howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
went past there earlier and even allowing for the gloom and rain it still looked unenticing with with the two main front units empty.
yet there is quite an aladdin's cave inside.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,802
I have been using my freezer meat stock up so have not visited the happy father and son Glyn and Paul, the best butchers in Dover
.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
Amen to that, Jan, they are very good indeed. Loyalty requires me to plug Rooks, which is also top drawer.
True friends stab you in the front.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
always people in there when i go past and the people that run it seem to have a good rapport with their customers.
the main point when i posted the pictures was how anyone that was not local would think of entering the centre in the first place.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,802
Very true Howard the whole entrance could do with a more inviting makeover, The set back doors do the place no favours maybe if they get planning permission for the flats the frontage will change.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
It's a pity that one (or preferably two) businesses inside couldn't move to the front. Not sure what Eric, the Manager (if it is still Eric) is doing to attract new businesses there.
Roger
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
Whenever I am in the Charlton Centre I am always drawn to The Butchers and never fail to make a purchase no matter how small. I always find both father and son very friendly and informative as far as 'cuts of meat' are concerned, they also have vegetable stew packs on offer.
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
I admire the retail heroes who struggle on there, but It has the atmosphere of a mausoleum and surely the answer is to turn it into a brownfield housing site and move the shops into the many empty units in the town centre.
Dover's retail zone straggles from De Bradelei Wharf to Buckland Bridge and is crying out to be compacted.
Karlos- Location: Dover
- Registered: 1 Oct 2012
- Posts: 2,481
I agree. I have thought for years that is an area of the the town that should be transformed into housing, also the DTIZ area.
The town needs more people living in the centre, not on new estates around Whitfield ideally placed for getting to Canterbury and Westwood Cross.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Look what happens when people propose houses for the Heights or Farthingloe or Westmount or even suggest Connaught Park
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 664- Registered: 23 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,039
Round of applause for Karlos. We act as if the countryside was an infinite resource, while allowing existing urban areas to wither. We must not take the easy option.
How about taking a note from Canterbury's book - Whitefriars has sccessfully combined residential development with retail. Where s the imagination here? A report drawn up by a bunch of lavishly rewarded consultants based in Winchester or wherever it is, number crunching on their iMacs, should not be held up as some kind of Gospel for Dover's future.
Almost everyone thinks Whitfield New Town is a bad idea. How about listening to the people?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
too late for whitfield now andrew the die is cast although it may be many years before any new housing is built.
all to do with growth point status and the money that goes with it.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
There's long been an argument for making the Town more compact and less straggly, but how do you make the businesses along London Road move nearer the Town ? Apart from reducing rent and rates as incentives, it will be difficult and most of the accommodation in the Town Centre is run by a housing association(s) and they don't seem to be particular on what sort of tenants they have. Their tenancy agreements used to be very loose.
We want decent law-abiding people living in Town Centres as they are more likely to keep the rubbish at bay.
Roger
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
Have Delmaines closed their retail outlet at the front of the Charlton Centre? I thought they were still operating from there.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
they were going, then they were staying, finally they went a few weeks back.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Believe Beddy Buys is taking the front half of the shop vacated by Delmaines.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,802
That is a shop I have never seen a customer in how it has survived this long surprises me. It will be good to see the Delmaines shop back in use it makes the CC look so much more inviting.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
Thanks for that Howard, I wasn't sure because as you say they were constantly changing their mind
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
probably moving back in as we speak barry. used beddy buys twice - once for a proper bed and another time for a guest bed.
great service from them, my bed is fantastic and the guest bed is so uncomfortable nobody ever stays a second time.
i call that value for money.