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In an area which (thank goodness) is stuffed with good and acceptable restaurants (East, West and Central Dulwich) Belair would have to be a real destination - hence I suggested the need for a very high quality offering which would encourage visitors to go in search of it. A restaurant next to a station is a very different beast than a country house down a side street. I know about it because I live, and have lived for nearly 40 years, pretty close. And I have gone there on a number of occasions in its different guises. Sometimes with great enjoyment, other times less so. But for a site like that to work it must deliver its promise, which because of the nature and cost of the site will have to be both high-end and not very crowded, which means high prices and probably aiming for at least twice the covers occupation most nights and some lunches. Frankly, it can't live on local trade alone (because there are too many good alternatives) - so it has to build a rep for people to travel there, and again and again. -
But the bulk of the build is for student accommodation, with just 'some' affordable housing which will, if history is anything to go by, become much less once the scheme is started. Southwark has, I believe, quite a number of empty properties which are not in use. The number of people on Southwark's waiting list is frankly irrelevant to this scheme, which won't touch the surface. This isn't 'new housing' which is visible, but commercially profitable student bedsits (at least, the developers hope it will be commercially profitable).
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