Lambeth Country Show-n off at its best

If you're putting on a big day out, you need sun. The Lambeth Country Show on Saturday 18th July, when we went, was sunny and showed off the spectacle at its best.

The sun, lighting one of the quieter spots

Brockwell Park is a big place, but it was full. Children's rides and games; craft tents; a health (check) tent; avenues of food; a charity tent and stalls; a display arena banked around with its large crowd; a Trade Union tent; portaloos (thankfully); local societies and groups; a food tent, well, two of those. Lots and lots of people. Plus lots and lots of purple-topped Lambeth Council people out from behind desks and having a good time and sharing what they do with the community.



The Tulse Hill Forum asked a good question

It was good to see The Tulse Hill Forum and the Norwood Forum next to each other and close to a marquee with many Council housing services on display.

This steel band was a joy to hear

A lot of the food and drink were very local - and on a day when the Herne Hill Market greeted people coming to the Show via Herne Hill station. Certainly, there was a roaring trade going on, as the smokin' hot photo below shows.

The queue was lengthy for GDH Gordons Grill

There was a lovely buzz to the day. All over, you could see friends bumping into each other and smiling, children playing and dancing, people eating, drinking, sitting down, sitting up, and lying down. All ages and backgrounds of people were strolling about.

Lambeth clearly wants to put itself on the map

We're already looking forward to next year.

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Stripes and Strypes



It doesn't do to get into issues of décor if you're an estate agent. It isn't for us to offer an opinion if a homeowner or landlord decides on an all-purple colour scheme or to take up a parquet floor in favour of some ugly lino.

Of course, these things can affect the saleability, or chances of letting, a property. How often do you see on TV or in print more obvious and basic tips for property owners, like ensure the property when viewed is clean and tidy? Or de-clutter. Or fix things that need to be fixed. Or get some fresh coffee on to create a nice smell (or do a bit of bread baking, which is that bit more extreme).

That said, we do have our own and private tastes, so we would, yes, it has to be admitted, probably prefer professionally to see good old bland magnolia painted on walls rather than anything more adventurous. A, dare we say it, bland, impersonal décor allows the viewer to not be challenged by another person's personal vision, and to be able to imagine minimal changes that could make the property a potential home to them.

Recently, we saw a very public and eyebrow-raising reinforcement to the bland is best message. Thank you, the London Evening Standard. Someone in a dispute painted their property frontage in red and white stripes. It caused a rumpus, one person commenting, "it's not very Kensington and Chelsea." Full story here. There's even a hint of video in the story, which makes us smile.

Other kinds of stripes are important too. One very serious, and one entertaining. The entertaining one first. A few days ago one of our team saw the Irish Rock band, The Strypes, in Tunbridge Wells, a place which would doubtless say of stripe-painted houses, "it's not very Tunbridge Wells." The Strypes started as a school band when the members were eight years old and one wore a striped shirt. That generated a name and the Y went in as it was fashionable. They're a great band and though some people might think estate agents (and teachers) don't have a personal life and passion for things outside of property, we do, of course Ask Sam in our Bromley office about Milwall FC or Derrick in Tulse Hill about Arsenal FC, for instance. On reflection, perhaps it is for the best that they're in different offices.  

The serious stripes are in Tulse Hill. Near our office is, for pedestrians, a dangerous road junction, a gyratory. Moves are afoot to plan out a new and better and safer layout. We hope that works, as we want the stripes on that road to be good and safe for our staff and the local public. We wish the planners the best with their work, and we look back to our earlier blog where someone danced on the stripes in the road, and no harm done. You can view it here.

It is interesting how things can be tied together from a single word. We don't use many to describe the values we work to. Passion. Professionalism. Innovation. Friendliness.

Edward Ashdale, your thoughtful estate agent. 

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Football that means something

Street Games Football Pools Champions 2013

“I never planned a single day of the St Matthews Project, but as my mum used to say, 'God works in mysterious ways.' It's a bit of redemption: I finally found a calling in life. It shows even if you've had negative experiences, you can use them. Some young men come back, bring their children. The other day an ex-coach brought in his new baby. Hopefully we'll see their kids play with us long-term! You may never know the difference you make, you may never see it. You may not be there to see the seed you planted blossom.”

We wrote about the St Matthews Project earlier this year when they won a major Football Association award.

The Project is celebrating its tenth anniversary, the FA award, and numerous other highs such as featuring on TV's Sky Sports. The Project started with one man and some casual kickabouts in a local park. We had a chat with this man, the founder of the St Matthews Project, Lee Dema. He gave us some background to the story of what has become an achievement that has positively touched the lives of many people. It is his words that start off this article.

Lee is a Londoner, born and bred. He grew up in Tulse Hill and Brixton, at one point being re-housed to the Loughborough Estate in East Brixton. He recalls leaving Strand Grammar School – now Elm Court School in Brixton Hill – with three 'O' levels and not a lot to do. Lee recalls, “There weren't a lot of jobs about, I lacked confidence, and I drifted into the wrong crowd. I'd given up footie in my teens. I'd draw a parallel between then and now, there's not the jobs and there are young people without a feeling of self-worth.”

Later on, it was when Lee was living on the St Matthews Estate in Brixton and he took his daughter to Brockwell Park for a kickabout with a football that things started to change. “Kids from the estate with nothing better to do, who had never left our block, and with their parents OK, tagged along, that was the seeds of the St Matthew Project.”

“I was a Parent Governor at Jubilee Primary School and introduced a ‘Friday Football’ after-school club. We ran an Easter tournament in 2004 and Lambeth Council and L&Q Housing got involved. A hundred kids turned up for a tournament in Jubilee playground! I was then asked to volunteer to run a summer holiday football kickabout. It was supposed to run for six weeks, but that was ten years ago and now here we are! Though my knees have gone. That happened during the early kickabouts.”

“In 2005, I got a little funding from the Football Foundation, a small grant and a football kit for a team. I started with two teams, U13's and U17's. In 2008, I got a big three year community grant from the Football Foundation, which was match-funded by the Walcot Foundation, which only gives out awards in Lambeth. Walcot have been really good to us, funding us ever since.”

“Then I went full-time as 'Football Development Officer', under the Football Foundation's advice, now I'm 'Project Manager'. I'd been working as a volunteer for four years and it had become unsustainable with the demands of the project and family. One of my daughters answered our phone one day and said, ‘He’s out with his other family!’ But the grant changed that."

Christmas 6-a-side winners 2007

“In 2008, I started a girls-only project. It was a turn-up-and-play approach,six-a-side and five-a-side. They won the Street Games Fives London finals two years running (2013-2014) and went onto play at St George's Park for the last two years of national finals.”

“The very first team I ran, U13's, used to play in the Tandridge League. That took them to fixtures as far away as Edenbridge and Tunbridge Wells. I was driving a mini bus around the home counties because we never had any parental involvement, but it was really rewarding."

“In March 2011, the Project became a charity. The difference? It became run even more properly. I do fifty hour weeks now, I probably need more staff. I do have an Admin Officer for a couple of days a week, funded by Comic Relief. It is just as well, now we have to show evidence for all that we do, which is a huge strain on time and resources. The more successful we are, the more funding we need to draw in, as we're a free service. Obviously, it's difficult. Six of the current staff came through from when they were playing from ten years old.”

"Now the charity is based in the bowling green pavilion in Brockwell park, where there is a classroom for coaching and other courses we run. We play in a more local league nowadays, the London County Saturday, and the teams usually use public transport, sometimes hiring a bus for games in Rotherhithe or Brentford."

“In 2011 our under-13 team won the London Saturday League Cup, at Hackney Marshes. We won in extra time. We'd put a mini-bus on for parents. At the end everyone ran onto the pitch. That was quite something. This year, the girls team won a penalty shootout at the Street Games London Finals - that was quite dramatic.”

As it is Christmas, we asked Lee for his Christmas wish-list for the Project:

• “More coaching hours”
• “To get into local schools and to use their facilities”
• “Equipment, balls, the usual!”
• “We run a second hand boot scheme, some new ones donated would be nice”
• “A nice football pitch, full-size somewhere. I'm working on it”

Lee concluded, “It was never about football. It was about helping kids where I grew up. Doing it here means something to me. I see the same issues, the same problems – even the same addresses sometimes. ‘Same scene, different props.’”   

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

More, from the St Matthews Project website:

The St. Matthew’s Project started life in the summer of 2004 and has developed, literally, from a kick-about in the local park for young people from one estate in Brixton, St. Matthew’s. The origins of the project are linked to an even smaller ‘community’ – Springett House – a large L-shaped block on the southern edge of the estate, backing onto Brixton Water Lane. The young people from Springett House were initially extremely reluctant to interact with their peers from the rest of the estate but barriers were broken down by organising a series of friendly football matches and the creation of ‘Springett F.C’, the forerunner of today’s St. Matthew’s F.C.

The young people from Springett soon came to see themselves as part of the wider estate community and that they had many shared interests and experiences with other young people from around the estate. Using the same approach, the young people from St. Matthew’s came to interact with their peers from the nearby Tulse Hill Estate and surrounding streets, overcoming long-standing hostilities and coming together under the SMP banner.
The Project now regularly engages with over 150 young people every week, has secured grant funding since 2004 from a variety of agencies, developed over 100 F.A qualified coaches from level 1 to 3, developed girls football in Lambeth and consistently provided free, fun football activities to young people living within one of the most deprived 10% SOAs in the country. In addition to football specific activities we’ve arranged trips, encouraged youth volunteering, delivered accredited training courses and healthy lifestyle workshops, and provided one-to-one support to our young people wherever necessary.

Working closely with Lambeth Council and other local agencies, we have now established a recognised hub in Brockwell Park, continuing to attract young people from across the SW2 / SW9 area and providing them with new opportunities for personal development, in order to help them fulfil their potential.

St Matthews Project gains an outstanding award

Hot on the heels of our last blog post on something excellent that is British, we're kicking off (!) October with another one.

This time, we're talking football.Specifically, the St Mattews Project in Tulse Hill. The project, and the award, are probably best introduced by information received from James Alexander, a Trustee of the Project:

"As a trustee of the St Matthews Project I (James) wanted to let you all know that on Thursday evening the St Matthews Project won the FA Charter Standard Club of the Year for London award and also the wider regional award.  This means that out of 4500 football based projects throughout London and the surrounding area the FA deemed the St Matthews Project as achieving the most over the past 12 months. As you can imagine this is an amazing achievement and is real recognition of the hard work Lee has put in over the past 10 years.

"This comes on the back of the project receiving the Ambition Quality Mark earlier in the year recognising the high standard of the projects policies and procedures. 

"For those who didn't know the breadth of the projects work, here is a snippet of what St Matthews offers our over 100 weekly participants

• Weekly parents play football for 3-4 year olds and their parent
• Weekly turn up and play sessions for ages 6-9, 9-12 and 16+
• Twice weekly team sessions (training and matches) for under 10, under 11s, under 13s, under 15s and under 16s
• Weekly girls football
• FA level 1 and 2 coaching courses
• NVQs in sports coaching

"Alongside this Lee and the coaches spend countless hours supporting the young people deal with family issues, liaising with schools and supporting young people navigate their way through adolescence. Personally I take great joy is seeing how the project has been able to employ a number of our ex players as coaches.  This Saturday for example over half of the coaches were ex players who have done their coaching qualifications with us and now work for the project.

"Well done Lee and everyone involved for your amazing achievement."

It is a real pleasure to share this sort of thing in this blog.

 You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here.  

Helping the thin blue line

Constable Douglas-Smith

Sometimes it is surprising how things come together. We're fresh from supporting the Met Police's Junior Citizen initiative by supporting 90 children to take part in activities promoting child safety, health and wellbeing - this is an earlier example. Our Tulse Hill office is looking forward to receiving the certificate we will get acknowledging our help, but helping the children is the real point.

We didn't think about it at the time, but when we supported the new Community Market in Tulse Hill, that too supported children and the police. This came home to us when we went to the Fun Day run yesterday by the Community Market at their old Scout Hut location. The market itself is about to move to a coffee shop at 357 Norwood Road, just down from our Tulse Hill office. The Fun Day, though, featured local traders, a few only just starting out, and people including (sometimes face-painted) children. It also featured Constable Douglas-Smith, pictured. On his beat in the community, the constable is well-used to being photographed as he pops into local events, keeping up relationships with people. However, if there were no Community Market, there would be less positive things being done in the community and one less opportunity for Constable Douglas-Smith to catch up with people in a nice setting. So, we are very happy that we have supported the market, and the Met's Junior Citizen initiative, and that we met Constable Douglas-Smith, our local example of the thin blue line of British policing.

We look forward to seeing him again.

You can read about who else we meet at the Community Markets and about their services and contact details in our post here.

You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here. 

Calling Tulse Hill businesses! Your community needs you

Tulse Hill Forum Chairman Erica with a fine cake and Chris, its baker

Yes, if you're a business in Tulse Hill, your community needs you! If you are a business in Tulse Hill, and we're one, near the railway station, you are part of the community. There's no getting away from it. So why not join us at the gathering the Tulse Hill Forum has organised on Wednesday 7th May at 7.30pm in the Creative Aroma coffee shop to meet local business people?

The Forum wants to listen to what local businesses think is important that can be done in Tulse Hill to make it even better for them and for everyone in the community. The Forum is also interested in finding out what businesses can contribute to what the Forum is doing - time, skills, money, items, even things as simple as use of window space for posters. Some of the things the Forum is doing are really innovative and making a real positive difference, drawing on the talents of local people of all ages.

The Tulse Hill Forum are as bright and engaging a group of people, and as determined to boost the local community, as any you'll find around the country. We really enjoy talking with them and doing what we can to support them and the recently started Tulse Hill Community Market. Hence this blog post.

So, if you're in a local business, please join the Forum and one or more of us from Edward Ashdale Estate Agents on the 7th. Did we mention what a lovely place the Creative Aroma is? Or how superb their home made cakes are? Well, they are. If you've not been there before, some and find out for yourself.

See you there.

John Adamthwaite

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.
  

Tulse Hill Community Market takes off!

See below for who these happy people are

In our last blog post, we said "Make a note in your Calendar - Saturday 25th January 2014" - about the launch of the Community Market in Tulse Hill. Details and future dates of the Community Market are in that earlier post, here. 

Well, we made a note ourselves and were there for the launch, and it was great! To think that just four months ago the market was an idea that came to young ladies, Iyanla (14 years old); Jada (14) and Liqueda (15) - all cousins - as they went around Brixton Hill market, and now, three months on, the hall was open, and all the tables for sellers were taken. Also, the marketing - 2500 bright, cheerful postcards designed by Shenice (18) and a poster displayed in our Tulse Hill window - had done its work and people were coming in, and the sun was shining. OK, that last part is hard to believe, but it was, and shining on the purple balloons and A-stand that were proudly declaring that the market was in session.

The creation of the market meant a lot to local people. So much so that they had managed to bring Lambeth's Deputy Mayor, Councillor Adedamola Aminu, and Clovis Till, holder of an MBE, to officially declare the market open. Pictured above together are, from the left - Margaret Pierre-Jarrett, Director of High Trees Community Development Trust; Sam Samuel of Edward Ashdale Estate Agents; Deputy Mayor of Lambeth Cllr Adedamola Aminu; John Adamthwaite of Edward Ashdale; and Nicole of Ast Enterprises (see below). Nicole is interviewed for the Now In Focus podcast about the story of the market, on the opening day, here.

Here is a little on the people who took part as sellers in the market. Apologies if anyone is missed - just give Edward Ashdale a call and you can be added later:

- The young ladies mentioned above themselves had a stall with varied produce - some very well worded key rings, small pictures, and jewellery. Hung nearby were some of Shenise's T-shirts with some stylish artwork;

- Not with a stall today, but present and helping, Nicole of Ast Enterprise - "Healing Hand Crafted Jewellery". Nicole can also be credited with having a big hand in helping the market become a reality. She will be selling at later markets. Enquiries to aqua.bah@talktalk.net;

Joan - centre

- Art by Joan (who only started drawing at 70 years old!) - botanicals and pet potraits - greetings cards, T shirts and other uses of Joan's very good drawing and artwork. Joan can be commissioned to produce pet portraits in pastels and those we saw were excellent, showing real character in the animals. Enquiries - joanlongley@btinternet.com;

A great sound

- Goldstar Bamboo Sax - small (and not so small) saxaphones made of bamboo. They made a lovely sound, which was played to us by Chris, live, all day. See www.goldstarbamboosax.com; 

By What I Hear I Keep

 - What I Hear I Keep - Scarves and hats knitted by Nola - strong colours and lovely soft wool - to find out more contact Nola at whatihearikeep@yahoo.com. Nola also offers children's tuition services;

- Titas World Cuisine - "Infusion of Caribbean flavours Homestyle Cooking" - very popular and Chef Vincent's food disappeared fast - see their Facebook page here; 

- Cherubim. Really nice baby clothes, and with additions of hard-to-source fabric from Ghana that made some of the garments really striking - contact Yvonne via vonsilver925@btinternet.com; 

- Jewellery, t-shirts, hats and scarves by Kylie and Trisha, two cousins. Baby bibs with slogans like "I'm not crying, I'm ordering dinner" were fun as well. Even more fun - as the bibs were inspired by Kylie having a baby recently - was Kyle mentioning one accurately inscribed "I support Liverpool because Daddy does";

- Abi's Cakes - flower arrangements; chocolates; chocolate bouquet's and baby garments thoughtfully arranged as cupcakes, with a chocolate on top. Enquiries to mommo-08@hotmail.co.uk;

- Butterfly After School Club (at the local St Martin's Community Centre) - Amanda was very friendly and there were a couple of photos of very happy children - enquiries - amanda_butterfly@hotmail.co.uk;  

Sweet T Licious

- Sweet T Licious - cake pops. Beautifully decorated, very sweet! Susan - enquiries - susiesoven@hotmail.co.uk.

Not to forget the teas and coffees and wraps that were there to refresh market-goers. 

In summary - it was a great day, with great people. Jennyfer Mclean, a lady herself instrumental in the setting up of the market, said something to remember during the speeches. "This is about youth, not people like me who have retired, but leaving a legacy, and going on and on and on, like the work Margaret [of High Trees] does." Not that anyone who meets Jennyfer would consider her retired. 

Joan, the artist, agreed with Jennyfer, saying "This is an enterprise, a place where young people and others can sell things and be inspired to make things and learn from people older than themselves."

As for the inspiring younger people themselves, Iyanla said, "I'm excited about the market and hope it will be a great success." Jada added, "I feel good, we've done something positive for the community." Shenice said, "I hope the community market gets known throughout this area." 

We're sure it will. We look forward to future Tulse Hill Community Markets and are honoured to be involved.

You can view our earlier posts in our Index here.

Update March 2014

This section of the blog will list more traders who have appeared at the market:

- Erin, an American lady resident in the UK who knits and crochets hats that are a lot of fun as well as keeping your head warm, for instance a pony hat with a mane, and a mouse hat. Erin also brought with her from a maker in Brighton several knitted toys, included an enchanting stripy cat, a Frankenstein's monster (with real neck bolt) and a pterodactyl. The items are available on craft website Etsy and when we have links we'll post them here;

- Mareah's Patisserie. Dubbed "a decadent taste of the Caribbean" Reah bakes artisan cakes and patisserie with unexpected and imaginative ingreadients from the Carribean - a bakewell tart with guava; cupcakes with Scotch Bonnet chili peppers, and more. If you would like to contact Reah, email mareahspatisserie@gmail.com or call 07931 969341. The business bagan in November 2013 so it was a pleasure to see the Tulse Hill Community Market showcasing her work so early;

- Maureen, who takes many different items from her personal collection and from friends and combines them with items from Freecycle to produce saleable goods. One especially striking sale item was clipframes from Freecycle combined with art prints from Maureen's earlier times as a bookseller. Maureen aims to generate some money to help people with learning difficulties get together and socialise mode widely.

Update July 2014

The Fun Day on 26th July featured more new traders, attesting to the wealth of talent and enterprise in and around Tulse Hill:

- Blessed G (above). Serving some excellent Caribbean food (the Akee with Salt Fish was really good and she has her own fresh cucumber, carrot, sour sop, ginger an lime, irish moss drinks). Also a mobile DJ for hire, Blessed G - a.k.a Gloria Dixon, email blessedgee1@gmail.com and telephone 07539 943612, is doing very well with her "Friday Night Fish Fries" from her home and plans to study to be a radio DJ. Her catering and DJ services can both be hired and both were being successfully used by the Community Market.

Speaking with us afterwards, Gloria confirmed that she can provide a range of fish dishes and also can provide specialist dishes on request, i.e., lobster, crab, fish pie, etc. Her regular dishes include: 

• Fry fish snapper/sea bass
• Steam fish
• Pepper prawns
• Fry sprats
• Salt fish fritters
• Ackee and salt fish
• Stew fish
• Home made fish n chips
• Rice, rice n peas, dumpling, bammy, breadfruit, plantain, hardo bread and more

Delivery is available on orders over £10 and prices start from £1 for single items. Meals range from £5 - £10 depending on items selected.

- K'Diva make up artist and facepainting. Karlene also does henna painting - such as on Baby Bumps - and makeovers and has been professionally trained. She says, "Everyone who sits in my chair leaves smiling."  www.kdivauk.com and on Twitter @kdivauk, email kdivauk@gmail.com

- Natural You bath and body products. Run by Sue, the stall features a range of goods including coconut body butter and an avocado, honey and olive moisturiser. The latter had to be replaced by one lady customer after two days, "as her daughter and her boyfriend kept nicking it!" Liz changes the range to sell the most popular items, such as the 'freshly squeezed' grapefuit bubble bath. Contact motherluv@hotmail.co.uk on 07532 169757

- Sadie Campbell - Former Tulse Hill resident, supporting the market and local people, but planning a series of events and charitable work in Croydon. Pictured above using the services of local ice man (and caterer, accountant, bookkeeper and jerk chicken man) Andy with his Yo Yo Shave Ice Desserts - @YoyoShaveice email shaveicedesserts@gmail.com, tel 07973 743344.

- Prudence - providing advice on stopping smoking and on wellbeing in general. As Prudence told us afterwards, "I provide non-nicotine stop smoking service for Blacks and Ethnic Minority Communities, Asylum seekers and Refugees community. As part of stop smoking top tips, I encourage and  support community groups , community organisations and young people, as well as event organizers  or  anyone who is interest to host one or more stop smoking top tips service programs. Here are few of our services:

• Health detoxification services for every one;
• Advisory Services relating to non -smoking:On telephone and face to face support;
• Health Assessments Services relating to Carbon Monoxide;
• 95 days non- smoking challenge programs;
• VADS - Non smoking Validation Services.

I also provides Ex-smokers recognition Certificate.This is to celebrate  Ex-smokers success. An opportunity to encourage  communities groups to say thank you to those we know  who have quit smoking. Show appreciation, value their efforts and contributions." 

"For more information on how one can join us, please visit www.stopsmokingtoptips.com or email opulentwellbeing@gmail.com or call 0788 340 1041."

You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here. 

Tulse Hill Community Market

On 25th January 2014, the Tulse Hill Community Market opened its doors in the Scout Hut in Upper Tulse Hill. The market opens fortnightly on Saturdays between 11am and 4pm. The market is now located at the James Wilson Coffee Shop, 357 Norwood Road, London SE27 9BQ.

Local young ladies aged between 13-17 years old set up the market to showcase their skills and products as budding business people and to help others locally to sell their wares. Everyone is welcome who can pay the modest table fee. 

Edward Ashdale estate agents have helped to publicise and fund the market. John Adamthwaite said, "It's a pleasure to be associated with the young ladies and their new market."

Tulse Hill Community Market upcoming dates in full:

• October    11th and 25th
• November    8th and 22nd
• December    13th and 20th

Please add this post to your Favourites, as we expect to add more information and updates including dates of the markets. 

Contact

If you'd like to get in touch with the market organisers, their contact details are:
 
Email: waistknotwantknot@live.com

Mobile numbers: Nicole on 07904 662306

Jennyfer on 07539 232992

You can browse our other blog topics in the Index here. 

Location! Location! Location! and the headlines

In a recent post we talked about the areas of Bromley and Tulse Hill and the expectations of estate agents in each location. They are certainly very different areas, and two of the things they obviously have in common are being in London Boroughs - Bromley is one itself - and each having an Edward Ashdale office.

Don't believe an area is a wash-out till you speak with us

One of the things that has happened in Bromley recently is focused on Orpington. Orpington got into the national press when journalists picked up on the high number of charity shops in the high street there (12) and the relatively high proportion to the shops in general this represented.  The arguments and facts about the rumoured death of the high street are complex, and this local blog for one took a step back and talked about some of the positives in Orpington.

Certainly, seeing a Daily Telegraph headline of "Austerity Street" citing Orpington provides one of those rare rub-your-eyes-and-look-again-moments. Yet you can see where they're coming from. A loss of independent retail shops in favour of, for instance, charity shops isn't perhaps ideal.Yet Orpington is a long way off having tumbleweed rolling down the high street past ranks of boarded up shops. There is a lot to praise in Orpington and the initiative "Orpington1st" appears to be gearing itself  up ready to showcase it.

From an estate agents point of view, we see currently that pretty much all types of property, rented or for purchase, are gaining higher values and rental charges in the current market. In what is something of a scrum to compete for a good quality, good value home in a suitable location a superficial view of an area is unhelpful. So while we reflected on the different sights and behaviours in Bromley and Tulse Hill, our local knowledge reaches beyond the headlines. Thus, we can say to people who ask us about moving to Orpington - "No, that austerity street label is unfair. It's not all gloom and doom and austerity. There's a lot of plusses too."

What are they? Here are just a few examples. 

Orpington has a 7 screen cinema pencilled in for the town centre and a redevelopment of the old library by Bromley Museum due to revive that asset in what are the lovely Priory Gardens. We can point out that the transport links for central London and the South East are great - just as they are in Tulse Hill. We can mention one of the country's few grammar schools in Newstead Wood, that is always very high in national educational league tables, and there other top local schools, primary and senior, in and around Orpington. We can talk about The Walnuts Leisure Centre. We can mention a recently award-winning bakery and an award-winning tea room, and the latest excellent Cray Festival. We can mention the Nugent shopping centre, the Foodbank that was set up in Orpington and that now serves Bromley; we can mention how green a place it is and that there are numerous sporting facilities including the Bromley Tennis Centre. We could talk about the great number of local social, faith, and community groups and charities. Then there are the new hardware store, the new guitar makers and the new American diner all in "Austerity Street".

If asked, we could talk about Tulse Hill in a similar way.  People need to read beyond the headlines. That is an area in which a good estate agent (like us!) can help people gain valuable insights that make for better decisions on where to make the location of their future homes.

Don't believe all you read. Unless we write it.

 

Our team: Hayley Mortimer

The latest member of our staff to be featured in this blog is Hayley Mortimer, who joined us in Summer 2012.

Hayley pictured at her desk

Hayley is based in our Tulse Hill Branch in the role of administrator, providing support to one of our Directors, John Adamthwaite (himself yet to be featured in our blog, but you can read about him here).

Hayley attended Bullers Wood School in Chislehurst through to Sixth Form. Hayley went on to further education at Orpington College, leaving to enter the IT Recruitment world. 

Hayley lives in Bromley with her 3 year old daughter, who keeps her very busy and highly amused. 

Useful post: South London local online

At Edward Ashdale we enjoy communicating and being part of local life.  One of the nice things that you can do with a blog is to be helpful, which is why we already have posts giving information about local schools - we will be updating those and adding to them -, and a "property related services to consider" post.

This "South London local online" post combines social media (well, we are 21st century estate agents) and local communities. It's not always easy to find the online communities where people get together online in South London, so we thought we'd offer some helpful links here. Want to find local people socialising and contributing to local life online? This is a blog post to add to your Favourites, and if you think we should add an online community we've missed, let us know. More will be added as we discover them.

In alphabetical order:

Beckenham

Beckenham Town us - Website here, Twitter here

Crystal Palace

- Crystal Palace People - website here, Twitter here

Norwood

- Virtual Norwood. Website here, Twitter here

Orpington

- Orpington Community. Website here, Twitter here

Tulse Hill

- Tulse Hill Forum. Website here, Twitter here

Our team: Derrick Boyce

As we said when we posted our first staff profile, we're proud of everyone who works for us.  

The second of us to be featured is sales negotiator Derrick Boyce, who is based in our Tulse Hill office. 

Derrick began his career in estate agency as a Saturday driver before becoming a full-time sales negotiator. 

Derrick joined Edward Ashdale in January 2008, after gaining several years of experience working for some of the major Estate Agencies in South London. He has experience of both residential sales and lettings and also gained some knowledge of the commercial market. 

His blend of enthusiasm, professionalism, experience and a friendly, but no nonsense attitude has made him a firm favourite with tenants and landlords alike. 

On the downside, he supports Arsenal FC.

You can also find brief staff profiles on our website, as well as other posts in this blog. Just use the search box and look under "team" or a name. 

Our team: John Campolini

We're proud of everyone who works for us.  You can find brief staff profiles on our website, but there is room in our blog for a bit more information.  The first of us to be featured is one of our three Directors, John Campolini, who is based in our Tulse Hill office.  

John was educated at St Joseph’s College, Beulah Hill.  He has been involved with property management for over 40 years and these days overlooks the various contracts with tenants, contractors, etc.  He is able to sign and witness various documents and is our specialist in Probate Sales.  

Apart from John's professional property experience, he has a number of interests and hobbies including being a Radio Ham.  He became interested in radio when he was a boy and gradually progressed and became licensed many years ago.  He is one of the founder members of the Mad Hatters Radio Group and one of the riveting subjects that has been discussed on air is the aerodynamics of flying broomsticks!  There was an audience of several dozen fellow radio amateurs listening in on the conversations which lasted over 2 hours and is still talked about after some years!  The Mad Hatters Radio Group has for over 25 years attended the annual Bromley Pageant of Motoring in Norman Park, showing the public what amateur radio is all about.  

For over 47 years he has been a member of the Knights of St Columba which assists the homeless and those less fortunate in our society.

Another of John's interests is music and he is a fairly accomplished musician and plays drums, keyboards and guitar.  He recently appeared in June at the Sydenham Arts Festival as a guest musician in a local rock band.  

John has a grown up son and daughter and two young grand daughters who keep him busy and always make him smile with their antics.