Chesham 2 - St Neots 0

In the past people have been far too quick to talk down Chesham, as a sleepy backwater full of urbane degenerates. More recently though I've noticed that the town has begun to have a bit of a spring in its step, a certain vibrancy and positivity within its population which could really make it into something special in the future. The people of Chesham never used to know how lucky they were, and now they are beginning to realize and it feels great. So i'm going to take a quick look at a few things that Chesham does really well.

Community

There may be several distinct area in Chesham but each has its own personality and each belongs to Chesham. Collectively there are some real positive things going on, Be it my own Community Orchard project, The Pop-Up restaurant, The Art shop, Local food market, Carnival, Transition town. The list is literally endless and full of people getting together to do something fun locally. None of these activities cost the earth, and they aren't essential but that's whats good about them. They all are generated from the ground up, and they are led by local people who just want to do something locally. We're not short of local heroes either, you don't have to look to hard to bump into someone doing something good locally, and you know what it makes a difference. The local facilities too are good We have our own Library, 2 swimming pools and a number of local community halls. The churches and mosques are open and inclusive and together they pull together in the name of Chesham. I've even heard rumors of something awesome happening on the High street on the 12th at 1pm, involving foxes perhaps? Something that St Neots can only dream of.

Sport

Who'd of thought it but even from a sporting perspective things are on the up At the weekend the mighty Generals beat St Neots 2 Nil to stretch the unbeaten run to 11 games, we have a fairly decent cricket club a brilliant community focused rugby club not to mention a burgeoning Bowls league that St Neots can only dream of. International sport too finds its home in Chesham, this year stage 6 of the Tour of Britain brings the worlds best cyclists to our doorstep. Hands down we beat St Neots int he sporting department.

Commercial activities

Now here you must all think St Neots has a chance but you know what its blown out of the water. OK we don't have a McDonalds, a KFC, or a pizza Express. OK, so all the chain stores don't see value in our little high street and you won't find an M&S in our town, but you know what? We don't need any of that rubbish, they are what kills a high street and makes it just like any other so if you do want a New Look go ahead move to St Neots, We'll keep our Butcher, Baker and our Candlestick maker. Does St Neots have a brewery shop? No, what about 2 different markets? A cobbled High Street that kids can run around and enjoy themselves with ease? Ok so we have a few too many charity shops and not enough restaurants, but even our charity shops are good, well stocked and with lots of rich peoples cast offs. So what if we're a quiet Waitrose Town but at least you can do your shopping in piece. There are also some hidden gems in Chesham too that only the aficionados would discover, How about a bit Chiltern ridge apple juice for  Or Auberge de Chocolate, which make high class chocolaty goodness right on our doorstep. We've even got an entirely fictional bus service. So St Neots Do your worst what have you got that our high street doesn't?

Environment

So St Neots, Here is our trump card, does the Abbreviation AONB mean anything to you? Whats that you say your nearest bit of natural eye candy is the Norfolk broads? HA! I laugh in you general direction. Chesham is Beautiful Its official it is right next to An Area Of Natural Beauty, and a natural gateway to the Chilterns which is internationally recognized as a natural haven, right on the edge of one of the worlds greatest Cities, (No St Neots 60 miles is not close and Cambridge isn't that great). Not only do we have Red Kites everywhere, but we have several endangered and special species both of flowers, and animals, including a Butterflies which you only get on chalk aquifers. If your anywhere in Chesham I could spin you around and set you off in a straight line and within 5 minutes you would be in a natural wonder with vistas worthy of the lake district or the Highlands, and all of this is a well kept secret so you don't get overwhelmed with tourists, Other than the odd coach load of DofE students.

Killer Fact

I could go on about the History, the People, the gardens, not to mention the Beer. But i'll leave all that for later posts, so for now I'll leave you with one last Killer Fact and a challenge to St Neots. So the killer fact on why Chesham trounces St Neots is Lama's! Go on St Neots Show me the Lama*!

* This actual Lama is not actually a resident of Chesham, The real ones are a little camera Shy.

CentrePoint - a new page - or back full circle?

I currently work in the 27th tallest building in London, and a landmark in central London. Built in 1966, Centrepoint has been many things to many people. But for my company and I it has most recently been a workplace. All that is about to change as the building is set to undergo a major change. Its set to become plush new housing, so today is our last day in the building before heading off for a new page of our own on Friday.

Growing up in London you can't miss the rather drab looking building that towers over the end of Oxford street, marking the end of London's best known shopping street, it also sits on a road that through the 90's could guarantee a bargain for techies, yet turn your eye half a turn and you find the luvies of theater land. Location wise you couldn't find a better place to provide 32 floors of offices, yet it stood empty for years. As a child I never understood this and I wasn't alone, it proved to be controversial in a number of ways but the developers where effectively speculating on the chance of finding a single tenant. This led to the government offering to buy the building for 5 million pounds, maybe if we had bought it in 1972 we could now have afforded to buy another couple of banks. It eventually became the home of the CBI and a number of other tenants, ourselves included.

Homeless Charity

Another side to the building was the link to the homeless charity and again growing up I couldn't work out how a homeless charity could afford to build a huge building like this and keep it empty. At one stage I even thought that it was the worlds largest Homeless hostel and that the entrance was a rather salubrious snooker hall. In 1974 local activists aimed to squat inside the building to draw attention to the plight of the homeless and reasoning that an empty building such as this should be used for the benefit of the homeless. Around this time the homeless charity Centrepoint was born. It seems the link is purely co-incidental but its rather a good story to think of it as a reaction to the excesses of property speculation that led to the building of a concrete empty building and contrasting to the hundreds of homeless people sleeping on the cold streets within its Shadow.

Its design too is controversial and rather Brutalist, its just Glass and concrete jutting up from the ground rather, well, brutally. Modern sky scrappers like the Shard and the Gherkin are for me far more beautiful. But the building is Grade 2 listed and has won plaudits for it rather uncompromising style. Its certainly deemed nice enough to be suitable for its next phase of life as a home for the rich. One things for sure the views from the building are like no other in the London, and therefore the world. London's newer Skyscrapers are grouped together in the east, but Centrepoint stands alone right in the middle and offers 360 degree views in to the heart of the worlds greatest City.

Future 

So its not really a surprise that the future for the building takes it back in one sense to its controversial roots. Where as the property boom of the 60's and 70's provided profit opportunities even for an empty office building. The property boom now provides a profit opportunity for largely empty housing. Whilst the plans do include obligatory affordable housing, largely the tower itself will be Luxury flats all I'm sure will be sold for in excess of a million pounds. When you look around London at that property band most houses remain empty for 90% of the time operating as a base for the few days a year when the International owner has a meeting in London. So once again there will be a stark contrast between the super rich and the super poor sharing a single doorway. Its ironic that what was controversial back in the 70's is commonplace 50 years later.

One thing is for sure I'll miss the views, but not the rather complicated lifts.