May 2009 Archives

...for this on London's South Bank. Starting on 27th May it'll be the venue for a whole load of stuff (limited period, 8 weeks). Details here.

 The void is 6m deep by 18m wide and 10m high...which sounds like the strap line from a low budget horror movie...but it isn't. This void is at the base of Cromwell Tower on the north east edge of the Barbican Estate in the shadow of Frobisher Crescent. The tower was completed in 1973, but the void was never occupied. It may have been intended as a retail unit but no one, including the City of London, is too sure about its original purpose, even the architects drawings are no longer in existence. Over time the void was forgotten, frequented only by the occasional construction worker who used the space for storing bags of concrete, possibly some tools and the odd bit of timber.

Fast forward 36 years to last Tuesday's City of London Planning and Transportation committee, item 9/4a, and there it is, The Void. Normally I wouldn't be all that interested in an application for the conversion to provide a single residential unit, but this one caught my eye simply because of the sheer size of it, 2,626 sq ft gross, for a resi unit in London that's massive. Jamie Fobert Architects who also did the extension to the Tate in St Ives are designing it, should be interesting.