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Herne Hill news, chitter chatter and gossip

Brewing involves a lot of electricity and is capital intensive, idk if this is true of canopy but any breweries with loans is looking at some pretty steep increases in all sorts of costs and it’ll be things like end of leases which cause them to decide to quit.
 
That's a shame. Wonder if their landlord has bumped rent up a bit for next year
Those arches used to be with a private (very hands-off) landlord. They recently sold the head lease back to The Arch Company, who are a lot more commerically minded. Rents have gone up across the estate. Several businesses have already closed or moved. The metalworkers near the entrance gate has had to move to a smaller, grottier arch on the back half of the estate. I wouldn't be surprised if the small car mechanics go next. The area in front of the arches has had all the parking blocked off with big concrete barriers, which must have reduced the number of cars they can work on. Apparently they want to open up the gates at the Herne Hill end (currently used by the big garage on the Half Moon side to move cars between their arches). I suspect further gentrification would follow.

 
Those arches used to be with a private (very hands-off) landlord. They recently sold the head lease back to The Arch Company, who are a lot more commerically minded. Rents have gone up across the estate. Several businesses have already closed or moved. The metalworkers near the entrance gate has had to move to a smaller, grottier arch on the back half of the estate. I wouldn't be surprised if the small car mechanics go next. The area in front of the arches has had all the parking blocked off with big concrete barriers, which must have reduced the number of cars they can work on. Apparently they want to open up the gates at the Herne Hill end (currently used by the big garage on the Half Moon side to move cars between their arches). I suspect further gentrification would follow.

Wasn't there a huge redevelopment proposal / consult for the Bath Estate? Was that the last owners or the current ones?
 
Wasn't there a huge redevelopment proposal / consult for the Bath Estate? Was that the last owners or the current ones?
There was a planning/zoning consultation (which I responded to saying they should keep retail uses out of the arches to preserve them for small industrial businesses).
I'm struggling to understand the implications of this (speed reading isn't my strong point):

Public meeting with Southwark Council on the development of Bath Factory Estate - Wednesday 19th April

"As you may be aware, Southwark Council is at consultation phase over all of the development sites across the borough for the New Southwark Plan. Specifically relevant to Herne Hill residents is the significant piece of land and properties that run between the railway bridge at the bottom of Half Moon Lane and all the way to Rosedale Road, facing onto Brockwell Park as Norwood Road and backing onto the railway line. This area is the Bath Factory Estate and has been highlighted as a development opportunity for further residential as well as commercial properties. You can read more here. The formal deadline for feedback is 28 April."

And the link just takes you to a map:
Herne Hill and North Dulwich - Southwark London Borough Council Consultation Hub - Citizen Space

But you need to click the hyperlink within that ^^ to get to the actual text which seems to be proposing:

Redevelopment of the site must: • Contribute towards the small business cluster in Herne Hill providing at least the amount of employment floorspace currently on the site; • Provide a new link to Half Moon Lane to improve the permeability and legibility of the site; • Provide high quality active frontages at appropriate ground floor locations, including in the arches of the railway viaduct. Redevelopment of the site may: • Provide new homes on upper storeys facing Brockwell Park.
Let me see what actually made it into policy...
 
Here's the relevant pages from the Southwark Plan 2022

southwarkplan-bathfactory.png

They want redevelopment of the shops and pedestrian access from Croxted Road through to Half Moon Lane under the railway, but to maintain the same area of small business use (use classes B and E) on the site. But all that "active frontage" just means higher rents for the sort of businesses that cater to the active frontage shoppers of Herne Hill. Kiss the small industrial businesses goodbye, if there's any left :( Note the complete lack of light blue Protected Industrial area.

Of course this is planning policy not an actual planning application. Who knows how attractive the site actually is to developers>
 
Am I right to presume that it's the same owners now who have kept the refurbished units on the pedestrianised part of Railton Road empty?
 
Anyone else having trouble renewing building insurance round here?

Our existing provider wanted to increase the premium, as is usually expected, but completely exclude any cover for flood damage. With the same broker another wanted to cover flood damage with a a £5000 excess and another company completely exclude storm damage. I called another couple of companies/brokers - similar story, one refused to cover the basement part of the building completely.

I may add we have lived in the same building for 25 years and have never claimed on the insurance, even after the two great Herne Hill floods.
We have returned to an ins broker we used to use and have found cover ok now, but for a while I thought we were uninsurable.
 
Anyone else having trouble renewing building insurance round here?

Our existing provider wanted to increase the premium, as is usually expected, but completely exclude any cover for flood damage. With the same broker another wanted to cover flood damage with a a £5000 excess and another company completely exclude storm damage. I called another couple of companies/brokers - similar story, one refused to cover the basement part of the building completely.

I may add we have lived in the same building for 25 years and have never claimed on the insurance, even after the two great Herne Hill floods.
We have returned to an ins broker we used to use and have found cover ok now, but for a while I thought we were uninsurable.

I have never heard of anyone have a positive experience with an insurer. I had a flood of sorts a few years back, with a burst pipe that ended up flooding my basement. I tried to make a claim to replace the carpet that was in there. The insurance made it so difficult that I ended up deciding not to claim and to buy a dehumidifier and rent a carpet cleaner.

At my next renewal, it said that I had had a loss event and my premium had also gone up significantly. I phoned them to ask why they had done this if I wasn't going to claim and they said that the event was enough for them to adjust my premium.

Therefore, I think it is best to stay as far away from insurers as possible, unless it is something catastrophic that I can't sort on my own.
 
I have never heard of anyone have a positive experience with an insurer. I had a flood of sorts a few years back, with a burst pipe that ended up flooding my basement. I tried to make a claim to replace the carpet that was in there. The insurance made it so difficult that I ended up deciding not to claim and to buy a dehumidifier and rent a carpet cleaner.

At my next renewal, it said that I had had a loss event and my premium had also gone up significantly. I phoned them to ask why they had done this if I wasn't going to claim and they said that the event was enough for them to adjust my premium.

Therefore, I think it is best to stay as far away from insurers as possible, unless it is something catastrophic that I can't sort on my own.
Sorry slightly and edgily out of area -I was unable to get Eagle Star etc to insure me in Coldharbour Lane after the 1985 riots. I was however pleased to discover that FE Wright , a wholly owned subsidiary of Tiny Rowland's Lonrho plc at the time, were happy enough to insure - and if anything cheaper.
[expects ban here]
Imagine my surprise when I heard Lloyd Leon, Lambeth's Mayor and owner of "Mingles" in Railton Road telling exactly the same story on the local news. But then Lloyd was never any more politically correct than me!
 
I’ve been with M&S for years and they’ve paid out three times with no issues whatsoever (for relatively minor amounts). When some stupid kid threw a can of drink through our window they sent someone over that night to repair it. When I claimed to get a ceiling redecorated after water damage from a leaky roof they didn’t even ask for a copy of the quote and I had the money by the end of the day. Similar story when my purse and mobile got stolen.
 
Never found small claims much of a problem. I'm currently two years into my first large claim and it has been a total mare requiring ombudsman involvement 16 months in.

It initially took five months for the insurer's various surveyors to complete investigations (mostly just waiting for their approval to remove floor coverings). They then declined liability for the bulk of damage. On top of this they also got a valuation to prove I was underinsured by 30% and so would reduce any payout accordingly. On this basis they offered me a cash settlement.

It took a further 6 months to demonstrate that their lead surveyor was contradicting himself in various reports and get them to accept full liability (but still subject to 30% underinsurance). We agreed an interim payment but they still wouldn't respond at all on the underinsurance. Five months later the interim payment had still not been received and they still had not engaged with my arguments about the 30% underinsurance. The day after I sent them my Ombudsman case number they discovered that - surprise surprise - I was not under-insured afterall (that was a full year after they originally claimed I was underinsured) and my overdue interim payment turned up (still minus the 30% deducted for underinsurance).

I've had both subsequent interim payments only turn up after going through an 8 week formal complaint process for each one (each investigation finding internal administration errors to be the cause of delay). They then refused to pay interest on the late payments but as soon as the Ombudsman dropped them a one-liner they changed their minds.

The overall claim is now looking to be 7-10x what I was originally offered to settle.

Lucky for me I have a degree in law, a decent enough knowledge of buildings and work for myself so can (begrudgingly) allocate time. I'm also a stubborn fucker as well as financially able to cope with the delays. Goodness knows how much they save themselves every year by misleading their customers, wearing them down and making them financially desperate.

And this was (ultimately) Legal & General (now Fairmead).

(And friendofdorothy my escape of water excess also jumped from £200 to £5,000 too.)
 

There is filming around Herne Hill today. Yelena Belova and Spiderman in a "deeply moving love story".
 

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We were on our way home from the country show at around 7 and missed this by minutes. The paramedics were there and the area was being cordoned off with the police clearly searching for the weapon and doing house-to-house. Depressing.
 
Heard a rumour there's some kind of meeting 6pm tonight at Brockwell Lido, user group I think but public welcome.
Only a rumour though!
 
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