please empty your brain below
Damn, I was just about to fisk that one myself!

IanVisits | 21.05.14 - 7:17 a.m. | #

Hmm. I guessed the location early on, and your reference, after talk of sushi, to the local attraction that closed a few years ago, confirmed my suspicions. Gee, no, not a luxury neighbourhood, nor close to Hampstead. Indeed.

Dominic H | 21.05.14 - 7:22 a.m. | #

burnt oak?

colindale?

dave | 21.05.14 - 7:44 a.m. | #

Definitely Colindale. Oriental City closed in 2008. Northern Line to Hampstead.

Agree that it's a pretty mundane area. Probably fine to live there, but definitely not aspirational.

Karen | 21.05.14 - 7:56 a.m. | #

Ah, Oriental City, or formaly known as Yohan Plaza...I used to nip (no pun intended) down there to buy some of the more obscure brands of saki..delicious when warmed..it was a great place to go for dining, as you could sample food from all over the asian regions. Sadly missed.
Collingwood's last clame to fame was when someone got stabbed and robbed of his just-released copy of Grand Theft Auto game there...not at all the aspiring area for upmarket development...

Doug Robinson | 21.05.14 - 8:09 a.m. | #

i think its the beaufort park development

there's some cracking videos on their website!

dave | 21.05.14 - 8:17 a.m. | #

I'd love to have seen the email that DG sent back to the in reply!

Tim | 21.05.14 - 8:28 a.m. | #

I lived just round the corner from the Yoahan centre in Evelyn Avenue for 26 years. There used to be a lot of industry in the Colindale area. Mostly located on the Edgware Road. Oriental City used to be Phoenix Telephones. The Asda next door was a huge Frigidaire GM Factory. Merit House was formerly a tram then trolleybus depot. The Ford car centre by Hay lane was Desoutter Drills. The McDonalds by Colindeep Lane was the Brick Development Centre. This was used to train apprentices. I'm not living in the past, just reflecting on how industry has disappeared and we have now become a service economy. In the First World War that whole stretch of the Edgware Road from Colindale up to Burnt Oak had rows of factories building the early fighter planes.
Colindale Trolleybus Depot... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFH_N3_-lRc

| 21.05.14 - 8:30 a.m. | #

Colindale also had the British Library Newspaper Archive, which closed last year and moved to Yorkshire.

amber | 21.05.14 - 8:39 a.m. | #

Well done, DG, for sticking resolutely to your principles.

If only more of us were so dogged as DG and not tempted by marketing inducements.

If it is Colindale, the last time I went there, George Cohen's 600 Group was breaking up the last of London's trolleybuses. An experience that blackened my impression of Colindale and I haven't been back since.

Petras409 | 21.05.14 - 8:41 a.m. | #

I read something in the last couple of days (Guardian) about someone Far-Eastern who bought one of these new build properties marketed as "close to London" and in a "fashionable and up-and-coming area"... When she finally came over to inspect it, apparently she asked to go to a hotel within seconds of arriving. "I can't stay here."

Thing is, most of them will never know, because most of them will never see that property. It's for sitting empty, or extortionate rental, and then cashing in on.

MightyMouse | 21.05.14 - 8:47 a.m. | #

I got this one too and found it particularly objectionable. An invitation to eat sushi with strangers in a marketing suite, sent anonymously and with absolutely nothing of interest within it. I wonder who would possibly attend.

Tom @ Tiredoflondon | Homepage | 21.05.14 - 9:36 a.m. | #

By the way DG, I love reading your posts about PR agencies. They always make me laugh. This one about silage remains my favourite one ever:

http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/lumpy-with-skin.html

Karen | Homepage | 21.05.14 - 9:41 a.m. | #

this is good reading about the whole sorry "luxury flat" nonsense:

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/18/-sp-truth-about-gentrification-how-woodberry-down-became-woodberry-park

dave | 21.05.14 - 9:45 a.m. | #

Looks like the only way 'affordable housing' will be built in the London area is if someone makes a political decision. Any takers?

Bronchitikat | 21.05.14 - 10:16 a.m. | #

if it's the development everyone thinks it is, the development company is St George PLC ... which is the same company behind a development a few years back near where I live ... the developer's representatives were all over the locality like a rash and spent a lot of time cajoling local businesses to tart themselves up so as to look more attractive to their clients, to justify their over-inflated prices ... they've made themselves a nice profit from turning a disused water works and filter bed into densely packed flats which architecturally are truly a blot on the landscape

Caroline | 21.05.14 - 12:41 p.m. | #

Useless PR company!

Googling for "apartment development launch date 11 June" does not return any results.

Unless you changed the date DG?

Southern Heights | 21.05.14 - 12:48 p.m. | #

The development is not by St George PLC.
And I didn't change the date.
And they haven't got back to me.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 21.05.14 - 5:49 p.m. | #

How can one fail not to be swept away by the glamour that is the Edgware Road, and by the shopping mecca that is Brent Cross right on its doorstep!

I think it's criminal that these overseas investments are being allowed to continue. If ever there was an area that is in dire need of affordable/social housing it's the Colindale/Burnt Oak area. :(

CornishCockney | 21.05.14 - 6:33 p.m. | #

But how do you do it? The builders want to sell to the highest bidder. If that bidder is banned from bidding (for being foreign, or some such grounds) then the builder will get less money, and will threaten to build fewer houses, probably actually do so. Then who has gained?

Malcolm | 21.05.14 - 10:03 p.m. | #

Could DGs blog be the reason for the London house bubble?? I'm only kidding.. although may partly explain the steep house price rises in Bow and Mile end. On the other hand whilst your name and shaming of stratford and newham areas have helped keep the house prices a bit lower (which is good)! Of course, I'm only kidding again ;)

However - interesting that someone (no doubt quite a few people) picked up how blogs can create awareness of relatively unknown areas and how this could in turn be used to exploit sales/marketing ploy. Also I think when they say "social" blog - it's more of a euphemism for a blog that's popular/will have a high hit count and potential advertisement exposure... Also your blog often returns things on google even if you don't mention "diamond geezer".

PML | 22.05.14 - 7:50 a.m. | #

The developer's website says, alongside the supermarket, the scheme will include hundreds of overpriced flats, and 'a new Oriental and Far Eastern food and retail court.'

This appears to have been written just after the scheme secured planning permission. Has the Oriental retail element fallen by the wayside?

Lorenzo | 22.05.14 - 8:06 a.m. | #

Aren't you being just a little hard on their referring to your blog as 'lifestyle'? All the stuff about trains, walks and museums surely is your lifestyle. Or do you just make it all up to make us feel lazy? :-)

Peter CS | 22.05.14 - 4:17 p.m. | #

I agree with Peter CS, writing about trains e.t.c. is a lifestyle, just not a lifestyle you usually associate with the word lifestyle itself :)

MiaM | 23.05.14 - 4:32 p.m. | #











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