It gives us great pleasure to announce Sharon Pain as the winner of our Win £100 Spending Spree competition. Asked how she felt about winning Sharon said, “I was utterley shocked and delighted, “there’s so much happening in Forest Hill, its so nice to see”…we couldnt have put it better ourselves Sharon…congratulations!
A big thankyou to everyone who entered.
Forest Hill has gone back to its roots for the next couple of weeks, transformed into an urban orchard. Forty-seven shops and businesses in Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park have joined forces to create an avenue of 70 fruit trees – the Edible High Road – celebrating Forest Hill’s history and its current standing as a hub of community gardening. A trail map leads visitors along the route lined with apple, cherry, pear and plum trees, ending in the Horniman Museum’s Gardens at the crest of the hill. Children taking part can also win gardening prizes
The local independent shop keepers of Forest Hill have teamed up to give you a chance to win £100 shopping spree! All you need to do is like us and join the event on Facebook, or submit your contact details to ‘Serge’ at B Cards, 16d Dartmouth Road, Forest Hill SE23 3XU. Entries must be in by April 30th 2013 Good luck!
With over 25 local shops and businesses participating, each with their own festive £5 deal, its sure to be a great time to enjoy what the town has to offer.
The event will run from 8th-15th of December with a late night opening on the Thursday 13th
All the Christmas Totally Locally Forest Hill Forest Hill Fiver Fest Deals…
1. Mind and Body Therapy – A Totally Pampering £5 off for your 30 minutute treatment.
We’ve done it – we’ve got the Totally Locally Forest Hill Christmas Fiverfest / Whats On Guide printed and out to the shops in town. More will be distributed door to door over the next coupe of weeks (if you could help, please do get in touch).
This is the first Christmas material paid for by the Lewisham Council’s assembly fund which was granted to us back in September. It’s all thanks Lewisham and to you for choosing and voting for our (your!) Forest Hill shop local campaign and we really hope you like the results. The Totally Locally Forest Hill Festive Fiverfest is a week long event being organised by the Forest Hill Traders Association with over 25 local shops and businesses participating, each with their own festive £5 deal. Its sure to be a great time to enjoy what the town has to offer.The event will run from 8th-15th of December (with a late night opening on the Thursday 13th – although many of the shops will open late on Thursdays throughout December!
So far loads of people really like map/What’s On guide. So how did this masterpiece come together? – Forest Hill’s business owners held a meeting to ask if they thought it was a good idea – they said yes, and we spent a few weeks pulling the content together – What’s on, a Totally Locally FiverFest, side splittingly funny (not) write ups for all the businesses, text for the pages etc. Then the fun began – design work was pulled together. Bit of work til 1am – on a few evenings! Friday 16th 8am sent to printers, Thursday 10am arrives in Forest Hill by mid day most of the shops had their leaflets, phew!
Now that is team work folks – we just hope you will seek them out have a read and maybe find out something you didn’t know, go in a shop you weren’t aware of or just enjoy it.
Thanks Very Much
On behalf of all the independent shops and businesses in Forest Hill a great big thankyou to everyone who came out and supported the Totally Locally Forest Hill campaign at the Assembly Fund 2012 meeting on Monday. We already had a sneaky feeling that you love and care about where you live but it was still lovely to receive so much positive energy (and funding!!!)
SERGE, TOTALLY LOCALLY FOREST HILL ORGANISER AND B CARDS AND GIFTS OWNER, WENT ON ROBERT ELM’S BBC 94.9FM LONDON RADIO SHOW TO TALK ABOUT THIS GREAT CAMPAIGN IN FOREST HILL!!!
There’s a bit of maths that says if you spend £10 in a local shop that sells stuff from local producers the amount of money that goes back into Forest Hill’s economy can be over £50!
Well if you imagine that when you buy a Forest Hill-made pie from a local shop, a big part of your money is passed on to the local piemaker. The shop employs a local accountant or even a decorator. In turn the piemaker who sources his meat from a local farm spends a big percentage of his money with the farmer. The farmer then spends some of his money at his local garage, the garage owner etc. etc.
With each step, around 80% of each spend goes into the local economy. So in effect the money that stays within Forest Hill gets more & more.
Forest Hill’s independent businesses are far more likely to use other local firms than any of the big national giants would – it’s what makes them tick and they know the true value of keeping it “Totally Locally”. It’s also a lot easier!
The more everyone spends within our area the stronger our economy grows, which means more jobs, better facilities, a vibrant town centre and a nicer place for us all to live.
This can be applied to everything from a college to bike manufacturers, to music shops, to food producers.
If you compare this with buying online & outside the area – where none of the money comes back into the Forest Hill economy – it seems to make sense really. Add to this a smaller impact on the environment due to less transportation and you have good reasons for keeping your purchasing Totally Locally.
It’s not about protectionism, it’s about small decisions that have a big impact on where we live.
Only by following the money trail do you get a true sense of the knock-on effects of buying Totally Locally Forest Hill. It takes you in all kinds of directions, ping-ponging from groceries and clothing, to tradesmen and accountants, each time adding to our economy. The trail is staggering.
So when you go for your next purchase, be it eggs, a sofa or new pair of shoes, consider the true effect of how you buy.
If every adult in the Forest Hill area spent £5 with their local independent shops and businesses instead of online or with the big supermarkets, it will be worth an extra 3.5m into the local economy.
Which means more jobs, better facilities and a nicer place to live for us all. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
Forest Hill is the latest place to take Totally Locally! A crack team of volunteers is already working late into the night to bring you the launch event on 9th September.
Totally Locally is about opening your eyes to the great independent shops and businesses which grace Forest Hill and the nearby area. It’s here to encourage you to turn into the door of that shop you walk past every day. Go on, give it a try – there’s a good chance you’ll want to go back.
It’s about supporting local growers, producers and services: be it furniture makers, farmers, accountants or bakers.
Most of all though it’s about people. Great people. People who care about what they do, what they grow, what they make and ultimately the people they sell it to.
And it’s about all of us. A collective responsibility of all of us to support these businesses. Because when we do our towns thrive. If you support a local shop or business, chances are they support at least ten others. And those ten support another ten each. It’s the very structure of what we have come to love about this area.
Totally Locally was created, and continues with passion, to celebrate the fantastic shops, businesses and people that we have in our local areas. These are the Hidden Gems in our towns that make the place that little bit different, that little bit more colourful, and that little bit better to live in. They are all there in every local area – it is just probably that we have forgotten them a little in our rushed lives and our obsession with the Supermarkets.
The team in Totally Locally Forest Hill are already collecting the Hidden Gems that make your town special. We’ll profile them on this website with some cracking photos. There’ll be some you know, and some that you’ll discover for the first time. It’s about being a tourist in your home town.
