22 August (Part 3) - The Black Horse Inn, Sidcup. Facade charade
I
got a tip off that the plastic replica facade set to replace the wrought iron
and wood frontage of the old Black Horse coaching inn had been put in place.
If the report isn’t premature the developers might as well have not bothered. At
the moment the building couldn’t look more bland.
Bexley council
turned a blind eye to the demolition of the old facade which
came down without permission
and whether that was due to neglect, incompetence, gullibility or something underhand remains a mystery to me. Under pressure from the
Sidcup Community Group and the
Bexley Civic Society
the council stipulated that the developers replaced the historic
frontage with something that looked very much like the original.
There seems to be a long way yet to go to achieve that goal.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I know, but unless the replacement looks
the same as that which was lost I cannot see the point of it all. And if the
whole thing is made of Polyvinyl Chloride it is going to look very shabby and
falling apart in 20 years time.