day in Welling High Street recently we have been able to promote our home fire safety checker https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/the-home/home-fire-safety/home-fire-safety-checker-hfsc/. I am pleased to say that Bexley Residents are amongst the highest users of the Home fire safety checker, please do pass on the above link to family, friends and neighbours it really will save lives and only takes about 10 minutes to complete. This can also give you some peace of mind if you have young adults in your family who are attending university and living away from home for the first time, run through the checker with them when you drop them off at their new digs. As cooking is a risk for students living away from home for the first time I have included some safety tips you may want to pass on to them. Don't leave cooking unattended on the hob or grill – if you must leave the kitchen, turn off the heat. If you're very tired, have been drinking alcohol or are taking medication that might make you drowsy, it's safer not to risk cooking. Loose clothing can easily catch fire, so take care not to lean over a hot hob, and always keep tea towels and cloths away from the cooker and hob. Try to keep the oven, hob, cooker hood, extractor fan and grill clean – built-up fat and grease can ignite and cause a fire. Double check the cooker and hob are turned off when you’ve finished cooking. Check toasters are clean and not placed under kitchen cabinets or close to anything that can catch fire. Never put anything metal in the microwave. Our community engagement work has been backed up by our officers’ providing presentations to the Women’s Institute and a number of religious groups. Our firefighters have been actively working to prepare for incidents in the Borough's heritage buildings to ensure salvage plans are in place. They have also been working with premises that have repeated unwanted fire signal calls to provide advice on how to stop a fire alarm from activating without good reason. This has seen a 20% reduction in us being called to false alarms. This is important work because not only does it stop us from attending a false alarm it also stops people from becoming complacent should the fire alarm sound for a real emergency. We have attended many incidents in the past where the fire alarm has activated correctly but people have ignored it because it has sounded many times before. Community engagement and prevention work is vital for us to spread our fire safety message and forms a regular part of our work. If you have a community group that would like to have a presentation from one of our officers about fire safety or the fire service in general then please contact us by using the following link https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/contact-us/".
Today marks the 145th anniversary of a terrible tragedy which took place on the River Thames near Plumstead. Among the darkest chapters in the Thames' history is the Princess Alice disaster of 1878, a catastrophic incident that claimed the lives of over 600 people and left an indelible mark on the city. The Princess Alice was a pleasure steamer that plied the waters of the River Thames, catering to the leisurely pursuits of Victorian Londoners. These paddle steamers were a common sight, offering people a chance to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy a serene voyage along the iconic river. The Princess Alice, like many others, was a popular choice for day trips and excursions, especially during the summer months. On the fateful day of September 3, 1878, the Princess Alice set out on a routine voyage. The ship had been chartered for an evening cruise from London Bridge to Gravesend and Sheerness, a journey that would take passengers down river, providing them with scenic views and a pleasant evening on the water. Little did anyone aboard know that this ordinary excursion would soon turn into one of the deadliest disasters in Thames history. As the Princess Alice made its way downstream, it encountered another vessel, the SS Bywell Castle, a larger cargo ship bound for Newcastle. In the pre-dusk hours, near the treacherous waters of Gallions Reach off Plumstead, disaster struck. On 3 September 1878 Princess Alice was making what was billed as a "Moonlight Trip" from Swan Pier, near London Bridge, downstream to Sheerness, Kent, and back. During the journey she called at Blackwall, North Woolwich and Rosherville Gardens; many of the Londoners on board were travelling to Rosherville on the outskirts of Gravesend to visit the pleasure gardens that had been built 40 years before. As the London Steamboat Co. owned several ships, passengers could use their tickets interchangeably on the day, stopping off to travel on or back on different vessels if they wanted; for tickets from Swan Pier to Rosherville, the cost was two shillings. Princess Alice left Rosherville, Gravesend at about 6:30 pm on her return to Swan Pier; she was carrying close to, or possibly over her full capacity of passengers, although no lists were kept, and the exact number of people on board is unknown. The master of Princess Alice, 47-year-old Captain William Grinstead, allowed his helmsman to stay at Gravesend, and replaced him with a passenger, a seaman named John Ayers. Ayers had little experience of the Thames, or of helming a craft such as Princess Alice. Between 7:20 pm and 7:40 pm, Princess Alice had passed Tripcock Point, entered Gallions Reach and come within sight of the North Woolwich Pier—where many passengers were to disembark—when Bywell Castle was sighted. Bywell Castle usually carried coal to Africa, but had just been repainted at a dry dock. She was due to sail to Newcastle to pick up coal bound for Alexandria, Egypt. Harrison was unfamiliar with the conditions, so employed Christopher Dix, an experienced Thames river pilot, although he was not obliged to do so. As Bywell Castle had a raised forecastle, Dix did not have a clear view in front of him, so a seaman was placed on lookout. On leaving Millwall, Bywell Castle proceeded down river at five knots; she kept roughly to the middle of the river, except where other craft were in her way. Approaching Gallions Reach, Dix saw Princess Alice's red port light approaching on a course to pass starboard of them. Grinstead, travelling up the river against the tide, followed the normal watermen's practice of seeking the slack water on the south side of the river. He altered the ship's course, bringing her into the path of Bywell Castle. Seeing the imminent collision, Captain Grinstead shouted to the larger vessel "Where are you coming to! Good God! Where are you coming to!" Although Dix tried to manoeuvre his vessel out of a collision course, and ordered the engines to be put into "reverse full speed", it was too late. Princess Alice was struck on the starboard side just in front of the paddle box at an angle of 13 degrees; she split in two and sank within four minutes—her boilers separating from the structure as it sank. The Princess Alice, a wooden vessel, was no match for the iron-hulled SS Bywell Castle, and the collision caused the pleasure steamer to rapidly take on water and sink, as can be seen from the contemporary illustration above - click on it to see a larger view. The passengers and crew aboard the Princess Alice were faced with a terrifying scramble for survival. The suddenness of the disaster and the lack of proper safety measures contributed to the high death toll. Many passengers, unable to swim or navigate the strong currents of the Thames, were overcome by panic and drowned. The crew of Bywell Castle dropped ropes from their deck for the passengers of Princess Alice to climb; they also threw anything that would float into the water for people to hold. Other crew from Bywell Castle launched their lifeboat and rescued 14 people, and crews from boats moored nearby did the same. Residents from both banks of the Thames, particularly the boatmen of local factories, launched vessels to rescue who they could. Many of the passengers from Princess Alice were unable to swim; the long heavy dresses worn by women also hindered their efforts to stay afloat. Princess Alice's sister ship, Duke of Teck, was steaming ten minutes behind her; she arrived too late to rescue anyone left in the water Only two people who had been below decks or in the saloon survived the collision; a diver who later examined the saloon reported that the passengers were jammed together in the doorways, mostly still upright. About 130 people were rescued from the collision, but several died later from ingesting the heavily sewage, chemical polluted and foul river water. Princess Alice sank at the point where London's sewage pumping stations were sited. The twice-daily release of 75 million imperial gallons (340,000 m3) of raw sewage from the sewer outfalls Abbey Mills, at Barking, and the Crossness Pumping Station had occurred one hour before the collision. In a letter to The Times shortly after the collision, a chemist described the outflow as:- "Two continuous columns of decomposed fermenting sewage, hissing like soda-water with baneful gases, so black that the water is stained for miles and discharging a corrupt charnel-house odour, that will be remembered by all ... as being particularly depressing and sickening". The water was also polluted by the untreated output from Beckton Gas Works, and several local chemical factories. Adding to the foulness of the water, a fire in Thames Street earlier that day had resulted in oil and petroleum entering the river. The murky waters of the river made rescue efforts challenging, and the tragic scene was one of utter chaos. Reports came in of corpses being washed up as far upstream as Limehouse and down to Erith. When bodies were landed, they were stored locally for identification, rather than centrally, although most ended up at Woolwich Dockyard. Relatives had to travel between several locations on both sides of the Thames to search for missing family members. Local watermen were hired for £2 a day to search for bodies; they were paid a minimum of five shillings for each one they recovered, which sometimes led to fights over the corpses. One of those picked up was that of Grinstead, Princess Alice's captain. Because of the pollution from the sewage and local industrial output, the bodies from the Thames were covered with slime, which was found difficult to clean off; the corpses began to rot at a faster pace than normal, and many of the corpses were unusually bloated. Victims' clothing also began to rot quickly and was discoloured after immersion in the heavily polluted water. Sixteen of those who survived died within two weeks, and several others were ill, and suffered life changing injuries as a result. The aftermath of the Princess Alice disaster was a scene of devastation and grief. The tragedy reverberated throughout London and beyond, as news of the disaster spread across the country. The loss of life was staggering; Between 600 and 700 people died, all from Princess Alice, the greatest loss of life of any British inland waterway shipping accident. No passenger list or headcount was made, so the exact figure of those who died has never been known. The victims included men, women, and children from various walks of life, adding to the profound sense of loss and sorrow. The disaster also highlighted the need for improved safety regulations on the river. The lack of lifeboats, life vests, and proper emergency protocols aboard the Princess Alice exposed the vulnerabilities of these pleasure steamers and prompted calls for reform. The inquest into the marine collision came to the following conclusions:- "That the death of the said Captain William Beachey and others was occasioned by drowning in the waters of the River Thames from a collision that occurred after sunset between a steam vessel called the Bywell Castle and a steam vessel called the Princess Alice whereby the Princess Alice was cut in two and sunk, such collision not being wilful; that the Bywell Castle did not take the necessary precaution of easing, stopping and reversing her engines in time and that the Princess Alice contributed to the collision by not stopping and going astern; that all collisions in the opinion of the jury might in future be avoided if proper and stringent rules and regulations were laid down for all steam navigation on the River Thames. Addenda:- We consider that the Princess Alice was, on the third of September, seaworthy. We think the Princess Alice was not properly and sufficiently manned. We think the number of persons onboard the Princess Alice was more than prudent. We think the means of saving life onboard the Princess Alice were insufficient for a vessel of her class". As a result, regulations and safety measures for passenger vessels on the Thames were revisited and strengthened to prevent similar tragedies in the future. The Princess Alice disaster of 1878 is a chapter in London's history that should never be forgotten. It serves as a reminder of the importance of safety regulations, emergency preparedness, and the need to respect the power of nature.
The controversial White Hart restaurant in Erith High Street has been awarded a one out of five star "Scores on the Doors" health rating after an unannounced inspection by Bexley Council on the 9th of August. The restaurant, which specialises in Nigerian cuisine, promotes itself as an upmarket, aspirational venue; indeed from the cars often parked outside at night, it would seem to attract an affluent clientele. The news of the poor health rating cannot do any good for the business, which has one of the priciest menus of any food outlet in the local area. Some of the prices - especially of the drinks - seem quite eye watering. What do you think? Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
Some weeks ago, I published a story about a forthcoming new model from Crayford based car manufacturer Caterham Cars. The new model is to be their very first electric vehicle. More details on this ground breaking sports car have now become available. Specialist performance car magazine Evo describes the Caterham Project V thus:- "The new model will be rear-wheel drive and be powered by two battery packs: one in front of the rear axle and one under the floor in the front foot wells. Having initially favoured an extruded and bonded aluminium structure, Caterham is now looking at a blend of aluminium, carbon fibre and glass fibre due to the significant weight saving it offers. The quoted weight is 1190kg (with fluids); power is 268 bhp, and performance projections are 0-62mph ‘in the low 4s’ and a maximum of ‘above 230 kph’ (143 mph). According to Bob Laishley, Caterham’s CEO, prices will start at ‘under £80k’. There’s undoubtedly space in the market for a car like Project V. We’ve seen announcements of many £1 m, 2000 bhp EV supercars but arguably no genuine sports cars since the Tesla Roadster. The Alpine/Lotus EV project collapsed earlier this year, which was good news for Caterham’s ambitions, though Porsche looks likely to deliver its EV Cayman and Boxster in 2025, which will be a concern. We suspect the Porsches will be a little more mainstream: a bit heavier, a bit more everyday-biased. So it rests with Caterham to hit its bold weight targets, find the right power train partner and deliver a unique EV: one that is ‘lightweight, simple and fun to drive’. If they manage that, we reckon it will be a winner".
Wetherspoons put The Wrong Un in Bexleyheath Broadway almost precisely a year ago, in September 2022; it was sold to a currently unnamed new owner in June of this year. At the time of the sale - and to this day - it is unclear as to what the fate of the pub will be. It is still operating as a Wetherspoons at the time of writing. Personally I have my doubts as to whether the site will continue as a pub. Apart from the frontage - show in the photo above - click on it to see a larger version - there are absolutely no windows in the bar area, which has to use artificial lighting at all times. It does not strike me as a particularly attractive venue, although it does still seem to be popular with a large number of people.
The end video this week is a bit of local history. It features a Thames News report from an attempted armed robbery that went wrong at an industrial facility on Shooter's Hill back in the Summer of 1987. The armed robbers were ambushed by Police and shots were fired, resulting in two of the criminals being killed. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
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