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From The Murky Depths has been around for a decade now and looks into various aspects of news, events and life in London. We mainly look at development across south east London and Kent as well as delving into what local authorities are up to.
The author has lived in London for many years with intimate knowledge of the local area. The site mostly covers new housing, transport and infrastructure issues but there’s plenty of other information in regular, daily posts. Murky Depths is a locally run site not affiliated to any large news organisation.
Any info, tips or comments are welcome at fromthemurkydepths@gmail.com and admin@fromthemurkydepths.co.uk
A Facebook page for the website can be found here.
John Smith.
Hi
The Woolwich Grand Theatre project has taken over the old cinema at 38 Wellington Street (the former troubled Ntyce night club) and is staging a public meeting on the 3rd of May 6.30pm. The purpose of the meeting is to state our case for a community and live venue space in the heart of Woolwich, as well as announcing how we intend to fund this project in the short term. The meeting is being attended by local residents. Councillor and l people native to the Woolwich and surrounding areas. There is a lot at stake here and we need all the support and help we can so please publicise this meeting as you see fit
Kind regards
Adrian Green
Hi – I couldn’t see a way of private messaging you, so thought i’d drop you a line here.
Just to say, that I’ve been reading your posts with great interest, as have a lot of other people, especially in regards to Woolwich regeneration, Abbey Wood and Thamesmead.
Keep you the good work, and thanks.
Typo – That should have been keep up the good work…
Hi – would be interesting to discuss regeneration in Greenwich T.C. some point. Fair critique in many points. LB Greenwich continues discussions about OLF/Mayor’s Regeneration Fund with the GLA.
Great blog, your insight is very thought provoking and i thank you for taking time to share your thoughts especially not being familiar with the areas.
In your opinion which areas in south east London can you see growing the quickest and appealing to new residents coming into the area such as young professionals etc? Crossrail will only help enhance the appeal for commuters to reside here for cheaper level but I guess to a degree there needs to be interest for them to want to stay such as adequate bars, restaurants etc (stoke newington like for example)
Hi,
I’ve been reading your blog ever since I moved to Abbey Wood 2 years ago and I find it fascinating. Thank you for all your work!
Tamas
Hi there,
Not sure if you’ve seen but new woolwich central proposals have been released. http://www.skyscrapernews.com/picturedisplay.php?ref=5030&idi=Woolwich+Town+Centre+Tower&self=nse&selfidi=5030WoolwichTownCentreTower_pic1.jpg&no=1
Regards,
Mike
Actually apologies the above is old plans which are under consideration. The new phase of woolwich Central was consulted on a few weeks ago. Find them here http://www.woolwichcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Woolwich-Phase-4-Final-Consultation-Boards-2.pdf
Thanks for this – just having a look. The tower proposed in front of tesco looked awful. As for the other one to the rear – it looks a graceless stumpy thing. It would be better in the middle of the site too with heights gradually dropping to the boundary.
They’ve put parking at ground floor level not basement by looks of it to save money. This presents a plain wall and dead frontage to the dual carriageway. I guess shops would struggle there though.
Are the developers at the site by the new Abbey Wood station actually hoping to sell any units? In view of the degenerating state of Abbey Wood with drugs, violence and street gangs they may have a shock. Not that the police or Greenwich Council are prepared to take any action.
I can see them going the way of the flats built by the station 10 years ago. They were supposed to attract new people and that didn’t last long. If the council keeps neglecting the place and ignoring things that are happening, and refusing to act or fine people causing problems then nothing will change.
One comment about South Eastern; you keep talking about the “Woolwich Dockyard problem” preventing longer trains, however the solution is simple. All SE need to to is announce that passengers for WD should travel in the front 4/5 carriages and lock the rear of the train at that station. It works at other stations on Southeastern and on other parts of the Network!
New Lewisham Premier Inn
do you know what’s going on with the new Premier Inn at Lewisham – the building work seems to have come to a halt and it looks far from finished.
Hello and thanks for your great posts about this areas.
I’ve a question. Do you know what’s happening for bus roots after cross rail coming to Abbey Wood?
Is any new plan for opening new roots?
Many thanks
As far as local buildings are concerned, the jewel in the crown is the Beam Engine House and associated buildings at Crossness (apart from Tower Bridge the only Grade 1 Listed industrial building in South London) restored by volunteers and housing the largest rotative beam engines in the world.
Our next public open day is Sunday 22 May 10.30-4pm see our website http://www.crossness.org.uk (about to be upgraded). The restored engine, The Prince Consort, will be steaming that day. We are also constructing an Exhibition telling the story of the Great Stink which we hope to launch on 12 July. The exhibition is currently under construction but you will be able to see progress on 22 May as well as the reconstruction of our Victorian garden. We also have bee hives and can sell you some honey!
Another attraction for the future will be The Woolwich, the only surviving steam locomotive from the former Royal Arsenal Narrow gauge railway which we are also restoring at Crossness.
By the way, Belvedere Road has been renamed Bazalgette Way after the great Victorian engineer who designed the Victorian sewerage system of which Crossness was a major part.
We can be found at Thames Water, Bazalgette Way, SE2 9AQ
Brilliant, BRILLIANT blog.
This is a brilliant blog, it would be great if you could expose the shambles of the continuing curbside drain flooding at Wilton Road that needs to be pumped out by vacuumed up by a lorry every time there is a heavy rainfall, whilst building a new station on top of it. It’s been dug up five times and still it continues. Unbelievable incompetence.
I live in Slade Green, in this last week we have been told the council are going to knock down one half of slade green and build 8,000 flats also 6,000 flats in Erith. Do you know much about this and can you give us any more information, the council are not saying much many thanks
Great blog!
Hopefully this will be going through:
https://www.londonnewsonline.co.uk/bid-to-secure-3m-of-mayors-cash-to-regenerate-plumstead/
Love reading your blog posts. Quick question, do you know what is being built in front of Macro’s in Charlton? Thought if anyone would know, you might!
Fantastic website – love the local development news
Stop the Meyer Homes RAPE of Lewisham. We’ve just lived thru 5 years build of Gateway – now faced with 4 years of hell if they build on Tesco.
I WILL PROTEST
Silver fox @ se137pa
I don’t like the drift into crime reporting. There is enough nastiness in the local rag and I would prefer your sticking to the shenanigans of the various councils and big developer.
So much detailed information provided by Murky. Which we do get to hear about from any other source. Keep up your excellent good work Murky your brilliant mate.
Any news re NO more skyscraper in Lewisham.
I will protest most strongly!,
Parkinson.
Sadiq Khan to re-nationalise the Woolwich Ferry after LBC raised issues over poor service.
Sadiq Khan is re-nationalising the Woolwich ferry after an LBC investigation found there had been a month’s worth of delays on the service in the first half of last year.
The problems came after nearly £20million had been spent on two new ‘faulty’ ferries.
When confronted with the story last year, the Mayor apologised on LBC, saying the ferries had not been good enough.
TfL say the plans “mean passengers will benefit from an increased focus on reliability and customer service.”
The Mayor of London told LBC: “One of the things that’s causing concern – and LBC brought this to the attention of other Londoners – is the awful service that residents in the South-East of London have been experiencing with the Woolwich Ferry.
“There has been an unreasonable amount of closures caused by technical difficulties, but also by industrial action.
“So I’ve decided that we’re going to bring back this service in-house and TfL will be running this later this year.”
Jonathan Fox, Director of Rail & Sponsored Services said: “Taking the operation of the Woolwich Ferry in-house will increase the focus on its performance, ultimately delivering an improved experience for our customers.
“We would like to thank Briggs Marine for running this operation over the years, and particularly for supporting us through the upcoming transition period.”
The transition to an in-house operation is expected to complete by the end of the year. TfL added that it will not cost any more to take the contract back.
There seems to be a couple of missing blogposts. I am sure I commented on the temporary measures in Deptford High Street and the redevelopment of the pub on Hill Reach/Francis Street?
Hi Murky,
I came across this video on youtube which is rather interesting and it links to the low traffic zones that are currently being implemented in Greenwich (and around London) and the high density housing.
Definitely something to investigate further as the long term goal is quite worrying! All under the guise of sustainable development that’s being pushed globally!
First half of the video is relevant:
keep up the good work unlike Greenwich council who are letting the meridian estate crumble, stairwells have tiles missing, plaster falling off, broken concrete stairs and all trees are blocking essential light from properties.
its almost as if they have given up and we pay rent, council tax and service charge for pretty much nothing
Just a heads up I went to read an article from Facebook today and could not access your site whatever I did. It seems the latest version of Firefox browser complains about your site that would need a bit of updating. here is the message for your website developer
“An error occurred during a connection to http://www.fromthemurkydepths.co.uk. A required TLS feature is missing.
Error code: MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_REQUIRED_TLS_FEATURE_MISSING”
I can access through Chrome.
I have the same problem, but accessed thru’ MS Edge to leave this msg. Only been a problem since a recent Firefox update
A hoarding is going up around the site of the Tramshed extension in Woolwich.
It seems Thameslink trains are running again on the Greenwich/Woolwich line. Got on the 1705 from Charlton to Rainham tonight.
Hi John,
I just wanted to let you know that your efforts are being much appreciated and please keep up the good work.
One thing to note is that when I try posting comments I often get an error and then when I hit the back button my comments disappear. I can’t face to type again so I leave.
I presume this must be happening to others. The error I get is “Nonce verification failed”. Thought I should let you know.
Best regards,
Levi
Hi sorry this has been happening at times for years. I’ve tried to fix it many times but it keeps popping back. I think it’s a plug in issue. I will keep trying.
Hi editing function remived?
No it shouldn’t be any different. I will check the plugin
Hi John I read your items with great interest. Just one point about Berkeley Homes wishing to demolish buildings on the Arsenal site. You can’t blame them for trying it on in fact once decisions were made they have carried out some good restoration work such as the Royal Laboratory East , the oldest building on the site having been constructed in 1696. It was derelict when Berkeley started and is now one of the best buildings in No 1 Street.
Hi I’m really surprised you’ve not covered the plans on display at Lewisham shopping centre for the redevelopment, they have detailed models and all sorts of stuff down there
Hi, I just wanted to say a big thank you for your regular, honest, dedicated posts regarding our local area. It’s great for me as I am practically housebound and although family and friends live/work around here, kindly give me updates, you seem to have an edge on the delivery that gives me hope that our poor neglected, overstretched, rich in history, hidden gem is starting to look and brighten up and hopefully with that the local residents will do too with a renewed sense of respect and pride for our little piece of London.
For that…..a big thank you once again.
Hi, appreciate the work that do, been following almost daily since 2022. Just wondering if you fancied covering the new Belvedere hotel complex as it seems to be nearing completion. Thanks!
https://thebelvedere.london/
Hi,
You have an ad saying Princes Alice Pub at Thamesmead is up for sale. Is it still available? Please share details. My Client is quite interested. Please reply.
Hi John,
Just out of curiosity, I looked into what has been happening with the vacant Lloyds Bank site in Blackheath Village. Upon checking the planning portal of Greenwich Council I noticed that there has been yet another application made by Savills (I belive on behalf of the bakery chain Ole & Steen) and was refused again.
I thought it might be of interest to you, or perhaps not.
Thank you for all the good information you provide.
Best,
Levi
Hi I do like your website and what you post lots of great content on your website. But I wish that you would scrap the advertisement or do you think that having adverts helps with the website.
I mean I have no problem with it but every time I click on the website as I got ad block on the computer it wants me to show the adverts and it’s really annoying.
Because I don’t want to unblock ads just to read your articles that you post on your website. I would appreciate if you could remove ads on your website to make it easier to read.
Thanks.
Andrew Gwilt
Can anyone give me the email address for murky depth so I can inform them about this atrocious behavior of Greenwich Council once again acting unlawfully and trashing the rights of disabled people.
At the top it says the contact emails are:
fromthemurkydepths@gmail.com
and
admin@fromthemurkydepths.co.uk
Hope this helps
Hello,
My name is Emma and I am currently studying Geography BA at Leicester University but live in Dartford originally. I am interested in cultural geography and have chosen to write my dissertation on the cultural heritage of Woolwich and the effects of gentrification.
I used to love coming to Woolwich and Greenwich as a child with my grandparents and always found the history quite fascinating.
I am wondering if anyone would be interested in partaking in interviews around their own experience of Woolwich and/or participating in taking pictures for my dissertation.
Any responses will be greatly appreciated.
Hi I do like your website and what you do is amazing with posting amazing stuff on your website but it’s getting to the point that adverts coming up each time I click on a article and I just think that having adverts on your website is kind of pointless. Is there any hope of getting rid of adverts on your website. I have ad block on the computer but still I keep on getting adverts and it’s not helping anything. I think you should remove the adverts on your website please. Thanks.