Windrush Square, Brixton - news and discussion

[timothysutton1]

...they won't really be competing....

But if the indoor markets are going to survive they need to diversify.

The success of Wild Caper and Rosie's Deli, plus the various projects in Granville Arcade, are proof of that.

I know these do not bring any revenue to the council, but if the Lambeth is serious about saving the markets they should be supporting such ventures, not creating competition in Windrush Square.

 

[Gramsci]

Apparently the council will be setting up a revenue generating market on Windrush Square.

Surely the last thing the failing indoor markets need is added competition?

I think this is where the market stallholders that were outside the KFC are moving to. There was a thread on them as some posters werent happy they were suddenly told to leave the corner of CHL.

 

[innit]

But if the indoor markets are going to survive they need to diversify.

The success of Wild Caper and Rosie's Deli, plus the various projects in Granville Arcade, are proof of that.

I know these do not bring any revenue to the council, but if the Lambeth is serious about saving the markets they should be supporting such ventures, not creating competition in Windrush Square.

Wild Caper and Rosie's are also likely to push up rents and rates in that part of the covered market, which I would guess is a far more immediate threat to the other stallholders than a French market in Windrush Square.

 

[5t3IIa]

I went to your Windrush Square for the first time ever yesterday and sat on shiny fat grass under a tree for hours, along with loads of other people. Also sat outside Ritzy for a bit.

It's lovely

Qualifier: I'd never been before.

 

[editor]

The Square could really, really use more trees.

 

[teuchter]

I find the current tree quantity perfectly adequate.

 

[kyser_soze]

Well, now it's been there for a while, my considered response is 'It's much better than before.' Especially the statue of Ganesh

 

[quimcunx]

I went to your Windrush Square for the first time ever yesterday and sat on shiny fat grass under a tree for hours, along with loads of other people. Also sat outside Ritzy for a bit.

It's lovely

I expect that had a lot to do with the quality of the company.


Bearing in mind I spent 14 hours there between 3pm Friday and 9pm Sunday I'm going to declare it a success.

 

[story]

It's all gotten rather grubby, hasn't it.

Is there no plan or budget for washing the drippings and splashings and whatnot from the pale floor?

Around some of the chairs there are dark stains of sticky mess and dropped takeaway food.

Mostly I am enjoying the square, but the grot is starting to annoy me.

 

[teuchter]

Maybe this rain will be helpful.

 

[quimcunx]

I sit on the grass. The dirt doesn't show up so bad.

 

[Crispy]

The problem is not brixton specific - anywhere with lots of fast food and nightlife tends to pick up a greasy layer on the pavements. Westminster can afford daily scrubbing, not so Lambeth.

 

[lang rabbie]

The problem is not brixton specific - anywhere with lots of fast food and nightlife tends to pick up a greasy layer on the pavements. Westminster can afford daily scrubbing, not so Lambeth.

I'd be intrigued to know what has happened to the street-cleaning budgets. A lot of extra money was put into "streetcare" by the 2002-2006 Lib Dem-Tory coalition council and cleaning rotas were close to Westminster frequencies.

I recall the complaints from some of the pettier members of the Lib Dem and Tory back benches that Brixton was getting swept so often that you could eat your dinner from the pavements but their own wards in Streatham, Norwood and North Lambeth didn't get the same benefit.

Have Labour actually cut back the cleaning in central Brixton by stealth, in the last few years, knowing that:
- very few people were giving the council credit for town centre cleanliness but a lot more get pissed off by the state of their own residential street, and
- many people would blame the ongoing roadworks chaos in central Brixton for greater litter levels?

Now that the digging is finally just about finished, is it finally more obvious?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I'd be intrigued to know what has happened to the street-cleaning budgets. A lot of extra money was put into "streetcare" by the 2002-2006 Lib Dem-Tory coalition council and cleaning rotas were close to Westminster frequencies.

I recall the complaints from some of the pettier members of the Lib Dem and Tory back benches that Brixton was getting swept so often that you could eat your dinner from the pavements but their own wards in Streatham, Norwood and North Lambeth didn't get the same benefit.

Have Labour actually cut back the cleaning in central Brixton by stealth, in the last few years, knowing that:
- very few people were giving the council credit for town centre cleanliness but a lot more get pissed off by the state of their own residential street, and
- many people would blame the ongoing roadworks chaos in central Brixton for greater litter levels?

Now that the digging is finally just about finished, is it finally more obvious?

Maybe they've run out of money after cleaning gum off the streets

 

[teuchter]

I did notice recently that there is an awful lot of gum on the pavement alongside the town hall at the moment..

 

[quimcunx]

I suppose street cleaning is a little more difficult while the streets are all dug up.

 

[editor]

You would have thought that it would be packed this sunny afternoon, but that unyielding expanse of concrete seems to be doing the job....

 

[Gixxer1000]

No fan of the square but it boiled my piss to see how the marquee contractors disrespected the furniture and more importantly the ancient mile marker by securing their ratchet straps around them to act as guy ropes to their marquee last week

 

[Orang Utan]

what's wrong with that? did they damage it?

 

[timothysutton1]

...ratchet straps...

You would have thought with all the money spent on the square they would have factored in 'covered events' and the need to secure marquees and the like.

 

[Badgers]

You would have thought that it would be packed this sunny afternoon, but that unyielding expanse of concrete seems to be doing the job....

Odd isn't it?
Some days it is rammed and others (same weather) totally empty.
I like the square myself but like it much more when it is full of people.

 

[quimcunx]

I'd prefer a bit more grass but I've spent quite a lot of time there in the last month on weekends and weekdays and it usually looks well-used and happy.

I certainly feel well-used and happy when I'm lounging there.

 

[editor]

If it wasn't for the Ritzy cafe, it would feel even bleaker.

 

[quimcunx]

Bleaker than what? It doesn't feel bleak.

 

[editor]

Bleaker than what? It doesn't feel bleak.

A big wide open empty expanse of concrete with no one in it feels a bit bleak to me.

 

[miss minnie]

Isn't it the difference between a square and a park though?

The square mostly plays host to workers taking a lunch break, people meeting up to go to the movies, parents taking a break with kids, shoppers laden with bags resting their feet etc. Its a meeting place more than a destination.

Its not a place I go just to hang out on a sunny day. Parks are much nicer places for that.

 

[quimcunx]

A big wide open empty expanse of concrete with no one in it feels a bit bleak to me.

It's hardly Dartmoor and it's not empty (there are people in your pic) and it's rarely quiet for long, ebbs and flows. And as I said it's mostly been quite busy when I've seen it.

And what minnie says. Although I have hung out there for hours and hours at a time.

 

[editor]

Isn't it the difference between a square and a park though?

The square mostly plays host to workers taking a lunch break, people meeting up to go to the movies, parents taking a break with kids, shoppers laden with bags resting their feet etc. Its a meeting place more than a destination.

Its not a place I go to just to hang out on a sunny day. Parks are much nicer places for that.

It used to be a lot busier, but it seems it was busy with the 'wrong' sort of local people in the past. Most public squares are bustling places in my experience.

 

[Badgers]

Its not a place I go just to hang out on a sunny day. Parks are much nicer places for that.

Agree on the meeting place. I have seen people lazed out on the grass for long periods though. Nice to have somewhere central to just relax or wait for people without needing to buy a drink though.

If I planned to spend a long period of time then I would take the time to walk to Brockwell park though.

 

[tarannau]

It looks better, but it's still mostly underused and in need of a purpose. It's looking surprisingly grubby already, particularly underneath some of the chairs - which, disconcertingly, seem to often used as early morning toilets with suspicious stainage underneath.

Good to see some marquees in the place, but the set up was clumsy to say the least. Like others I had to wince when I saw some of the canopies secured around the oldest remaining historical object in the square and wrapped around one of the already small number of installed chairs. Poor show and design really. Equally the square felt cut off coming down via Rushcroft, the marquees becoming a barrier into the square rather than providing a welcoming approach. Early days perhaps, but it doesn't bode particularly well for the facilities provided, nor the suitability for other events.

The periodic exiling of drinkers across the road to outside St Matthews grates more than a little too. Equally the dominos players that tend to be in place every morning (bringing their own boards and positioning them on top of bins, often bringing their own chairs) are pushed out by lunchtime. The Ritzy's doing well out of it perhaps, but I'm not sure that should have been a huge priority - instead of one united space for the town, it's often become a kind of more policed cafe zone with the usual suspects increasingly pushed off into immediate, neighbouring spaces. IThe balance doesn't seem quite right yet