Merton abbey mills update

The preparatory building [Full image 49.2kb]

As all visitors to the site will know, preparatory building work has started in the William Morris car park area, and test digs have been going on all over the larger site.

What may not be so obvious is that some of those holes have been the work of London Museum's agency, with Dave Saxby and his team continuing to explore areas of the site on a rolling brief.

This has a double benefit - not only is more being learned about the site, but their presence there reduces the likelihood of unthinking destruction of the site during the preparatory building works. We look forward to their more detailed report later in the year.

The image on this page is yet another contribution to the Museum's archive by the late John Viner. Like all such images, it is a best guess, and it will be interesting to see how much it varies from the current information when Dave's report is published.

The new roundabout at the Savacentre entrance has been completed, and, shortly, the replacement of the tandem Centre roundabout with a traffic light controlled crossing will be started - much traffic disruption is likely.

The market itself is suffering, with bad attendance figures over the last three weekends, when business should have been picking up.

Most irritating from our point of view, it appears that Countryside are going to call their development Abbey Mills, and the apalling orignal building designs are to stay. This despite assurances that in the detail of the design, and the naming of the buildings, the Priory's history and importance would be recognised

Ed.