Erith town centre development plan submitted

Plans for new housing in Erith town centre have been submitted to Bexley Council.

The site on Pier Road will see the locally listed Bank Chambers continue in commercial use and see refurbishment alongside 19 flats.

Bexley Council themselves are behind the proposal.

There was a BBC online article just this past week looking at how Erith has lost so many shops and one key reason is after the heart of the town was ripped out few ended up living within walking distance – and there’s now little reason for many others to visit from further afield.

The application’s Design & Access Statement feature images from 1960 and again shows just what was lost when the bulldozers moved in and ripped the heart out of the town. Fast forward to the present day and replacement sites are often struggling.

Comprehensive redevelopment

Back then many lived in and around Erith town centre with a traditional High Street before it was mostly knocked down for a shopping centre save the odd survivor here and there such as the Post Office.

Having more residents in the town centre once again should help it grow and aid sustainability of the town’s commercial offerings.

There are some homes above part of the post-war shopping centre but they’re relatively limited and far from enough to give much custom for retailers.

More footfall means more life and a better chance of Erith having a beating heart again.

And of course it helps if it’s a pleasant place to get around on foot walking between shops such as Morrisons and the shopping centre rather than across a vast car park

Note in the above image how someone is walking with a buggy in the road.

This scheme along with others recently approved are relatively small-scale in nature though bigger ambitions exist and the shopping centre’s new owner is clear they are in the business of redevelopment.

There’s grand plans but they’ll come to fruition when the shopping centre is redeveloped either entirely or in places – and when Morrisons better utilise their own land so that much of the town centre beside the Thames isn’t a massive, single level car park.

The area could be far, far more of an attractive place to visit and spend time in a revamped town centre and beside the Thames pier without acres of single-level tarmac.

The application can be viewed here.