In 2005 I spotted that developer had made a Planning Application for 18-22 Grove Vale where the Dulwich Garden Centre is. The scheme look at best dull. Equally the Grove Vale library is two small shops unit poorly linked together. Great library in terms of children’s books etc but poor building to provide library services.

So I approached the developer and suggested that if they included a new Grove Vale library their scheme would be more successful. That turned into a long two years working with the developer, council officers and colleagues to incorporate a new 230m2 Grove Vale library which gained planning permission January 2007.

Then the recession hit. BANG. All property values slumped but more importantly since then it has become REALLY hard to borrow money. One surveyor told me you can’t borrow money outside London and in London banks expect 35% margins to borrow ie a big cushion just in case.

So I’ve had many conversations with the developer about what might be possible. I’ve spoken to Southwark libraries about what could/would work to give a great new library. Various rules around insulation are now much tighter – new part L building regs today, Southwark Core Strategy where all rooms have to be bigger, etc.

After a lot of soul searching I’m hopeful we’ve sailed a route which should give us a new 250m2 +50m2 ‘winter garden’ Grove Vale library. It would be behind a new retail unit at the front with library accessed via a 3 metre wide corridor at the back. The residential flats above would reduce to 21 units.

Yesterday I met with the developers team and Southwark Planning officials to witness the hurdles and issues the developer needs to bridge before submitting a full Planning Application. I’m hopefully these wont take long and a scheme can be submitted in November or January.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this please get in touch.

Hopefully I’ll have some images to share soon.