Since March this year Catford has been treated to a wonderful re-birth of a pub. You can find out about their story on my previous post on the birth of ‘The Catford Bridge Tavern’, First impressions, and the Food. Catford Bridge Tavern also now have their own website, with menus and news, etc. -so please check them out if you haven’t already.
Catford had been lacking in a safe and friendly place to enjoy a social life, up until the pub next to the railway (Once the Copperfield) changed hands and became the Catford Bridge Tavern.
This place is a real gem, and has really helped create a better atmosphere around the area, and is a place for our diverse community to relax in and enjoy. This is no ordinary pub, it speaks quality in its food and selection of drinks, especially their large and regularly changing selection of guest ales hailing from all over the UK.
Catford now feels a safer, nicer place to live and socialise in since this pub has been around.
Now, our pub is in danger of extinction. This is in now way due to failings of the pub itself, but because the freeholder -a faceless company which has it’s post sent to Middlesex (-ie. not from around here!) -wants to make more money off the property by changing it’s use from a pub to a retail space -and apparently already has interest from a national retailer. See his planning application HERE.
The annoying thing is that just as a good thing has come to Catford and changed the area for the better…. we suddenly find it might be taken away from us. And all for another shop. Catford is littered with the usual mediocre high street shops and is in dire need of regeneration of its existing shopping space without a need for any more to show up on scene.
The pub by the rail station has been on this site for a long time. Unfortunately I do not have a date, but judging by this picture, a long time ago. The pub is part of the fabric of Catford’s history, and a part of the social fabric of the community.
Another possible planning objection is:
As many locals know, the streets around this area are also already straining under the pressure of traffic, with the area just under the railway bridge often being snarled up. Though the pub receives supplies to run it’s business this is in no way to the extent a supermarket chain would require. Therefore we’d be seeing more lorries trying to access the site on a very regular basis, further exacerbating the current traffic problems.
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Please help save Catford Bridge Tavern by writing to one of the following:
(Please include the planning department in all mails of support).
- Email Lewisham planning: (the most effective means of objection)
planning@lewisham.gov.ukGVB
(Quote – DC/12/81142/X)
- Email local MP Heidi Alexander: heidi.alexander.mp@parliament.uk
- Email Lewisham mayor Steve Bullock: steve.bullock@lewisham.gov.uk
- Sign the On-Line petition, or sign the hardcopy in the pub –ask at the bar.
- Email local paper The News Shopper: mchandler@london.newsquest.co.uk
- Write to owner/freeholder – Mr Dipesh Shah, DVS Property Ltd, 4 Spring Villa Road, Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 7EB.
- Or mail Antic your letters of support: fi@antic-ltd.com
Thank you in advance for your help, it means a huge amount to us all.
Also if you have any comments or suggestions -including suggestions for what we could use as acceptable planning objections please do get in touch or comment below. I’d love to hear you thoughts.
-Please note I do not work for the pub I am just a local regular and fan of the ‘Cat Tav’.