Wiping out Childs Hill?

Barnet Council is proposing to get rid of the ancient name of Childs Hill.

Instead, the council ward will be named Golders Green South (as shown in this map).

If that bothers you, write or email by 13 May 2019:

The Review Officer (Barnet)
Local Government Boundary Commission for England
1st Floor, Windsor House
50 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0TL

Email: reviews@lgbce.org.uk 

You can read a few more details on Barnet’s website, here: new-political-map-barnet-council

The Big Clean-Up: Childs Hill Walk

JOIN US: 24 March 2019, from 12 midday to 2pm

It’s only 100 yards or so, but you can see a lot on a short stroll down Childs Hill Walk, from All Saints Church to Cricklewood Lane.

Not just the memorial garden, then the school, to the left. There’s also a somewhat tatty and depleted planting area, on the right, with a grubby wall, and thick laurel bushes.

Plus, a fair bit of rubbish. Not a vast amount, but enough to disappoint.

And some of us think the walk could be vastly improved with relatively small effort.

A group of residents, community groups, the church, representatives of the school, and both Conservative and Labour councillors, have come up with a variety of ideas to make Childs Hill Walk something really special.

This includes a variety of ideas for fresh planting and art installations, commemorating the history of this part of north London.

But before we get to that, we need to clean it up.

So we’ve set a date: 24 March 2019, from 12 midday to 2pm.

Please come along. We’ve got litter pickers and other equipment, and we’re putting up a display in the church to share our ideas.

We’d love to know what you think. Not only of the ideas we’ve already come up with – but any additional, better ideas you might want to add.

See you soon!

64 Computers

 

Have you met Vivek (right), at 64 Computers on Cricklewood Lane?

They sell a lot of stationery, but also handle postage. But here’s a tip:

To save money, Vivek suggests you create an account at myHermes.co.uk, fill in the necessary details, print off the label at home and THEN drop the parcel here in the shop…

(64 Computers are the only ParcelShop in Childs Hill.)

JP

PS. Vivek would like me to tell you that they also repair mobile phones.

Ridge Garage

You probably have seen them, because they’re often to be seen working in Prospect Road, at Ridge Garage.

Steve (fourth from left) opened Ridge Garage in March 1988 on Ridge Road, and moved it to Prospect Road in 2009.

Steve lives locally.

Pictured with Steve are Daniel, Omar, Danny and Elvis, who manages the garage. 

STEVE RECOMMENDS
We asked Steve who else we ought to know about in Childs Hill. He recommends Papa’s, the cafe on Finchley Road. “They’ve got nice food, and they look after us,” he said.

Crystalline

Childs Hill has long been known as the place that took in washing for the big houses in Hampstead – we’re well supplied with water on this side of the hill.

Laundry, haberdashery, and clothes repairs all continue to be well represented in the area – and dry cleaning too.

We’d like to introduce you to Ali and Nur, who run Crystalline Dry Cleaning on the corner of Finchley Road and Hermitage Lane.

They’ve been working here for many years – the mind boggles at how many shirts and other items they have cleaned in that time. They may have cleaned yours.

They don’t have the good fortune to live in Childs Hill themselves, but they don’t live far away. If you’re passing, pop in and say hello – tell them you read about them here.

THEY RECOMMEND
Ali and Nur support and use many other local businesses, but particularly recommend two nearby cafes, Papillon and Jels.

What’s Best About The Place You Call Home?

One of the best things about living in Childs Hill is the elevation – which gives us such big skies and lovely sunsets. But perhaps that’s just me…?

Recently, I sent an email out asking what YOU like best about Childs Hill.

I’m posting a few of the answers here, in hope that it inspires others to add more, in the comments below:

Several people mentioned the neighbourhood feeling:

I really like Prospect Road, the style of the houses inside and out, their close proximity to some shops (even if they are all DIY,  tile shops and agencies) and some friendly neighbours. it feels like my sort of road. I feel at ease here. – Michael

The park is wonderful, especially on a sunny Sunday. The people are mostly neighbourly and there are a lot of people willing to fight for Childs Hill’s rights. – Pauline

Others mentioned favourite suppliers of food:

Happy to recommend Golden Harvest – lovely Bangladesh food. We often have a delicious takeaway. Also we very much like Crystalline, the dry cleaner. – Veronica

Eurofoods on Hermitage Lane is much more than the sum of its parts. The place and its staff are part of the community and will be greatly missed if they go. – Felicity

Park Cafe – nice food, and cheap. – Pauline

Co-op croissants! – Maureen

Some are just happy to live in their own streets, which is a great sign:

Something lovely about Child’s Hilll – Prospect Road 🙂 – Suzanne

And others still mentioned the services that some of us depend on:

Jack and Jill Pre-school has to be up there as a valuable small business operating in Childs Hill. Ofsted rated them as ‘Outstanding’ in 2016. – Elaine

So far as it goes, this is a promising start.

But I’m sure there’s a lot more… but what?!

In the weeks and months to come, I’m planning to write, photograph and post a bit more about the area, the people – and the croissants (!).

I’ll focus on the things YOU suggest, so please leave a comment below if there’s something else about Childs Hill we need to know about…

JP

Welcome to Childs Hill Info

This site is designed as a place to share stories that were previously sent out by email.

Using a website allows individual readers to share comments, which wasn’t really possible before.

I have put this together at great speed, and it’s probably going to change a fair bit over time.

I hope you like it.

JP Flintoff

PS. Most of the letters in this image were photographed in the local area. If you think you recognise one, leave a comment below – and I’ll tell you if you’re right!

Raised Basement, Church Walk House

As you know, the developers of Church Walk House, Epsilon, are looking to sell the property with planning permission (here’s the brochure, in case you lost it).

At the same time, Epsilon are trying to amend the specifics of the consent they were granted at appeal.

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This mystified me, so I emailed Douglas Lister at Epsilon. He replied:

The application for changes is merely for minor internal matters and things like installing electricity plant and doesn’t affect anything you would be interested in.

We are marketing to determine whether we should sell or build, which is dependent on what we get offered. 

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So, what are these changes exactly?

Tim G, on Prospect Road, has kindly provided this detailed analysis of the proposed changes:

There are 13 variations to the drawings which got approval on appeal. Some minor, some less so.

The developer submitted these to Barnet Planning some time ago as ‘minor variations’ to the consented scheme.

The planners refused this (to their credit) and said they weren’t minor. Now the developers have submitted the same variations on this separate planning application (17/6776/S73).

This looks as though it will go through the full planning process, and will be referred to committee in the usual way if five or more comments are received from the public.

The list of variations is:

  1. Stair relocated; and single lift.
  2. Relocated bin store.
  3. Ramp and terrace above reconfigured.
  4. New plant room for carpark extract.
  5. Cycle storage moved from front to rear.
  6. New substation.
  7. Internal layout of ground floor flats reconfigured (because of no.6.)
  8. Windows changed (to suit amended layouts).
  9. Detail and extent of roof plant ‘clarified’ (my inverted commas).
  10. Condenser units for houses added.
  11. Vent relocated.
  12. Solar panels revised.
  13. New rain water downpipes.

Of these, I think the most important are no. 9 (roof plant) and no. 12 (solar panels).

No. 9: On the drawings of the elevations, items of roof plant have been added, not clarified. They are at each end and look quite considerable additions to the roof level, and may have implications for noise as well.

No. 12: Mike has commented on this. The panels need to be flat not angled or upright.

Of the others:

1. is internal. 2. is internal in basement. 3. ramp is internal. The amendment to the terrace alters the rear elevation. 4. addition to basement at rear. 5. cycle storage now at rear. 6. internal addition (at top of ramp). 7. internal. 8. the indications on drawings are that these are window alterations on roof pods, although it’s not clear exactly how they’re altered. 10. This refers to item of mechanical plant for houses at rear of them. 11. this is on middle roof pod.

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Thanks, Tim!

Meanwhile, Bill G on Lyndale Avenue has been chasing the council to push back the deadline for comments from the public.

This week, Bill received a reply from Alistair DeJoux, principal planning officer, which did not absolutely confirm a postponement:

I am still in the process of assessing the application and despite looking closely at the submitted drawings today I am not yet able to tell you how much levels would change for the basement and for any other parts of the building. 

My understanding at this stage is that the maximum height of the building would not change, but that the finished floor level within the basement would be slightly higher and I will be looking closely as to whether that affects any other elements in the building height  –  as you will be aware, this varies considerably across the site.

I do not anticipate that we would be in a position to make a decision before the new year, and as always we will take all written comments into account right up to the time of writing our report and / or going to Committee. 

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So there you are.

If you want to add your voice to call for a delay, click this link and your email will open with Mr DeJoux’s address pre-loaded.

JP