Tuesday 11 November 2014

All change in Charlton Church Lane

If you are a member of Club SE7 or even just a recent visitor to the Valley and come via Charlton Station, you can't help but have noticed the final building work to open a Sainsbury's Local on the corner of Charlton Church Lane and Floyd Road.

I say the final building work because the work started so long ago I have forgotten when it was. Let's say three years ago and be generous. I have heard a number of reasons for the delay but it certainly wasn't the amount of work involved. I will go with the most plausible and that was that Sainsbury's realised the original plan was insufficient and had to re-apply for permission for a revised extension out the back. In any event, the signs were up, the lights on and the shelves were being stacked with crisps when I passed at 7pm. No reason not to expect to see it open tomorrow or Friday latest.

You might be wondering why I am so interested in this? The simple reason is that I have been anticipating a revival in the local area for far too long now and I have always said that it would take some mainstream movers to spark what could be a quick turnaround in the fortunes of the area. The local housing stock is decent, like the populous, and we have been hugely under-served for far too long. I am also a firm believer that a lift in the local area would reflect well on our famous club and give football fans a better day out.

Just how long Sainsbury's Local hangs on with a huge Sainsbury's Superstore opening on the former Kingdom of Leather and Wickes site opposite the BP garage on the Lower Road remains to be seen, but it is a welcome start.

It will obviously serve football fans too, although those huge unprotected glass windows looked rather vulnerable to late-night high jinks in downtown Charlton. Sainsbury's have also installed a through-the-window cash till, which takes us to three free-to-use machines within strolling distance of the of mega-Stadium. Progress indeed.

Now can we have a proper pub or even a wine-bar please? I would love to open the latter but I am simply too busy and am at the wrong end of my working career to do it, although I would make a hefty contribution in weekly Customer sales if and when it does happen.


4 comments:

  1. A wine bar in Charlton. Now you're talking. BA, me, you, who else?

    Is that Tapas place still on Charlton Church Lane. They did a nice drop in there back in the day. Got to one game at half-time as I was a little over-served on rioja if I remember..

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  2. It is CA - Cattleya at Chu & Cho. It acquired Thai ownership several years ago and serves an unlikely crossover of Thai and Tapas. I am ashamed to say I have never actually eaten in there. The small shop unit with huge open glass window always put me off. Spookily enough, Mrs Peeps is headed there on Saturday with a friend. I will report back and, if any good, will venture in.

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  3. Sciurus Carolinensis Nemesis12 November 2014 at 12:59

    Wine Bar? Are you for real? Let's hope for a half decent pub first. Hoping an area continues to revive is all well and good but few things ruin a manor more quickly than troops of hoxton bonnet sporting wuckfits posing and yah-yah-ing their way through massively overpriced plonk in 'the place to be scene' (sic).
    Sainsbury's Local's new plate glass windows beautifully timed for the visit of the toolbox denizens and their particular brand of revelry.

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  4. SCN - got me in one there. Wine's the new beer. I thought mentioning Millwall and big windows was tempting fate but you have done it now.

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Go on, you know you want to....