17 June (Part 2) - It may be all my fault
A reader drew my attention to
the bbc website which features Erith and he (or she) implies that its
decline is all Bexley Council’s fault because of its long term neglect of its northern territories.
There may be some truth in that. Didn’t Arthur Pewty report that
Bexley Council left the library covered in scaffolding
for three whole years? As he said, the neglect “beggars belief”.
The photo of old Erith is ‘stolen’ from the
Erith and Belvedere Local History Society: who decided that a featureless concrete carbuncle would be a more attractive shopping destination?
Maybe I should take some of the blame
for the demise of Erith’s ‘new’ shopping centre. (†) It is not much more than two miles from home and in 37 years I
may have gone shopping there four times. It doesn’t help that the bus service
has been reduced to half of what it was but the rail service seems to have
improved (back to six trains per hour) since I last checked.
I have a vague recollection of visiting Morrison’s, maybe twice; and once using
their coffee shop, Is that still there? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 25
years ago. More recently I called in to Wilkinson’s (now closed) once to buy
batteries and another time for razor blades. I recall one was out of stock, I forget which.
Unless you are within walking distance of Erith is there any reason to shop there?
† Not to be confused with Bexley Road, Northumberland Heath which has an Erith postal address
and an old style shopping street.