I bet you’ve seen a few changes round here? And I expect you’ve seen a few in your years on this planet; you weren’t exactly born with that hipster beard nor grew up drinking cold brew coffees.
Yes, it’s all new. I think there may have been horses and carts, cobbled streets, cheery bobbies on the beat, peasoupers, bookies’ runners, gas lamps, pearly kings and queens back in the day in 1989 when I landed here, towards the end of the era of yuppies and towards the approach of the millennium with its threatened Y2K bug.
Actually on my walk to Safeway, oops I mean Tesco, I notice just how much is new in the way of buildings. The pavements are pretty much the same, just as uneven and treacherous.
I think this building site had been a scrapyard for many years, the canny owner, or mercenary capitalist depending upon your politics, having held onto it until only the uber rich can afford to buy here.
And Pelican Cottage remains, refurbished and surrounded by new build. Apartments, not flats. We make them sound posh by calling them apartments, even though many face the A102(M).
At the top of Fairfield Road on its corner with Tredegar Road stood the improbably named Four Seasons Green, a scrappy little park, not much in its favour really. I did once take my parents’ dog for a walk there – he was more used to Hampstead Heath and seemed a bit traumatised by the local Staffies. The park is long gone and flats have been built in its place – these are flats, not apartments though, as they were built for a housing association rather than for commercial sale.
And, another new block, Heathfield Court. Except, it’s not new and must be at least fifteen years old now so you were probably selecting your GCSE choices then. Apartments, not flats.
And more new build, flats and houses. The houses here usually put on a bit of a competitive Christmas decorations display and I recommend a detour for the sheer joy of their light shows in November and December safe in the knowledge that you are not paying the electricity bill.
And Tesco, the adjoining apartments and flats built into the old Safeway car park. How the Roman Road market traders laughed when they heard that flats were being advertised there at more than £500,000. Half a million for a flat above Tesco.
Yep, it’s certainly changed around here.
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