Twickenham Town Centre

You can see the pre-publication document online (it clocks in at nearly 100 pages!) or, if you’re super keen and want to get a close up view of plan (please note how we resisted the temptation to use the word TWAP again there) then you can do it this very weekend at the Civic Centre. There will even be council types and consultants on hand to answer your questions. Now, you may well shudder on hearing the word consultant but then again you may also shudder at the idea of the a Council going it alone on a 15 year plan without some outside help. It’s a tough call.

If you need a reminder of what it’s all about, well, in headline terms we’re talking about a strategy for the development of the town through to 2027 which focuses on land use of key sites such as the King Street shopping area, Twickenham Riverside and the “northern gateway”. It’s not just about the types of development the Council – and, hopefully, we – would like to see, it also looks at options for dealing with transport and parking in the town. After all, if we want more shoppers and workers then they’ve got to get around somehow. Boris Bikes for all?? Could be. Or how about a legacy from our very own Dear Leader… True Trikes? There are plenty of good ideas in the plan but as we all know, planning is one thing, making it happen is something else. We’ve covered this issue before on twickerati but obviously there’s a load more on the Richmond Council website including links to the grand document itself. Hey, wait a minute, those consultants aren’t being paid by the word are they?? Surely not! Joke. It was a bloody joke alright!

So, you can see the pre-publication TWAP and ask lots of questions at the Civic Centre, York Street, Twickenham on:
* Friday 27th Jan. 6pm to 8pm
* Saturday 28th Jan. 10am to 2pm

In addition to these sessions and the online info you can see more TWAPPY stuff at the Civic Centre or at Twickenham library. This “pre-publication consultation” ends on 10th February.

LINKS:
* LBRuT Pre-publication Consultation (ends 10 Feb)
* The Document Itself!!

Travelodge offers a warm welcome to cyclists

Want something a little more Twickenhammy? Well, we kicked off 2012 with a New Pix of the Week thread which featured this special treat… two pictures on one day. Get In! But they do sort of work well together. A January morning on the Thames by Eel Pie Island in Twickenham.

Life belt by Eel Pie Island, Twickenham

Morning rowers, Eel Pie Island

Heatham House Youth Centre

Now then, we know that the Council loves a good listening consultation. And now, just for a second, imagine you’ve got a great big pudding in front of you. Shovel some into your gob and do a bit of eating. What can you taste? Proof? Can you taste it in the eating?! If you can then great. If you can’t then you might want to see real evidence that alternative facilities of an equal, or even better, standard are in place before giving up on Heatham House. With the sorting office site being owned by a property developer rather than the Council, this is even more relevant. How to put this… things can change. After all, it would be a shame if, say, the Council adopted a plan and then, say, voted against its own plan when it came to the crunch. Surely not! It could happen, you know. Or should that read, “It could happen again, you know”?

Heatham House has a great deal going for it and a lot of popular support. And perhaps there is merit in keeping an old building for the exclusive use of the young. However, new facilities could be even better if done properly and shouldn’t just be dismissed out of hand. A broad view needs to be taken. But losing one without certainty over the other would not show much commitment to the borough’s young people, aka the council tax payers of tomorrow.

LINKS:
Friends of Heatham House
El Brute’s Heatham House Consultation
(Ends 16th February)
“Save Heatham House Petition” – now closed

Better? Worse? Bovvered? It’s your view that counts. And who knows, if you’re really lucky, it might even be taken into consideration. No further questions, your Honour.

Scroll forward six months and it’s time to expand the concept to an ever so slightly bigger handful of people. If you run a local site, have ideas about that kind of thing, fancy contributing content, like the idea of the whole hyperlocal community thing or simply want to engage in that most unsavoury of modern activities “networking”, then now is your chance.

It’s the TW hyperlocal social. Open invite and so informal that it’ll be like wearing flip flops to a funeral. Initial cast list as above but with a few more and now that you’ve read this, maybe even with your good self.

Thursday 19th January. From 8.30pm. The Royal Oak, Richmond Road, Twickenham. (opposite York House, no less!)

Shop the Twickenham Boutiques
Feeling frazzled by the crowds in Kingston? Don’t want to make the long trek into London? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Twickenham has some of the finest shopping in the borough – if you know where to look. Yes, Church Street is lovely – but it’s for amateurs. Serious Twickenham shoppers hit up the boutiques. The Twickenham Boutiques.

Not familiar with these exclusive retail establishments? That’s probably because they’re interspersed with regular shops on the High Street. The Boutiques like to keep a low profile. In fact, you probably walk right by them everyday. But The Boutiques are where all the best names of Twickenham do their shopping. From last season’s ladies clothing, to slightly scuffed shoes, to previously assembled jigsaw puzzles, to (slightly chipped) fine china and crystal – it’s all available at The Boutiques…

There are so many Boutiques, one hardly knows where to start. It can be a little overwhelming. Plus, one wouldn’t want to stumble into a Boutique unawares and risk making a faux pas, that would be simply dreadful. So to help you get started on your Boutique shopping experience, I’ll share four of my personal favourites.

Oxfam, Twickenham

The Princess Alice Hospice – This exclusive Boutique is off the beaten path, tucked away on London Road. One of my favourite features is the frequently updated, seasonal window displays to tempt you inside. Once inside, you find an intimate, cozy setting with an ample supply of women’s fashion. A quirk of this Boutique is that each clothing display rack is topped with elegant glassware. This clever juxtaposition helps you visualize your complete “party look” with outfit and cocktail in hand! Often less busy than the other Boutiques, and conveniently located near Waitrose, it’s a highly recommended stop before your weekly shop.

Charity begins in store

Paws: treasure trove

Although these are my four personal favourites, don’t stop here. There are so many more Twickenham Boutiques to explore!

In fact, I often wonder whether there are more coffee shops or boutiques in our fair town. But fortunately for us, fellow savvy shoppers, Twickenham is awash with both! So on your next ladies’ shopping afternoon don’t trek into London or suffer through the long bus ride to Kingston – impress your friends with a stop at the Twickenham Boutiques!

Amanda Cook
Vintage Savoir Faire
Twitter: @vintageamanda

New in Town

Heading up Heath Road to opposite the Alsford timber yard and next to the kebab shop, two empty units are being turned into… a deli grocer / cafe. Are you spotting a theme developing? We don’t want to sound like a bunch of miseries but delicatessens don’t have a great track record in the town. London Road, King Street and Church Street have all played host to short-lived delis in the last few years. Will this one work? We hope so and the market is probably more receptive now than it was back then, but will it be too far from the Sandys / Laverstoke axis to get sufficient foodie footfall? It’s certainly a risk. And as to whether we really need another cafe in Twickenham, well, that’s a subject for heated debate across the whole of Middlesex County. But we like the idea of a decent deli carrying a diverse range of stock so good luck to ‘em.

Meanwhile spies report that the premises of long defunct hair salon, “Forever” on London Road is showing signs of life. That sure was one hairdresser that didn’t live up to its name. Anywayyy… we say “spies” but what we really mean is that it’s got a big “Let By” sign over it and a bloke was recently spotted inside fiddling with a plug socket. There you go. PROOF! We await full details but apparently it’s going break new ground in Twickenham by trialling the sale of “curryccinos”! Imagine it, “Would you like garam masala sprinkled on top, madam?”

Shops. What shops?
Rambling on… with a whole shiny year ahead of us, perhaps it’s time to ponder on what shops Twickenham needs in its shopping streets especially as we have quite of lot of retail roadage. From Richmond Road near Lebanon Park through to Heath Road up by Twickenham Green, including Church Street and London Road, there’s a huge amount of shop frontage to fill with cafes, chemists, charity shops, independent traders, estate agents and more charity shops. There’s over a mile’s worth of stuff. With Richmond and Kingston down the road and out-of-town and online shopping becoming the norm for many, there simply isn’t the volume of trade going on locally that there once was. Or not for the same kind of things. And anyway, who has the patience to stroll up and down a high street buying 20 individual items from 20 different shops? You don’t that’s for sure. Unless it’s for some week-end leisure activity, of course. Ahh, so that’s what the cafes are for.

With this in mind it’s worth a look at El Brute’s Twickenham Area Action Plan which is now out for your comments and consultation. It’s good to have plan for the town event if it does contain a lot of what our American friends might refer to as motherhood and apple pie. After all, what’s not to like about a thriving retail, tourist, rugby destination full of wonderful shops (both chain and independent), restaurants, cafes, bars and community open space complete with children’s choir? Yes please to all of that! And the money to fund it. And the appropriate landlord and planning permissions too! One thing the TWAP does do is suggest the Twickenham retail area is focused more heavily around King Street, York Street and Church Street. To get some kind of ‘shopping critical mass’ does seems pretty sensible even if that does sound like the freakish lovechild of Mary Portas and Professor Brian Cox. It would help to create a clear shopping destination but they’ll have to move fast on York Street if that’s not to become wall to wall bars, cafes and curry houses. In fact, did you know that two more cafes have opened since you started reading this article?

LINKS:
Twickenham Area Action Plan

BTW, our last High Street Update is here, or just wend your way back in time by clicking on the “High Street updates” on the Categories Index on the right.

Orleans Park School

Link School Change
El Brute’s consultation on ending link school status is currently live. Among the twickerati, the people most affected by this will be those with children at primaries which currently have a link connection with Orleans Park or Teddington Schools but don’t live close to them. But it will also have a knock on effect on admissions more generally. The other secondary school affected is Grey Court in Ham. What the link means is that children at linked primaries get a higher priority in admissions to that secondary school than pupils from non-linked schools. The result here in Twickenham is that a child at a linked school (say Archdeacon Cambridge) may get a place at Orleans Park School at the expense of a child at a non Orleans-linked school (say Trafalgar) despite that Trafalgar child living closer to OPS. Meanwhile Trafalgar has link with Teddington which can lead to Twickenham kids going there at the expense of children who attend non-linked schools over in TW11. Ending the link school status would produce a straightforward system whereby more school places are allocated on the basis of distance from the school. Simples.

Is that fairer? Probably. Well, it’s certainly more logical. Attending your nearest school seems like a pretty fair way of doing things although it will raise the usual “selection by postcode” criticisms. It won’t be good news for people who had hoped to get their children into Orleans Park through a linked school despite living on the fringes of its “catchment area”. They might find themselves looking at Twickenham Academy instead. Getting more Twickenham children into the Twickenham Academy would please El Brute who want to ensure the new academies are nice and full but its early days for Twickenham Academy and it’s still unproven. Will those Twickenham parents who had been banking on places at Orleans or maybe Teddington be happy with that outcome? We could ask some. Or, if you are one, you can add your comments below.

El Brute’s consultation is currently available for your comments and runs until 13 Jan 2012. If adopted as it stands, the changes would be effective for admissions in September 2013. This is quite a quick turnaround giving parents only a few months to consider their options. Given that El Brute are hoping that the three secondaries will convert to academy status by 2014 anyway (at which time they can start to muck about with their own admissions policies) it looks as if this could be something of a one year wonder. Is it worth the effort for a year of two of admissions? Probably not. So perhaps it’s got more to do with the other changes coming our way, which leads us on nicely…

Everyone a Winner?
At a recent council meeting the issue of secondary schools was debated yet again. And it’s great news for all, if you’re drinking Bacardi. Or rather, if you believe the Council Press Release. Plenty of places for every child, sixth forms, free schools, a Catholic secondary and a new community school (if required, of course) by 2016. A non-existent survey for this site revealed that most people just want good local schools rather than endless bogus options. The idea of choice sounds good but doesn’t always deliver in practice. School admissions criteria have to be broadly open to all although there are one or two exceptions locally in the form of Kingston’s grammar schools (exam based) and the planned RC secondary (parents attendance at Church). With limited ability to select their pupils, all these different types of school will have to try to attract the “right sort of pupil”. When this happens the good schools become the popular schools at which point the old postcode lottery kicks in again and all these specialisms (which already exist for some schools) count for next to naff all. What good is Orleans Park’s maths specialism if you live in Teddington or Teddington’s arts expertise if you live in Richmond? You’re just too far out, man.

Meanwhile the Council’s support for free schools hasn’t exactly been met with a flood of viable applications. There has been a bit of interest, the most recent being the Maharishi Free School proposed for Hampton. A school that places meditation high on its list of attributes may not appeal to all. Needless to say the Council has to sound gushing in its support but one wonders if that’s what it envisaged as being at the front of the queue when it looked for viable new free schools. Perhaps the efforts to grow support for a science and engineering focused free school is more what they had in mind. Who knows?

Meanwhile the slightly euphoric press release from the Council seems to have two purposes and one side effect. The first is to remind residents that the Council is taking education seriously. The second is to draw some of the fire from the proposal for a selective Catholic school by saying there will be plenty of good school places for everyone around the Borough. Why object to that when there are good schools for all? And the third, inadvertent side effect is to re-inforce just what a confusing state of affairs we’ve got ourselves into in this country when it comes to the type of state funded schooling we offer our children.

LINKS:
Consultation on Link School Status (ends 13 Jan)
Schools for All
Government page on school types

P.S. Linked Primary Schools in 2011
Orleans Park: Archdeacon Cambridge, Chase Bridge, St Mary’s, St Stephen’s, and from Hounslow The Blue Primary, Worple Primary & Ivybridge.

Teddington: Collis Primary, Sacred Heart, St John the Baptist, St
Mary’s and St Peter’s, Stanley, Trafalgar, & St Paul’s (Kingston)