News about The Clipper, William Gaitskell House and Rotherhithe broadband

I was out in the car today and drove past The Clipper.  It is boarded up and the "freehold for sale" signs have been removed.  I checked with its former landlord (landlord of the Moby Dick) and he confirms that The Clipper has been sold to developers and he has been told that they are planning to convert it into apartments.  Having said that, it still needs to go through an application for change of use as well as a planning application, and that will almost certainly be published in Southwark News.  Planning applications can, of course, be contested.  If it is to be saved, it will probably have to be on the grounds of diversity of purpose to combat the change of use (because that stretch of road is becoming unremittingly residential), or for its architectural/heritage merits as one of the few remaining 1930s public houses of its sort in Rotherhithe. There is also the impact of neighbouring residents to consider. We once, in the development in which I live, contested an extension on the grounds that it would block light from our communal roof garden, and the extension was refused, so owners of neighbouring properties should probably be careful to consider planning application proposals with a view to considering the impacts on their own environment.  Oddly, pressure on parking rarely seems to be taken much into account by Southwark Council, but from what I've seen additional cars in that area could be a serious nuisance to existing residents.

Still on the subject of property, thanks very much to @RainbowQuay on Twitter for letting me know that 23 Paradise Street, William Gaitskell House (about which I posted on Friday) is actually up for sale for a mere £2.5 million.  Funny to think that back in the 1960s its future looked really dim when the police moved to new premises and it was empty for several years.  Its Grade II listing probably saved it from being torn down. That's a real mercy, as the building is the last of its kind on Rotherhithe peninsula.  Such a pity that I don't have a spare £2.5 million kicking around!  You can see the advert for it on the Right Move website.  

Another piece of info from Twitter, via @brob11, is that Val Shawcross has decided to weigh in on the whole Rotherhithe broadband issue and provides a good, coherent explanation of why the problem exists on her blog: http://blog.valshawcross.com/the-great-rotherhithe-broadband-robbery/