Forum Topic

Building Brentford’s community?

I may be late to this party, but bear with me…I was watching the news item on the proposed Ballymore development for a 51 storey tower block (with only one stairwell) near Canary Wharf this evening. They included a clip of the 19 storey Ballymore development in East London where a fire took place last May. In the corner of the screen, I spotted a branch of Johns & Co, the same estate agent that opened in the High Street a few months ago. I had a lightbulb moment. A quick Google revealed that Johns & Co was founded by the former international sales director of… Ballymore. I found this: -‘But John Morley is looking to change all that. Previously head of international sales at Ballymore, Morley set up his own management company, Johns & Co, to help take care of the growing number of investor landlords he felt were being dealt a bad hand by the market.One way he set out to differentiate himself was to provide management of the property ahead of completion. “Investors can buy off plan up to three years ahead,” he notes, “so we do a lot of hand holding.” He helps landlords with important decisions along the way to do with finishes, insurance, and tax. Morley also arranges handovers, checks snagging and arranges furnishing, before finding a suitable tenant.Having sold more than 1,000 apartments to buyers in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, Morley had a good understanding of the support those investors needed. Yet while the majority of buyers were once overseas investors, he says the market has changed significantly since 2012, and now around half of buyers in need of his services are UK investors.’ - City A.M. Thursday 12 May 2016Draw your own conclusions, but - unsurprisingly - the notion that Ballymore is striving to build a vibrant community in TW8 rings pretty hollow. It seems to confirm that it’s all about overseas investment leading to transient occupancy and a dormitory town centre. Meanwhile, the Duke of London community - a diverse, organically-grown collection of interesting small businesses (and EXACTLY what the area needs) - is due to be flattened, in order to build yet more flats and unaffordable retail units. In all probability, they will never be occupied. It’s just horribly depressing. 

Tracie Dudley Craig ● 832d5 Comments

Can you expand on that?I think you might be referring to Duke of London. As far as I know, the businesses within the complex have about a year left in their current accommodation. The retail units being built will be very expensive and ultimately unaffordable. We will probably lose most of them, which is very sad, as there's some real entrepreneurship there. God knows what happened to the small businesses on the south side of the High Street. Rye by the Water (and their bloody awful coffee) is a Ballymore plant. They'll be OK. I envisage those retail units (currently being built) as under-used as the units in GWQ. A mini-Sains, a laundry, a gym and... well, that's all I can think of. Meanwhile, they're about to demolish the wonderful Wilson & Kyle building, which - had it been in Shoreditch or Bermondsey - would have been revered, preserved and USED. Then there's the Victorian buildings at the other end of the High Street, one of which used to house Cathja's Kitchen Table. The report said that it was in worse repair than they had at first thought - code for 'let's flatten it'. Stand on Kew Bridge and gaze at the Brentford side of the river, then look at the Chiswick/Kew sides. Brentford has been sold by the pound and it's just despicable.

Tracie Dudley Craig ● 831d

It certainly appears that way, doesn't it?

Tracie Dudley Craig ● 831d

Some of the other businesses mentioned have been spoon fed via Baltimore's marketing methods.There are genuine local rain businesses longer established and not assisted that are being squeezed out of not just Brentford but out of the whole area and precious little is being done to avert or accommodate them.Developers have such a grip and small business needs are crashed and left to dieThat's local people and local jobs.For far too long this has been at heart of Brentford's demise

Raymond Havelock ● 831d

No wonder John's threw a celebtatory "Street Party" on the opening of their Brentford Office (their 8th in London?) as reported on  the front page of this website.Is Brentford being mugged?

Jim Lawes ● 831d

Another quick Google suggests that Johns & Co’s London offices are located adjacent to Ballymore developments. They have four international offices: Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Malaysia. All of these offices deal with the new-build market in London.

Tracie Dudley Craig ● 832d