Woolwich town centre’s major upgrade already a mess
A multi-million pound upgrade across Woolwich is already in poor shape before work even completes.
As predicted by more than a few, new paving on Powis Street – which is the fourth major town centre improvement attempt since the 1980s – is already filthy and exacerbated by the choice of materials used.
In their wisdom, bright white setts have been chosen in an area that was hardly kept fresh and clean beforehand and regularly sees bin bags left out by shops.
And would you know it, all that shiny new surface is stained and looking filthy.
But worse is that paving material already appears damaged and chipped. Ignore the area around the lamp post in the above image as new lighting is due to go in, but note the bottom right. In a couple of places the material is falling apart.
That’s not just stains but the edges chipped away. Not a great start for the upgrade which comprises a major element of the £25 million project.
It was always baffling why they’d choose such an inappropriate material anyway for an area of high footfall. Look at how bright white it is when new.
That is never going to look good unless cleaned extremely regularly. And remember Greenwich council are planning to cut street cleaning staff this coming year.
Same old, same old?
Woolwich goes through these periodic projects just about every decade and it’s never been well maintained – and nor does the authority seem to have foresight into how it’ll appear in years to come.
It’s a failure from council managers and officers alongside elected officials who seem to go along with it.
In the 2010s we had the short lived Beresford Square revamp. The authority allowed expensive granite paving to become used as an unauthorised car park almost immediately – and that too was a material that easily showed the dirt. It’s now all been ripped out.
Go back to the 1990s and we saw new lighting and paving. Part lasted pretty well until being removed now – though all the the uplighting around trees was never maintained.
That 1990s project replaced 1980s changes. And the 2020s project now seems to replicate issues from the 980s so we’ve gone full circle. Though it wasn’t the colour of setts and paving back then but raised planters that hindered pedestrians.
So let’s try similar again eh? Yep, usable space for pedestrians on Powis Street is being reduced. It all looks lovely but usability and maintenance concerns should be clear.
Other town centres
It’s of course true that no town centre is perfect. But how many go through four major projects in forty years and get the basics wrong each and every time?
That’s impressive.
The sheer amount spent just to rip it all out again a few short years after is symptomatic of chronic flaws within the authority.
Bexley Council and Bexleyheath may not be perfect but the surfaces installed 30 years ago are still there on the Broadway. There’s been no need to replace them.
They’re also a colour isn’t bright white and more suitable for high footfall. There isn’t obstacles and excessive clutter in relatively narrow areas.
Other parts of the town centre could be better, but in terms of paving, materials and general design the pedestrianised centre of town works well and there’s been no need to dig it up every decade at high expense.
As for Woolwich, a comment earlier when I posted a pic seems to capture a strong likelihood; It’ll be jet washed for when the council’s leaders turn up for the official opening then gradually decline until the next multi-million pound project. Shall we pencil in, say, 2030?
As an aside, updates to the public, shops and councillors on this project has been extremely poor. The project was delayed when a prior contractor went under and very little said since.
Lewisham Council are also undertaking a major town centre project right now and reports and information from officers to councillors there couldn’t be more different. Current information is comprehensive with solid figures and dates of expected progress and completion.
Nothing similar at all has been heard or written by Greenwich officers for a substantial period of time.
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It’s not like they haven’t got form on this – Passey Place in Eltham seems destined to be repeated. Still, at least they’re not paying the construction firm all up front like last time.
But to be fair, as the old saying goes you can’t polish a t*rd. Woolwich is a complete boghole at the best of times, and a new pavement isn’t going to change that.
My experience is that town planners rarely live, work, or even shop in the urban places they design. Their assumption here seems to be that Powis Street will be so attractive than people will want to stop, and sit, and enjoy the ambiance! The artist’s impression says it all, including the children happily playing. seemingly unsupervised, on… is it concrete or mud? There is a similar fantasy nearer the river in the artists’ impressions of the scrubby strip of land which Berkeley Homes says will replace Maribor Park, the open piece of land which they are currently vandalising.
I thought the kids in the picture were supposed to be begging to be fair
Sadly I am not at all surprised. It is a real shame but as we know peopke no longer respect other people’s property etc. .Also Greenwich Council have have an exceptionally poor record on maintaining public realm.
Casting pearls before swine… yet again..!
ideally, paving would have been done with porphyry stone https://ethicalstonecompany.co.uk/products/italian-porphyry-rosso/
it would be good if we could see what’s been budgeted and how money was spent on a doomed idea.
@Chucho: ‘it would be good if we could see what’s been budgeted …’. I guarantee as little as possible with nothing in the pot for ongoing maintenance.
They also chopped two of the big trees down outside CEX. Unclear why. A third has been damaged.