Which new venues would you like to see in Forest Hill and Honor Oak? Vote for those that would get your business (you can vote for more than one option), and feel free to reply with new suggestions.
American diner / BBQ joint
Asian supermarket
Bakery
Bookshop
Bric-a-brac / antiques
Cinema
Cool Menswear shop “catering to older people like me (@starman). No millenials!”
Cook store (premium frozen ready meals)
DIY store, the type with everything you’ll ever need on old shelves behind the counter
I’d love to have a health food shop in the neighbourhood. It could be something like the funky colourful one found in Rye Lane (Peckham Rye) or the one that feels almost like a chemist in the Crystal Palace triange, or like the Planet Organic shops that also act as cafes and take-away for healthy foods.
When creating this poll I copied the 2017 poll and added some of the suggestions mentioned in the comments that followed it (premium supermarkets, post office, Japanese Kaiten etc).
In the 2021 poll I’ll similarly add Mexican and Health Food as options.
I think Greengrocers and DIY stores have gone down because there is a zero waste greengrocer on Dartmouth Road and up the road is a small shop that does a bit of everything including DIY. I was stuck during painting and didn’t feel like going to Bell Green, so popped in there to see if they had anything and they had both emulsion and gloss rollers which I needed.
I think it will be very interesting to see what happens to our local High Streets in the next 5 years or so. w
With many people now working from home, will this lead to a different demand for local high streets, will people move out, move in, will people spend more money locally (you’d think so…)?
In HOP we now have a few greengrocers, butchers, fish from Querce all in reasonably short period of time.
My primary hope is we keep some of our established businesses like @Shannonsgc and some outstanding restaurants like Babur, but also that the high streets offer something for everyone.
With all that said, as a young child, I would spend my holidays with my Aunt in France (she is French!) and I will forever remember the first time I had an almond croissant from a French Boulangerie \ Patisserie - I’d never taste anything so amazing in all my life. So that has got my vote.
I don’t know the answer but I suspect this thread may also highlight a number of businesses people just don’t know already exist near them - how we publicise and help those businesses would be one of the best things we could do, and that should include local tradespeople as well as shops etc.
This is something on the Forest Hill Society’s agenda.
Originally from 2017 - proposals are here…
I had a walk around the site and discussed plans with Simon from Discourse Architecture this morning. We’re planning how to make a plan. It’s going to be a major effort if we do think we can take it on. I’m meeting Ellie Reeves (MP) on Monday too and this, and transport issues are all on my agenda.
If we do decide to try to take this forward then we will need a lot of help from the community to make it happen. FH Soc already has committees looking at Planning, Transport, Environment and Communications but this is going to be a big programme with a lot of moving parts.
When I get some time later, I’ll do a post with some pictures and commentary about what Simon said. Also feel free to join or email us via email@foresthillsociety.com if you want to potentially help out with relevant skills. Thanks.
With so many people working remotely and with not that much on offer in the surrounding areas it would be nice if there was an alternative to sitting in a coffee shop. Ideally it would be some sort of a professional setting. Just speaking from my own needs of course.
