'Remember what Quentin Crisp said about house dust' - it doesn't get any worse after the first five years!' Appropriate as it was in 'Pride' week to be reminded of a splendid 1970s gay icon, here in Lewisham we seem to have had five years dust in as many months. So my husband's words didn't bring much comfort.
It's not just ordinary dust, either -it's a brownish gritty coating that sticks to sills and furniture and irritates eyes and throats.
I'm a bit slow to connect things at times but it didn't take a genius to work out that all the extra air pollution is connected to the extensive construction work that's turned the area into one vast building site. For months we've woken to the sound of pile-drivers gouging pits for the foundations of 22-storey blocks of flats and offices, diverting rivers and delivering 'retail outlets' .
There's been plenty of building at the High Street end of the road since we arrived in 1994: a home for the elderly (left in the photo) instead of a coal yard; a small-scale municipal estate on the other side, an Adult Education College so ugly that the council tenants got up a petition, and, most recently, a Premier Inn where the carwash used to be. It's the sort of development that, spread over a few years, is relatively harmless.
It was clear the grandly-named 'Domus' was unfit for purpose - dementia isn't improved by the rattle of trains passing every five minutes, so now it's an admin building. The Premier Inn project has been stalled for weeks, probably for the same reason.
The bottom of the hill hints at the disruption - the removal of a roundabout and the re-routing of an urban stream, to build a town centre fit for heroes.
The pavement has becomes a bridle path where the hoarding round the Premier Inn sticks out; even the police horses seems confused. Towering above it all is a an abandoned branch of Citibank. Here I admit to a personal grudge -it stands between y TV aerial and the transmission tower at Crystal Palace. For us, it meant, 'Hello, Sky TV'
There's been some benefits, including the new Glass Mills Leisure Centre, which opened last year. Free swimming for under-sixteens and over-60s. I take full advantage, despite the problems due to bad management.
The whole regeneration scheme won't be complete until 2018, when
Lewisham will in effect become a dormitory for commuters.
It'll be interesting to see the results of it all -if the drawings on the hoardings are any indication, it will confound the critics. My neighbour says he's waiting to profit from the sale of his flat when the Bakerloo Line extension adds to the chaos. I hope by then to be breathing clean air at the seaside and testing out Quentin's theory.
