Apology

Please accept our apologies for the ommission on this site of the minutes of several meetings. between Oct 2008 and Feb 2009

We hope to rectify this soon but in the meantime, if anyone needs to see the missing minutes please contact us on 020 8 318 7171 Thank you

Minutes of meeting February 10th 2009

CRYSTAL PALACE & NORWOOD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Minutes 10 February 2009

Patrick’s Bar, Westow Hill
Those present:

Ray Hall* (New Crystal Palace Ltd, chair of Chamber)
Andrew Parfitt* (Honorary Secretary)
Vivienne BartholomewVien
L Beaumont (landlord)
Michael Brown (Michael Brown builder)
Kim Bryce (Way Ahead)
Kevin Carleton-Reeves (transport consultant)
Sarah Dacre* (Amphlett Lissimore)
Rosemarie Falaise (freelance)
John Greatrex* (Sainsburys)
Jenny Hall (guest)
T Kemp (Lawrences)
Frank Lissimore* (Amphlett Lissimore)
Girish Mohile (Raymond Hall Ltd)
Stan Morris* (Shine Bright)
Sue Nagle* (Triangle Traders)
Kirit Patel (Sefgrove’s)
Saleh Rahman (First Option Estates)
Ahmet Rashit (Alistairs Café Restaurant)
Gail Rickard (Funky Junk)
Gavin Rookledge (Rook's Books)
Jonathan Rowlandson (Jonathan Rowlandson Design)
Yogi Shah (Macdonald’s)
Tim Sharville (Mango Swiss)
Andy Stem (Bambino’s)
Tim Taylor (Glitter and Twisted)
Jane Arte Watt (JAG Contemporary Design)
Dilly Williamson (Funky Junk)

* Management CommitteeApologies
Mark McLaughlan* (The White Hart)Silke Rudolph* (The Massage Practice)

1.0. Introduction
Ray welcomed all to Patrick’s, noting how great it is to see so many people in attendance. Everyone getting together can help transform business and people’s lives.

He said that our aim should be to consolidate who we are as a business community and then to get on to the South London stage. Lots of people want to trade with us; we should build on these links to raise our profile within London and beyond – and then onto the world stage.

Take languages for instance. A show of hands among those present showed that local business people includes about six speakers of French, several of Hindi, and others fluent in German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin. So we can communicate across language barriers to tell everyone what a great place Crystal Palace is and help each other know how to welcome visitors from abroad.

1.1. Minutes of previous main meeting

Ray gave his special thanks to Sarah Dacre for her hard work in helping to prepare the minutes of the 13th January meeting. Sue noted that she had been given in writing four proxy votes in favour of the New Crystal Palace proposals before the 13th January main meeting. She also noted that the only vote against had been made by the guest of a member and hence was invalid. It was agreed that the minutes of the main meeting would be amended to show that the Chamber had voted in favour of the New Crystal Palace proposals in principle by a unanimous margin of 29 votes to zero.

Unless there are any objections, the minutes of the 13th January meeting are assumed to be agreed as a fair record.

2.0. Five Minutes of Fame

Ray invited two local business people to make short presentations:

2.1. Gavin Rookledge runs Overspill Arthouse Ltd, an incubator company for artists, including a film studio, theatre group, jeweller and fine art, all based in Cooper’s Yard off Westow Hill. His main company, Rooks Books Ltd, is 20 years old, and has as its company vehicle a 1920s Ford Brampton. Gavin exhibited a leather-bound volume, noting how leather not only has a great history, but is also essentially a recycled material, biodegradable and a renewable resource.

Gavin said that he employs over 20 people, mostly graduates with an arts background. Most of his companies’ work involves making what he called indulgences for the world’s super-rich. Clients include Roman Abramovich, Bono, Naomi Campbell, Chris Evans, Bill Gates and the Duke of Edinburgh – who commissioned a work for Prince Charles’s 60th birthday last November. As far as possible, Gavin tries to source materials from local businesses.

In response to a question from Ray, Gavin said that he had been able to build up his businesses through continual talking and publicising. All applauded Gavin’s work with the hope that it would encourage other similarly talented people to the area.

2.2. Vivienne Bartholomew runs Vien in Church Road, which sells vintage clothes, bags, shoes and jewellery. She is very grateful to Sue Nagle and Andy Stem for their encouragement in getting her started, and to her landlord, Banny Bachks, for his helpful attitude. Particular thanks go to her husband, Paul, for moving his freight-forwarding and flat-pack businesses into the rear of the premises. A large part of Paul’s activities involves arranging the supply of spare parts to the super-rich, including Roman Abramovich and Steven Spielberg.

The main source for Vien’s products is Italy. Vivienne works with high-quality materials to recycle, customise and design with the Vien label. Her business is all about observing customers’ needs, and responding to them: listening and learning. Most of her customers are young women and girls – who often have a keen interest in fabrics through learning about them at local schools.

Vivienne said she is really impressed by the sense of community in Church Road, with enormous potential for success. But the traffic is an appalling problem: drivers must be made to slow down and there is an urgent need for a pedestrian crossing. Local people want to support local business but are put off by the noise and the danger of the traffic. We should work to create a “Crystal Palace Calm”. That way we will be “Putting the Crystal into Crystal Palace”.

All applauded Vivienne’s presentation and for the way she has engaged with the local community, wishing her every success in the future. Ray noted how Church Road has a vital role: if we can get this working right, then we can help the Triangle and the whole Crystal Palace community.

3.0. Main Item: My Vision for London and Crystal Palace - James Cleverly (GLA Member for Bromley and Bexley)
Ray welcomed James, whom he had first met in the booth at Joanna’s. He had immediately taken to James as someone to be trusted and enjoyed. Together we could fulfil the vision of Crystal Palace becoming the centre of South London. For Crystal Palace is enriched by who we are: together we can put Crystal Palace on the world stage.

Ray began with a couple of questions:

How come you live in Lewisham and yet represent Bromley and Bexley?

James replied that he was born and raised in Lewisham, where his mother was a midwife at the hospital. He has subsequently lived in Brockley, Hither Green and is now a near neighbour of Ray’s in Belmont Hill, Lewisham. After being active in South London politics, he was put forward as a candidate for Bromley and Bexley in the London Assembly, whilst retaining a huge amount of affection for Lewisham. With particular relevance to Crystal Palace, he noted that although some issues conveniently concern only one borough, many are London-wide. Crystal Palace is far more strategic than just its five boroughs – it has the potential to be a “sub-regional hub”.

Boris Johnson came to Bromley Civic Centre to meet the people. You chaired and know him well. But what is he really like?

James said that Boris is very like his TV image: what you see is what you get. As well as being very clever, he admires Boris for the consistency in approach he shows towards different audiences. Warts and all, even his political opponents find it difficult not to like him. And Boris is genuinely very enthusiastic and positive about outer London and its businesses, in which as Ray noted, Crystal Palace has a key role.

James then set out his vision for London and Crystal Palace:

His background is in publishing, particularly material for small businesses. He established an online magazine to give advice to entrepreneurs and is very much on the side of business. When elected to the Assembly he resolved to be clear about distinguishing between what he hoped to achieve and what can be realistically achieved. For it is important that politicians are honest about what they can deliver, because of the effects on businesses.

There are a large number of transport infrastructure projects floating around in London. But over the next 20 years, spend will be dominated by two enormous projects – the Olympics and CrossRail. It is therefore wasteful to spend millions of pounds a year on consultants fees and other costs to keep other schemes going if they have little prospect of delivery funding in the foreseeable future. And it is unfair to businesses, if they are mistakenly encouraged to invest money and energy in preparing for schemes that are unlikely to materialise within a commercial time horizon. In view of this, the Assembly has decided to indefinitely postpone several schemes, such as the Cross-River Tram, the Docklands Light Railway extension, the Thames Gateway Bridge and the Croydon Tramlink Extension. James said that whilst the Tramlink extension to Crystal Palace costs less than some of the other schemes and is perhaps closer on the horizon, in the short term, i.e. within the next five years, it is not going to happen.

Local traffic problems are hard to resolve because the main routes in the Triangle are not part of the Transport for London (TfL) Road Network, instead being the responsibility of the individual boroughs. TfL can, however, play a coordinating role, helping to overcome difficulties associated with local politics. James said that he would be happy to play the role of ‘knocking heads’ together, building on local knowledge with Ray as the conduit. He invited Chamber members to send him the top two or three things which they thought would make a difference, either through Ray or directly to james.cleverly@london.gov.uk copying in Ray for information.

James said that early in his political career he was advised not to give a view on any of the proposals for Crystal Palace Park, given the passionate support for several seemingly conflicting schemes. It is beyond argument that the park has suffered from a lack of love and attention in the past and that it would benefit from investment in smartening it up. This would almost certainly have a positive effect on the local area, for retailers and leisure. But there are divergent opinions about the source of funding and whether residential development should play a role. James said that whilst his natural view was to be uncomfortable about residential development in the park, he saw it as the best means of getting a quick cash injection that could, say, help the sports centre. And as a board member of the LDA, James would aim to ensure that any buildings on the edge of the park were environmentally and architecturally sensitive. This would enable Crystal Palace to fully benefit from Olympic-related activity such as training venues and would keep options open with respect to proposals for the top site.

Several members expressed concern about the desirability or feasibility of this approach. James was asked why the LDA did not come out in support of the New Crystal Palace proposal, which has unanimous support from the Chamber’s members. James said that he liked the idea of an exciting multi-use destination on the top site. But he did not know whether the New Crystal Palace could come to fruition quickly enough, especially as vocal opposition from some elements would delay construction. So whilst he is supportive of the proposals, he would urge caution.

So, James said that his vision is to support small businesses and to make Crystal Palace a destination. For instance, in the London Assembly he had successfully delayed implementation of Phase 3 of the Local Emission Zone – this would have hit supplies of small businesses by diesel vans without offering clear-cut environmental benefits. His friend and business partner, who lives in Anerley Hill and works in Shoreditch, describes Crystal Palace as “very nearly brilliant”. It is dominated by owner-managed shops and has real interest and real diversity. James’s vision is not to turn Crystal Palace into a parade of national retail outlets but instead to reinforce its advantages of being genuinely diverse, unusual and exciting. He wants to make it easier to get to and to see a more flexible approach to traffic and parking.

James said that Boris’s vision is to rejuvenate the traditional “town and village” clustering in London. He wants to preserve the very distinct identities of sub-regional nodes and not just to accept as a given London’s radial transport infrastructure. People should work closer to where they live, allowing flows on the roads and railways to be more balanced in either direction. Car access would always be important, but how could orbital public transport links be improved between places such as Bexley and Crystal Palace?

For “Crystal Palace is blindingly obvious as a hub” and contains bars, restaurants and other destination activities - as well as “nuts and bolts” retail. James would keep pushing and keep shouting about business, and the Chamber should consider him as a friend on the GLA. Boris is sympathetic to the small business cause and James will do his best to get him down to Crystal Palace.

In conclusion, Sue Nagle presented James with three “books” containing 108 individually-signed petitions from local businesses in favour of the reinstatement of the Tramlink extension to Crystal Palace. Each petition was accompanied by an A4 photograph of the business that had signed. James thanked Sue and noted the commitment of the traders. He said he would show the books to Boris and report to him on the economic and regeneration case that had been outlined.

Ray warmly thanked James for his engagement with the Chamber. John Greatrex and Sue Nagle kindly arranged some photographs to record the event.

4.0. Future Main Meetings

It has been agreed by the Management Committee that, after March, the main meetings of the Chamber will move to the first Tuesday of each month, so as not to clash with the networking events which have been set up by George Pirintzi.

So, future main meetings in 2009 are:

· 10 March: Stephen Carr (Leader of LB Bromley): My vision for Bromley and Crystal Palace. Patrick’s Bar below starting at 6.45pm
· 7 April: Five Minutes of Fame – nine or ten local businesses speak forth
· 5 May: Promoting Crystal Palace on the South London, London and world stage (provisional)
· 2 June
· 7 July
· 4 August
· 1 September
· 6 October
· 3 November
· 1 December.

5.0. Any Other Business

5.1. Red Nose Day Quiz Night: Frank Lissimore announced that Amphlett Lissimore is pleased to arrange this at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 12th March at the Langley Park Sports Club, Hawsbrook Lane South Eden Park Road, Beckenham. Tickets are on sale for £7.50 from Sarah Dacre and include a two-course hot meal. Teams should be made up of six to eight people.

For details of the location please see:
http://www.bromleymytime.org.uk/langley-park-sports-centre.html
http://www.yell.com/listings/DoFindListings/398834/Langley-Park-Sports-Centre/Leisure-Centres

5.2. Crystal Palace Corner: John Greatrex gave an update: public notices requesting an extension to the planning permission are now in place by the Corner and on the notice board by the museum in Anerley Hill. He is to give a talk on it the next day.

6.0. Date of Next Main Meeting

Tuesday 10th March, 6.30 for 6.45 p.m.: Patrick’s Bar, Westow Hill..

Minutes of meeting 14th October 2008

CRYSTAL PALACE & NORWOOD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Minutes of Main Meeting, 14 October 2008, Patrick's Bar, Westow Hill

Those present:

Ray Hall* (New Crystal Palace, chair)
Andrew Parfitt* (Honorary Secretary)
Vivienne Bartholomew (76 Vintage)
John Cooke (Amphlett Lissimore)
Will Ellner* (Joannas)
John Greatrex* (Sainsburys)
Geri Greene (JWPR)
Jenny Hall (New Crystal Palace Ltd)
Mervyn Hing (Silk Route)
Kanex (Pizza Express)
William Loque (The Exhibition Room)
Don Madgwick (abba cappa records)
Mark McLaughlan* (The White Hart)
Bradley Millington (Upper Norwood Joint Library)
Girish Mohile (Ray Hall Ltd.)
Stan Morris* (Shine Bright)
Sue Nagle* (Triangle Traders)
Dinesh Patel (Budgens)
Ahmet Rashit (Alistairs café/restaurant)
Gavin Rookledge (Rook's Books)
Jonathan Rowlandson (Jonathan Rowlandson Design)
Andy Stem (Bambino)
Chris Stewart* (Acorn Estates)
Joan Vernette (Friends Hair & Beauty)
Jacki Wadeson (JWPR)

* Management Committee

Apologies

Jane Watt

1. Introduction

Ray Hall welcomed all to this impressive venue. On 15th October 1988, "Crystal Palace Norwood Heights" by Audrey Hammond and Brian Dann was first published. So, it was a particular pleasure to welcome Audrey to present a slide show covering this book and the past 20 years.

Audrey's book encourages us all to get to know Crystal Palace better as a destination, for the place and its people. For Crystal Palace is a global brand and we need to try and understand better what constitutes its identity.

The festival day of 27th September was a great success. Some thousands of people came to what was largely a spontaneous community-based organisation. It displayed the range of people with talent in the local area. Bradley Millington was congratulated for the role of the Library that day.

The next festival would be on 29th November. Gavin Rookledge of the Crystal Palace Business Partnership would be helping to prepare. The theme would be "Stars", making the Triangle come alive in a way that is relevant to Christmas.

We should look to build up the momentum and substance for future festivals. We should make Crystal Palace The Destination for South London. And with London on the world stage for 2012 and beyond, we should put Crystal Palace on the London map and the global map.

Audrey would show in her presentation how she sees the area. How she as an artist notices different things, recording what they mean in Crystal Palace. She can help us to understand the identity of Crystal Palace as a place. So any changes we make should be anchored into this unique brand. When there is the opportunity, we should make tangible improvements so that Crystal Palace is more than ever a place people want to come to: the heart of South London.

Finally Ray congratulated Tamnag Thai for their "Britain in Bloom" award, and Andy Stem for one of Bambino's jackets appearing in Vogue, worn by Kate Moss.

2. Crystal Palace Presentation

Audrey said that when she arrived in Crystal Palace in 1956 after four years at art school, it was an urban village like Highgate. So much has disappeared since then; a terrible erosion.

Through the Crystal Palace Community Association, exhibitions such as "The Vanishing Triangle" and her artwork, Audrey has aimed to highlight the unique identity of the area and campaign for the preservation of that which remains.

For what was simply an area of woodland crossed by tracks in 1745 had by the early 19th century become a village. A few of these early two-storeyed cottages survive. From the mid-1850s the scale of development became much grander as the Crystal Palace brought trade and prosperity. Even after the Palace burned down in 1936, the commercial activity remained. Until the mid-1970s it was possible to find all the shops in the Triangle that one could wish. Subsequently much has changed, although at least Croydon's erstwhile plans for comprehensive redevelopment were not to be realised.

The pictures shown by Audrey illustrated some of what has been lost and what survives. They highlight features such as arched windows, lovely details and fine lettering which might otherwise be overlooked.

Particular points of interest include:

- the weatherboarded building in Westow Street, next to "The White Hart". This is probably a remnant of the original early 19th century pub. Now derelict, it would make a fantastic venue for an art gallery or arthouse cinema.

- the Library: very much the heart of the Triangle. We need to fight to keep the excellent level of service provided by the team.

- the benefits of keeping and restoring original decorations and shopfronts: so as to retain the unique character of Crystal Palace. Independent traders should make a stand against pressures for "ordinarification".

Ray thanked Audrey for a fascinating presentation. He asked what words people would use to describe the Triangle; responses were: "eclectic", "proud", "faded splendour", "village", "green", "eccentric", "charmingly scruffy", "resilient". He encouraged us all to fight to keep what remains, so that Crystal Palace became enhanced as a destination.

3. Any Other Business

For Christmas, Gavin said that stars would be a theme in the Triangle with the aim for businesses to include these in their window displays. Sue suggested having Christmas trees at each corner of the Triangle, with a Chamber of Commerce contribution. Also she said that the intention would be to have a Chamber Christmas Party.

Ray said the Business Partnership wondered whether a Christmas tree could go at the centre of each side of the Triangle on private land, e.g. the Albert pub, outside Sainsbury's and Bambino's. He said he would put to the Chamber's committee of management paying each venue £50 to cover electricity used.

Jacki Wadeson of JWPR shared her thoughts on stars and that she was researching what options there were. Jonathan Rowlandson said he could make metalwork stars. There was excitement about the idea. Sue said it would be great to raise money for children in need as part of the event because it so close to Christmas.

Ray thanked Patrick's for providing an excellent venue.

5. Next Meeting

Tuesday 11th November: 6.45 to 8.00 p.m at Amphlett Lissimore (corner of Westow Street and Church Road). John Greatrex would be giving a presentation as a discussion starter on a Crystal Palace Festival for 2009.