This Saturday is a great opportunity to see the Westminster Morris Men – established in 1953 in the City of Westminster, they have been widely recognised as one of the country’s leading mens’ morris teams.

Westminster Morris Men

Saturday May 12th is the Westminster Day of Dance when 12 Morris Teams will be touring London’s West End laying on free displays of dance. The guest teams joining the Westminster Morris Men are the Jockey Morris Men, Earlsdon Morris Men, Hammersmith Morris Men, Ravensbourne Morris Men, Thrales Rapper, Moulton Morris Men, Thaxted Morris Men, Yateley Morris Men, East Surrey Morris Men and Woodside Morris Men.

The sites close to Pimlico where you can see dancing are:

10:15-10:45
Victoria Embankment Steps
St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey
Westminster Cathedral Piazza,
Victoria Street
Tate Britain
11:00-11:30
Cardinal Place, SW1
St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey
12:00-12:40
The Sanctuary, Westminster Abbey

View WMM_DoD_Morning in a larger map

Full details of the the day are available from the Westminster Morrismen

Battersea Power Station (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I count Battersea as South Pimlico so it’s great news that Chelsea Football Club intend to relocate to South Pimlico. Or is it? The winners of this years FA Cup have submitted a formal offer to purchase the site of Battersea power station which, if accepted, could lead to the club leaving Stamford Bridge and the development of “one of the most iconic football stadiums in the world” at a cost of more than £1bn.

The plan for the 39-acre site at Battersea Nine Elms would involve creating the most iconic football stadium in the world – just over the bridge from Pimlico which would become a major thoroughfare for supporters every Saturday.  The Grade II listed former electricity power station was put up for sale earlier this year following the collapse last November of an Irish-backed scheme to revamp the area, with the site having been valued at around £500m a month earlier.

Chelsea are cautious over their prospects and have stressed no final decision has been made to leave their home of 107 years but, with redeveloping Stamford Bridge restrictive in terms of cost, and few suitable available areas within a three-mile radius, they recognised the availability of the site on the south bank of the Thames as an opportunity that could not be ignored.

Chelsea would attempt to incorporate into the design for a 60,000-seater stadium, with all four chimneys and wash towers, along with the Grade II listed west turbine hall and control room, to be retained in their original locations. The architect Rafael Viñoly has collaborated with the practice Kohn Pedersen Fox on the plans put forward by Almacantar, and Chelsea’s initial proposal includes a 15,000 all-seated one-tier stand behind the south goal, with the stadium effectively built within the familiar brickwork shell of the power station. The proposals would maintain the essential character of the building, which was built in the 1930s and ceased generating electricity in 1983.

The club has also pledged to make a “significant contribution”, believed to be around £200m, towards the Northern Line extension from Kennington via Nine Elms to connect the proposed newstadium to the London Underground network. The development would also include a town centre with street-level retail units, housing and offices.

Chelsea have made no secret of their desire to increase match-day revenues and have been frustrated by the reality that Stamford Bridge is hemmed in on all sides with further redevelopment deemed unviable economically. While they continue to seek sponsors interested in taking up naming rights for their current home, they have also scrutinised various sites within their prescribed three-mile radius and retain an interest in an area at the northern end of Earl’s Court, whose owners Capital & Counties plc are currently pursuing residential and commercial developments of the site, and also White City.

Funding the Battersea project would initially require the sale for redevelopment of Stamford Bridge – potentially for up to £400m – meaning the club will still need to convince shareholders in CPO, the fan-led group that owns the pitch, the turnstiles and the land upon which the arena’s four stands are built, to sell the freehold for the current stadium. They failed to convince CPO at an extraordinary general meeting last October and, at some stage in the future, will re-visit that issue with SayNoCPO insistent that “the viability of redeveloping Stamford Bridge is still a very relevant issue”.

Source

A Concert will be held tomorrow (Saturday 28^th April 2012) at 7.30pm at St Gabriel’s Church, Pimlico (London SW1) which features an exciting line up of up-and-coming talent, performing operatic favourites from La Traviata, Carmen, Marriage of Figaro and more.

This Concert is the result of an experiment in using social media to produce and promote the arts, and was thought up as a new way to engage the public with opera.  In a time when arts funding is being cut, and there are fewer opportunities for emerging professionals, these young singers have harnessed the power of social networking site Twitter to create the first in a series of opera gala concerts. Called “Opera Twala”, every part of the gala has been organized and planned through the site; from selecting the performers to finding the venue and choosing the programme.

Tickets are £10, £8 (concessions) & £5 (under-16s) on the door.

St. Gabriel's Church, Pimlico

For further information follow @OperaTwala or #operatwala on Twitter

Photo credit: LibraryatNight

I was ill – I caught a debilitating disease for which the medical term is Domii Pauci – my G.P. identified the problem and got me an appointment with a specialist who had devoted his life to curing people with this complaint. I prepared a wet fish, and finally the day came for my appointment and I marched into his surgery and announced:

“You bloodsucking leech! How can you live off the misery of your patients! How dare you sit in your comfortable surgery, taking taxpayers money? I am going to make sure that you never practise medicine again! Then I hit him round the face with a wet fish. I don’t think we will see HIM in surgery again!

At least that was the message that I got from today’s Independent in their story:

A new era of house building could create jobs, stimulate growth, and help the poor. So why won’t Cameron do it?

It’s a great story with a lousy message.

Yes there is a problem, especially in London: a modest two-bedroom place in London’s Zone 2 – a standard monthly rent is indeed £800, even £900. The Independent reports hundreds of furious Londoners bombarding with their renting horror stories. One had a 35 per cent rent hike imposed on them at Christmas; another was forced to desert their Stockwell flat after a 40 per cent increase. “My tiny flat in the East End went up by £200 a month for the next occupants when I left”. Clearly the patient is sick, sick with Domii Pauci – a housing shortage.

The Independent’s solution is the wet fish: “Private landlords can do as they please, of course. Having a roof over your head is a basic human requirement and, when there is a lack of houses to go around, it is a need that can be exploited. A landlord knows that, if their tenants don’t like an outrageous rent hike, their only option is to put themselves back at the mercy of the ever more pricey private renting market. According to Shelter, annual rents in inner London went up by 7 per cent last year – or just under £1,000 for a two-bedroom house. When people’s wages are flat-lining, that’s a big hit.”

As a Landlord of some 20 years I have seen this coming, indeed it’s why I am a Landlord. The strange thing is that the Government hasn’t seen it coming, and still doesn’t understand why it is happening, and getting worse. The fixed costs of being a Landlord are increasing exponentially – Pimlico Flats has had to take on an employee solely for the purpose of administering deposits, council tax, utilities. Computerisation has enabled big corporations like Westminster City Council to remove thinking from their activities and leave automated mailshots. New regulations require building work to prevent such things as “death by only having one lock” ……. again, many of the new initiatives are good, and contribute to tenants well being, but some don’t. And all carry a cost, and at the end of the day the tenant bears that cost,  not government, or the landlord.

It’s time for Government and Shelter to examine what leads to higher rents, and what leads to lower rents, and to act accordingly.

Meantime don’t be surprised if Landlords leave the Planet saying thanks for all the fish.

Sue Ryder Shop at Drayton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Central London has few charity shops but Pimlico has six:

2 FARA shops – the one on Tachbrook St is a children’s specialist with buggies & kids clothes, Oxfam and Sue Ryder, &, Trinity Hospice, CrusAID and Hospices of Hope.

Sadly the most original has long gone – Brick by Brick hoped to solve Westminster and Pimlico’s housing crisis by using profits from the retail shop to fund unemployed people to refurbish homes for rental …. a fantastic ideal that never managed to take off.

Margaret Thatcher

An interesting article today in Social Housing and Local Government news website http://www.24dash.com about how Right To Buy has affected Westminster Council.

Nearly half of Westminster’s 22,000 council homes have been sold through Right-to-Buy in the past 30 years, and because government rules don’t allow local authorities to keep the proceeds of sale the properties haven’t been replaced by further social housing. Of course many of the flats purchased under Rent to Buy have been recycled into Private Sector renting – I personally know of 4 people who were able to retire to the country in middle age on the proceeds of the Right to Buy windfall which could be as much as several hundred thousand pounds in extreme cases.

This has left the council with a situation where they are paying housing benefit to tenants who are renting ex-council properties from private landlords – and this costs the council around four times the rent charged for a council home rented directly from the council, and on occasions up to five or six times the council rent.

What a mess – but probably not a mess that the government wishes to acknowledge as it stems from a conservative policy a generation ago, rather than something that can be neatly pinned on the last government.

I was approached by Red Top to ask if I could get pictures inside the infamous Pimlico Flat – well I couldn’t, but The Mirror has cracked the case!

Bathroom

House

Living Room

Kitchen

200 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A recent survey conducted by holiday home specialists Owners Direct has revealed that 50% of Brits in the South East who plan to, or have already rented out their homes for the Olympics are looking to escape the UK for a Mediterranean break. Owners Direct has also seen almost a 90% rise in enquiries during 2012 to date for the London area and an 80% increase for surrounding areas such as Essex.

As a result of increased demand for properties near the Olympic sites next summer, Owners Direct have launched a service specifically to cater to the needs of those looking for short term let options. Launched at the end of October last year, it offers landlords a cost effective way to market their homes to people all over the world who are looking for accommodation during the Olympics.

With over 50% of people who took part in the study who own a holiday home in the South East already having received enquiries for the 2012 games, Marketing Manager Angela Southall said the company was keen to extend their offering to people who didn’t need to list their properties for a long period of time.

“We have launched a service that will allow homeowners who wouldn’t normally rent out their properties to do so for a short time. “We’ve been amazed at how many people are willing to pack up their lives and find a roof elsewhere for a few weeks!” says Angela Southall.

Home owners can take advantage of the two month trial listing, available exclusively to UK owners, by visiting www.ownersdirect.co.uk quoting UK49

New London Bus 38 Hackney - Victoria

The New London Bus hit the streets today – the 38 running from Hackney to Pimlico’s Victoria Bus Station. The inaugural journey had the bus tailgated all the way by a Routemaster hired by the ‘Sack Boris’ group and daubed with banners decrying it as a vanity bus (the outlay of £11.37m has bought just eight prototype buses).

Sack Boris Bus

Journey reports are that on the upper deck it quickly became very stuffy, and condensation formed on the windows because the New Bus has fixed windows that cannot be opened, but if things become sweaty on a mild February day, the bus might be a less than pleasant place to be come summer. Once the bus reached Victoria it had to be ignominiously parked up whilst engineers tried to fix it’s software – but hey, that’s why we have prototypes!

If you want to ride the new bus here is it’s timetable.