Redeveloping the Megabowl and Caesars - Streatham

[gaijingirl]

I'll ask our flatmate tonight if she's heard that rumour..

A friend of gaijinboy's (who lives in Streatham) said something about a Waitrose in Streatham there which filtered back to me via several conversations - but I assumed he had gotten confused with the already-existing one in Balham tbh as his English isn't very good.

 

[gaijingirl]

Ah yes...probably the same people who think Jamie Oliver is opening a restaurant in the old cinema complex that's now crappy, small and over-priced flats

So why would Tesco spend years on the Streatham Common site only to move to a smaller, less convenient one up the road? Can't see them bothering as there's a Tesco Express where the exhaust/rims shop used to be.

The new Tesco is supposed to be massive - 50,000ft I read somewhere..

 

[Pieface]

Holy shit! It'll suck in all matter and light!

 

[gaijingirl]

We get loads of council stuff through our door on this - in December we got something - with pictures and everything - which basically had the same info as this December press release...

http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/News/Pres...amRegenerationSchemeReachesMajorMilestone.htm

 

[Pieface]

that's really fucking odd GG - we live round the corner from it and it's the first thing they've sent out.

 

[tarannau]

Maybe it's just a circle jerk of certain streathamites, wanking over their 3-wheeled prams at the very thought of a Waitrose on their doorstep.

To be honest, Waitrose ain't the high street devil incarnate - they sell so good stuff in there - but it's hardly Streatham's greatest need either. There are already some great food shops there, if you're willing to make a little effort and look beyond the supermarkets

 

[Belushi]

that's really fucking odd GG - we live round the corner from it and it's the first thing they've sent out.

It's literally at the end of my street and its the first I've heard of it!

I do tend to bin any junk mail that comes thorugh the dor without looking at it though

 

[Pieface]

Maybe it's just a circle jerk of certain streathamites, wanking over their 3-wheeled prams at the very thought of a Waitrose on their doorstep.

To be honest, Waitrose ain't the high street devil incarnate - they sell so good stuff in there - but it's hardly Streatham's greatest need either. There are already some great food shops there, if you're willing to make a little effort and look beyond the supermarkets

I try not to be stupid about supermarkets - I know convenience etc is really important to families and that but it just seems that the number of bloody supermarkets on that road is looking to get silly!

But a leisure centre - will it be cheap like the Brixton Rec do you think??? I'd like an affordable leisure centre up there.

 

[tarannau]

Ach, I used to walk with my gran (Fisher Price clacky dog in two) from Greyhound Lane to that fruiterers on the hill pretty much every day as a nipper. They're arguably the fondest memories I retain about my nan - until recently shopkeepers still remembered that clacking basset hound and me too

I doubt, somehow, that I'd remember trips to Tesco so fondly. Convenience is a bit of a myth on things like that if you ask me - parking's likely to be a pain, traffic access a problem, and then there's a whole distracting number of aisles to walk down. I'd rather just pop in and buy a bag of two of veg on the way home myself. The nature of the High St is bloody linear and congested already - it almost makes sense to have people shopping in multiple outlets spread along rather than congregated and blocking up specific areas.

 

[Belushi]

But a leisure centre - will it be cheap like the Brixton Rec do you think??? I'd like an affordable leisure centre up there.

Theres already a leisure centre there, next to the train station.

 

[gaijingirl]

I think because we're in council flats we get all the council literature through - even though we're not really anywhere near Streatham (relatively speaking). I have noticed before that we seem to get much more of this stuff than those in private housing.

 

[Belushi]

I try not to be stupid about supermarkets - I know convenience etc is really important to families and that but it just seems that the number of bloody supermarkets on that road is looking to get silly!

Well theres the big Sainsburys but no other large supermarkets in the area, just small ones.

 

[Pieface]

I'm talking about the plans though Belushi - I know now it's not crazy at the mo. I'm bit embarrassed about my leisure centre ignorance - do you know what it's like there?

 

[g force]

It's utter shite PieEye...avoid it. Beautiful building but the facilites are dated, the pool is dirty, the showers are crap. Be glad to see it go and replaced with some decent TBH.

My only pang of doubt is losing the actualy frontage which is beautiful. The Ice Rink can glady be bulldozed

 

[Dan U]

10% is the legal minimum (although ken wants to raise it to 20 IIRC)

unless they appeal based on 'economic viability'

they can't pull the other trick they use for housing, as it's flats.

 

[London_Calling]

Yeh they say it's affordable housing but in reality who the fuck can afford shared ownership, I know I wouldn't be able to.

I thought the idea was you bought a 2-bed, owned half of it and rented out the second bed to pay for the bit you don't own, as it were



It's a friggin shame about that sodding great dual-carriageway right through the middle of Streatham.

 

[ovaltina]

Caesers is closing?? And the go kart place?



(to be fair, I'm to fat to make the most of either)

 

[Belushi]

I thought the idea was you bought a 2-bed, owned half of it and rented out the second bed to pay for the bit you don't own, as it were

No, you buy a share of the house/flat and pay rent on the remianing share. Even the cheapest shared ownership I've seen in London is 65K for a 40% share of a flat in Woolwich.

 

[fuzzy felt]

so the bowling alley goes, then the go kart, then the ice rink - and of course, everyone will be whinging when there's more bored kids hanging around the street.

if a big tescos opens up in streatham, or any other supermarket for that matter, i'll be fucking outraged. there are hardly any independent stores on britain's high streets any more. a 'choice' between sainsbury's, tesco's and the like is no fucking choice at all. and as has been rightly pointed out, it puts small businesses like the med supermarket out of business.

just on my bus route from streatham to brixton there are four sainsbury's locals, on tesco local and one somerfield.

we should boycott the fuckers.

 

[zenie]

I thought the idea was you bought a 2-bed, owned half of it and rented out the second bed to pay for the bit you don't own, as it were



It's a friggin shame about that sodding great dual-carriageway right through the middle of Streatham.

I've never heard it put like that, who told you this?

Why is it a shame?

 

[Belushi]

so the bowling alley goes, then the go kart, then the ice rink - and of course, everyone will be whinging when there's more bored kids hanging around the street.

if a big tescos opens up in streatham, or any other supermarket for that matter, i'll be fucking outraged. there are hardly any independent stores on britain's high streets any more. a 'choice' between sainsbury's, tesco's and the like is no fucking choice at all. and as has been rightly pointed out, it puts small businesses like the med supermarket out of business.

just on my bus route from streatham to brixton there are four sainsbury's locals, on tesco local and one somerfield.

we should boycott the fuckers.

The bowling alley closed ages ago and is nothing to do with the redevelopment, the ice rink and leisure centre are going to be rebuild as part of the plans.

I'm quite looking foward to the new Tesco's - if people want more independent stores all they have to do is shop in them.

 

[zenie]

if people want more independent stores all they have to do is shop in them.

Which many people would do more if they weren't so fuckin expensive.

 

[Pieface]

Belushi "looks forward" to supermarkets opening

((belushi))

 

[Belushi]

Which many people would do more if they weren't so fuckin expensive.

Yup, Supermarkets eclipsed the local independent store because they were so much more expensive, inconvenient and limited in range.

There's a lot to criticise Supermarkets for, but its a mistake to look back to pre-supermarkets days as some kind of golden age imho (general point, not aimed at you!).

 

[tarannau]

Which many people would do more if they weren't so fuckin expensive.

Eh. Most of the markets and a fair few grocers locally are cheaper for fruit and veg than the supermarkets. Compared to Waitrose...

Even my local corner shop can outprice supermarkets conveniently for beer and even bags of rice. Supermarkets may be many things, but they're often not as cheap as they're made out to be.

 

[zenie]

Eh. Most of the markets and a fair few grocers locally are cheaper for fruit and veg than the supermarkets. Compared to Waitrose...

Even my local corner shop can outprice supermarkets conveniently for beer and even bags of rice. Supermarkets may be many things, but they're often not as cheap as they're made out to be.

Not talking about fruit and veg that I buy fro mthe market, everything else is more expensive not to mention often out of date in my local shops. A few of them smell of cat piss too....

Maybe Kennington and Oval's a bad area for independent shops?

 

[g force]

Streatham has a few good ones - The Med store being the obvious example. But the area as a whole isn't exactly lacking in Supermarkets. There's a huge Sainsbury's at Streatham Common, multiple Tesco/Sainsburys express stores from Brixton Hill up through Streatham High Road, a LIDL and the approved plans for the mass redevelopment by Tesco by the Ice Rink.

The area simply doesn't need another supermarket on the Megeabowl site.

 

[Belushi]

The area simply doesn't need another supermarket on the Megeabowl site.

The new plan is for the Streatham Common site.

 

[tarannau]

I doubt that somehow. Go and check out some of the Portuguese places on the Kennington/Stockwell borders and I suspect you'd find cheaper staples like pasta, chorizo and general cakery than you would at the supermarkets. Our local deli sells most items cheaper than Sainsburies - much higher quality passata for less money (considerably less than the Taste the Difference version too), better veg, frozen seafood, high quality pasta, parma ham etc etc.

It always shocks me a little how much supermarkets think they can get away with outside of their core items and loss leaders. G'wan and have a look at how much Waitrose want to charge you for a few lychees in a prepackaged bag for example, or for many of the brands of spices you'd get far cheaper in your local asian store. .

 

[fuzzy felt]

Which many people would do more if they weren't so fuckin expensive.

they're only expensive because supermarkets have so much power they can afford to undercut small businesses.

that said, you try shopping at a sainsbury's local/tesco metro and see how 'cheap' they are.

anyway, as many of you have pointed out, streatham doesn't need any more supermarkets!!

as for the poster who said they were pleased a tesco was opening up on the site of the ice rink, shame on your lazy arse! the walk from that site to the big sainsbury's is about 5 minutes.

and it's fatuous to say 'just shop in them then' regarding indpendent shops, as they're disappearing at a rate of knots! i was horrified when i went back to my home town of birmingham recently to discover there is not one single independent cafe in the centre of town any more. if there were, you bet your fucking arse i'd use them.

same applies here. eventually, there will be no little supermarkets left as the big boys will have obliterated them.