Lewisham homes to be bulldozed for apartment block

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A pair of homes will be bulldozed to make way for a four-storey apartment block with a roof terrace.

Greenbank Cottage and Taymount Lodge in Forest Hill will be replaced with 16 flats.

Residents living next to the proposed apartments objected to the plans, fearing they would be disturbed by their future neighbours using the roof terrace.

But Lewisham councillors approved the new block in Taymount Rise after agreeing to limit use of the space to between 8am and 10pm.

Hannah Mummery told a Lewisham planning meeting on Tuesday: “We have significant concerns about the roof terrace, particularly the fact that it’s claimed it can now be used to mitigate the lack of balconies and loss of green space.

“The third floor [of] Forest Croft looks directly into that roof terrace. The top of Taymount Rise is not suitable for a roof terrace. Nobody else has one and it has significant impacts of noise and light pollution.”

Developer Hambridge Homes’ previous plans for the site were rejected by councillors in May 2022 due to the “excessive size” of the proposed building.

Since then, the developer has reduced the size of the development and moved it further away from neighbouring block, Taymount Grange.

Patrick Reedman, from the developer’s planning adviser DHA Planning, said it had improved the design of the proposed flats in multiple ways since the previous plans came before Lewisham councillors last year.

None of the 16 apartments will be ‘affordable’, which means they will not be sold or rented at less than 80 per cent of local market prices.

Councillors were told the development would not make financial sense if affordable housing was provided.

Pictured top: A CGI of the planned apartment block in Forest Hill (Picture: Lewisham council planning documents)