Welcome to the Twickenham Society's Website

The Society exists to make Twickenham a better place in which to live. It seeks to stimulate public interest in, and care for, the beauty, history and character of Twickenham and its surroundings.

COMING EVENTS:

Saturday 20 February, 2010 - a very special Indian Evening!

Once again, the Twickenham Society will be joining with the Rotary Club for another magical evening of Indian food, dancing, and music. Don't miss this chance - last year's Indian evening was a truly memorable event, and it sold out early. Venue: St Margaret's Catholic Church Hall, 7.00 for 7.30pm. Tickets: £15.00, including the meal, music and dancing. Available from Yvonne Hewett, the Secretary of the Society using the form on the Contacts page.

17 March, 2010 - Jason Debney: After Arcadia

With the successful conclusion of the highly popular Arcadia scheme, Jason Debney, co-ordinator of the Thames Landscape Strategy, will be talking about the project, how it's been received, and his plans for the future.

Venue: the Cricket Pavilion, Twickenham Green, 7.30pm

OF INTEREST:

Project London Health's 'Community Focused' initiative fitness group

The group meets on Saturday mornings at 10am, by the café of Orleans Gardens. It is free of charge and encourages the community of all ages and abilities to get outside and enjoy the environment and get fitter at the same time, whether through walking, jogging or a bit of both. The group makes its way along the towpath to Cambridge Gardens at Richmond Bridge, and do some further stretches there before heading back.

More information on Project London Health is here.

PAST MEETINGS AND EVENTS:

Visit to Kew Bridge Steam Museum, 22 November 2009

The Hathorn Davey Triple Expansion Engine, manufactured 1910, and admirers Doug Orchard, Clive Evans, John Bell and Jack Betteridge

Society members had a highly enjoyable visit to the Steam Museum, with a comprehensive guided tour by Clive Evans, one of the volunteers. The museum is a fascinating historical place, once one of the main pumping stations for London's water supply. Clive gave us an update on the latest projects and a chance to see the exquisite, smaller engines in action. For information on the Museum, and information on booking guided tours, see the website, www.kbsm.org

Report on the Twickenham Talk by Liz Rice, Twickenham Town Centre Manager

21 October, 2009 at the Cricket Club, Twickenham Green

Coming new into a long-established community can never be easy, but Liz Rice, the new Town Centre Manager, has embraced the job with energy and enthusiasm. In a lively and broad-ranging talk, she outlined what she wants to achieve to increase the viability of the town centre, which in common with many town centres throughout the UK, is going through difficult times.

The Twickenham Town Centre Management Board was established in 1998, as part of a strategy to boost vitality within the town and to improve the economic sustainability of the area. Five strategic objectives have been established through a process of consultation with local businesses, residents, community organisation and the council. As well as the Manager, the Town Centre Management Board (TCMB) has three working groups:

• Promotions and Events, chaired by John Austin, who's also chair of the Town Centre Management Board
• Transport and Environment, chaired by John Bell
• Inward Investment, chaired by John Armstrong

The Board covers an area including the Heath Road, London Road, King Street, Church Street, York Street and the Embankment. Some activities may take place on peripheral areas such as Twickenham Green

Liz's vision is of a prosperous town centre with high quality retailers with a strong brand, or independent, useful shops. To address the problem of the number of empty shops - including some quite large premises, like Woolworth's, Rosebys, and many small ones, she has started an empty shops initiative. A major problem is over 150 landlords own the business premises in the centre of Twickenham, and to address that, in October she convened a meeting with as many landlords as possible. The event, chaired by Vince Cable, was quite successful, though it pointed up the problems of dealing with large investment corporations and pension funds for whom one empty shop poses no worries. Liz has also had talks with the owners and operators of the small, individually-owned shops.

She outlined the problems of the town centre: the large number of empty shops and charity shops, the problems of access and parking, the poor self-image of the centre, and the steps she and the working groups are taking to make it a better place. An inward investment marketing scheme is being put into place. This focuses on property directors and independent retailers, and the aim is to match empty shops to potential retailers.

She is also looking at improvements in accessing the town centre, with better signposting especially to the available parking, and the new Transport for London system of legible London signeage.

Raising the profile and image of the town centre is a priority. This is already under way with the hugely successful farmers' market every Saturday (which draws around 1,000 people), and promotional events like the Twickenham Festival. In 2010 the Twickenham guide will include the guide to the Festival. A newsletter for high street traders has been produced by the Inward Investment group, and two issues have already gone out. The TCMB's website is being enhanced and enlarged. This year the Christmas lights were switched on at 17.30 on 27 November outside Barclays Bank, with festivities in Church Street between 16.00 and 19.00. The following day was a special Christmas shopping event, with local shops and restaurants giving discounts and special offers. UPDATE: the Christmas events were very successful this year, with an attendance of over 2,000 people!

Another of Liz's main priorities is achieving a quality environment in Twickenham. The possibility of a cinema was raised, which could go on the sorting office site when that's redeveloped. Shop front maintenance and caring for the appearance of empty shops has been discussed with the landlords - even if a shop's untenanted, it doesn't have to look scruffy, and Liz is working to make the town look better. A survey is being done of agents' boards, to see if they can be taken down, to improve the look of the main streets.

Twickenham riverside and the delay till after the election were discussed. Liz is in favour of the old poolsite being redeveloped and she welcomes the extra time for discussion: many people don't know what is being planned, and what's in the planning guidance.

Working with local community organisations is another priority, and Liz said she's trying to speak to as many groups and amenity societies as possible, and setting up email contacts. She's encouraging people to join the working groups. A big win this year for Twickenham was the Borough in Bloom competition, organised by Pat Schooling, with Church Street doing very well in the awards.

The question and answer session brought up what contribution Liz had made to the consultation on the new Local Development Framework (LDF) on the town centre. She replied that she had written a report and attended the meetings, and the results of the consultation are still being collated. Most people know what they want, and most want the same thing.

The report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) came up. Liz said that the report had been commissioned before she came into the job, and the cost, £7,000, was in keeping with that kind of report. There was a brief discussion on the contents, which were not universally accepted, though some would like to see a meeting to discuss the proposals especially relating to the riverside.

The question of the hotel beside Regal House came up. It is now going to a planning hearing (in January 2010). Liz is broadly in favour of it.

That rounded off a very good evening, and Jack Betteridge, chairing in place of Doug Orchard, thanked Liz for her time and coming to speak to the Society.

Useful links:
Town Centre Management Board
the Board's 2009-2010 Action Plan
Report by NEF