Dartmouth Road is great for shopping now compared with a couple of years ago. My kids love Sugar Mountain (and its owner). Robs (and its owner), Agas (you get the picture). Sainsbury's have never given my kids a lolly on their birthday and have never let my kids try the cheese. We love Gym cafe and Dartmouth Tandoori too.
So whilst I think the Farmer's Market is a great idea (first time this weekend - ironically we took food from Agas!) I do worry that it kind of splits the footflow in Forest Hill and creates the focal point at the Horniman instead of the town.
We do need to think about making it easier to stop on Dartmouth Road to use the shops or create a focal point around the pool/louise house/library etc to encourage people to dwell there. Not sure I have an answer to that though.