The Pint of Milk Test

This next blog isn't strictly a residential one but it's interesting none the less, well I think so anyway. As a regular visitor to the Brick Lane area for site visit purposes, what I call 'the proper East End' and Jack the Ripper's old stomping ground, I came across this; the new Minaret outside the Brick Lane Mosque. The controversial structure actually gained consent back in January 2006 but has only now just been built. The idea gained prominence in the media around the mayoral election time last year as Ken Livingstone promised to help raise funds for it to gain the Muslim vote.

Other locals are not so fond of it however. Here are the reasons: The Brick Lane mosque is grade 2 listed and in a conservation area, the new Minaret as seen in the picture is quite large and obtrusive. Also intriguingly the mosque today as it stands lies comparable to when it was first built as a French Protestant Church in 1743. After this it was turned into a Methodist Chapel in 1819 and then again to a Jewish Synagogue in 1898. Now obviously it serves its purpose as a Mosque.

This building then has often been remarked as representing the history of successive communities of immigrants into London; from this point of view it may be called one of the most remarkable and evocative buildings in the area and one of London's architectural and historic treasures. As new influxes of people have come in to the area and taken over the building for their own religious purpose, they have given the building very slight changes. Now the argument persists that "what happens when another religion moves in to and dominates the local landscape?" It would be a lot harder to knock down a minaret instead of applying a lick of paint which is what has happened in the past.

Continuing the theme, Tower Hamlets also look set to approve two structures which represent veil head scarves worn by Muslim women at the entrances to Brick Lane, at the north and to the south. This has again proved hugely unpopular and is being paid for by S106 money from the Spitalfields refurbishment and the Broadgate Tower. Local protesters including artist Tracey Emin called the design "bulky, ungainly and unnecessary" and risked inflaming racial tension. The 'hijab gates' as they will be called will cost nearly £2m and has received 158 objections, but planners recommended granting permission at committee (tonight 04/03/2010). Below is the Brick Lane entrance on Bethnal Green Road with the proposed structure.

Going back to the Mosque, can you think of a building that better shows the influx of different social and religious groups through time to a particular place like the Brick Lane Mosque does? I can't.

After the long awaited submission of a planning application for Battersea Power Station in October 2009, as well as the support of the designs by the government, it looked as though progress was being made in rejuvenating the landmark site. However, it has emerged today that a little-known Victorian pumping station, pictured below, could further delay the development of the site.

The Victorian Society is opposing the plans for the power station as it would mean the demolition of the "historically important and rare" water pumping station. Treasury Holdings do not feel that they can make use of the pumping station, and believe that if it is not removed then it will damage the potential for recouping the cost of restoring the larger and more famous power station. However, previous planning permission to demolish the Grade II listed building expired in 2007 and nothing has been submitted since, so Treasury Holdings may have a long battle on their hands.

Here's an entertaining interactive website from Hayes Davidson where you can build your very own London skyline. It has 3 views, past, present and future to all of which you can add a selection of actual and proposed buildings as well as ones from around the globe. So if you think you know the London skyline, go to the past view and start adding buildings. Once you're done click on the present or future tabs to see how well you did. Here's mine:

..not bad but the Doon Street development is way out. Once you get bored of that (how could you possibly) start adding buildings from around the world:

The Eiffel Tower and the Burj Khalifa, the oldest and newest in the selection sit well on the skyline, bit difficult to get through customs though.

This is The Shoal, a Studio Egret sculpture that has just been granted planning permission from Newham council as an innovative way to brighten up the 2012 Olympic Games. The structure is 450m long and around 16m tall and will feature 180 polished titanium "leaves" which will sway gently in the breeze, running all the way around the Stratford gyratory.

This all may sound lovely, but the project is going to cost £3 million and the whole idea behind it is just to hide the "shabby" looking Stratford shops from the 2012 Olympic visitors and future Westfield shoppers.

A new application has been submitted for the Skylines site on the Isle of Dogs. Development over the past few years has typically been to the south and west of Canary Wharf but it now seems to be shifting a bit to the south east. The Skylines site situated abutting both Limehouse and Marsh Wall will sit just to the south of Angel House, (due back to Tower Hamlets committee soon with recommendation to grant after recently getting deferred). Designed by Farrells it will house 806 residential units in total, 635 of them private. This has been reduced slightly from the scoping opinion which was for 903 residential units, the tallest building being 52 storeys. The full application has also dropped to 50 storeys, after consultation with the council. It will still be taller than nearby Pan Peninsula however. The scheme will also house a 123 bedroom hotel, 2,020sqm of retail and 6,900sqm of office space. The developer is ZVB Skylines with Rolfe Judd as agent.

Below are a couple of pictures I've taken from the design and access statement showing the Skylines site against other consented schemes on the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf.

The news this week that City & Provencial Properties has lodged an application for a 1million sq ft waterside mixed-use redevelopment in Deptford came as a surprise, as almost all of Deptford's limited riverside space is already taken up by schemes in the pipeline or under construction, such as Convoy's Wharf and Greenwich Creekside.

Further research led me to discover that this new proposal, designed by Hawkins Brown, will not neighbour any existing waterway, but will be creating its own by going back to its roots. Back in the 19th and early 20th Centuries the Grand Surrey Canal flowed from Surrey Quays all the way down to Camberwell, running straight through the middle of the site in question in Deptford. The canal was the first to have 'canal police' to keep order along the waterways, but after concerns about the number of children falling in it was eventually drained in the 1960s and 70s.

The new plans propose to reinstate the old canal through the new residential development, acting as a 'heart' for the development and a 'sustainable urban drainage system'. However the new waterway will only pass through the extent of the site owned by City & Provencial and not the surrounding areas, meaning it may become more of a pond rather than a flowing waterway. The site in question currently looks like this:

The new plans hope to rejuvenate the site and the developers visualise something along the lines of this for the future residents:

It looks like the canal police will be back though, this time disguised as giant rubber ducks. 

Continuing on the theme of the Olympic Park and the views of it, I was thinking which development could claim to have the best?  

If like me you intend on being an armchair supporter, for the Olympics in two summers time, then the best place to be will of course be in your own living room.

But if you would like to actually saviour the build up and atmosphere to the whole event at first hand with the feeling of actually being there what better way to do this then by watching from your very own window just a stones throw away.

If so, then probably the best place to do this will be from Fish Island in E3, like the post below would suggest. However, Telford Homes may well have a claim to this statement as their Icona development on Warton Road (below, left) in E15 also has great views as well as a higher panoramic elevation, but is set slightly further back from the stadium, and will have views from a different angle.

However, Fish Island will sit just across the River Lee Navigation which is literally a stones throw. It consists of a small selection of developments, already built, running the length of the Olympic park. The newest of these to complete was Riverside Works at 419 Wick Lane (above right).

Earlier this week an e-mail popped into the LRR inbox advertising over 100 apartments for sale at this development. It was reportedly sold to a bulk investor back in 2008 but now appeares to be coming back to the market, probably just at the right time.

According to the company dealing with the sales, the flats were historically priced at £326,000 but they claim to be able to offer them for £250,000. The flats were built and ready for occupation from late 2008.

Here is another aerial shot of the Olympic site, this one showing both of the above mentioned schemes. 

What development do you think will have the best views of the Olympics? Any suggestions? I'm sure there will be a few more too that will come to the fore in the next decade.

Came across this picture below on the BBC site at lunch showing the progress of the Olympic site and stadium from an aerial perspective...

What interested me though was the close proximity the 'Omega' and 'Crown Wharf' stuff on Roach Road, Fish Island is to the stadium (bottom right of the picture). These 3 developments all done by London Green Developments consist of:

• Omega 3 - 57 units, completed 2004
• Omega 4 - 98 units, completed 2007
• Crown Wharf 1 - 58 units, completed 2007

Below is a picture of what London Green Developments have already built out, looking over the River Lea and on to the Olympic Park. 

Above these however and highlighted in red (Olympic site picture) is a site I have been visiting for a while now with no sign of it kicking off any time soon and will add on to the far left of this picture above. It's Crown Wharf 2 and the 'Carlton Shoes' site, permitted in 2004 for 40 resi units as well as nearly 20,000 sq ft of office space. So why hasn't it kicked off yet? Well a quick look on companies house states London Green Developments has gone bust and is in recievership. Probably something to do with it.

There has also been talk recently too of property investor David Pearl creating an alternative media hub on White Post Lane (story) as well as land grabing around Hackney Wick station. Fish Island and the surrounding Hackney Wick area is sure to see huge regeneration changes in years to come and the Carlton Shoes site seems like a prime oven ready site for a long term investment.   

The Pint of Milk Test had this story way back in February 2008. The story is of a Surrey farmer who built this house...

on his own land, but had no planning permission. He hid it behind straw bales for 4 years to try and get around the planning system and a legal loop hole whereby you can apply for a 'certificate of lawfulness'. This is whereby homeowners can gain immunity from eviction who have lived in a property for more than 4 years without any objections. Unfortunately for the apptly named farmer Mr Fiddler, Reigate and Banstead Council decided that the 4 year rule was void because nobody had been given a chance to see the castle. 

The vital part of illegality which the council stated and the High court agreed with was that the house was invalid because the building and removal of the bales constituted a part of the construction process. Mr Fiddler has now been given 12 months to demolish the structure, remove any rubble and return the site to its existing use (a field). 

The BBC also has the story, as well as a short interview with Mr Fiddler himself who says he will fight on...

What are your views? Do you believe the council are right to object to this development as it could well set a precedent? Or do you think they should keep their noses out of it? View them over at the Pint of Milk Test Forum.