October 2011 Archives

Planning consent has been approved for a controversial office building in Chiswick. The controversy surrounds the risk of distraction of motorists as the scheme includes media screens for advertising facing the M4 flyover.

The developer will be obliged, amongst other things, to allow local government to advertise on the building for up to 120 two minute slots per month. I think they should use the opportunity to promote road safety and the benefits of not being distracted when driving.

Feel free to post other suggestions using the comments section...

...in Kolkata, India:

Part of the facade of the IMI Library, more details here.

...by Hitler's V2 rockets, the capital took quite a pounding the remnants of which are in some cases still visible today.

If you fancy tracking any down there's a handy map (picture below) at the Londonist.

...A.E.J Collins scored 628 not out over four afternoons, the highest ever recorded score in a game of cricket, he was just 13 years old. Seeing as all this occurred in Clifton in Bristol you could be forgiven for wondering what it has to do with residential development in London. The connection is this, a few years after the famous match Collins joined the army as a trainee engineer, specifically he enrolled at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, the same site which Durkan are currently developing into 328 residential flats, cunningly renamed The Academy. Predominantly the scheme is new build with some private elements to be housed in the refurbished Academy itself. Works on the new build element look largely complete:

The refurbishment however doesn't look like it's started:

...just got more...err...augmented. Go here for details of ANW, Articulated Naturality Web, the future for a while but really only a stop-gap before we're all fitted with brain implants.

...well nearly. Here's the final part, The Atrium:

Developed by Telford Homes, to the west of Deptford Creek, north of the Laban Centre and directly south (almost) of New Capital Quay. There's quite a little enclave building up here.

...others as New Capital Quay, but whatever the name, one thing's for certain, after years of inactivity, works have finally started on the site, going from this last year:

To this yesterday:

Set to deliver a total of 980 residential unts, 636 of those for private sale.

The full itinerary of the Howard Hotel in WC2 was being auctioned off this week, literally on a room-by-room, item-by-item basis. From chandeliers to mini-bars and marble pillers to bed linen. The establishment, a sister hotel to the Savoy, will soon be demolished to make way for a new mixed-use development consisting of 151 apartments. Ironcially, the hotel underwent a £1.8 million renovation that only completed 8 weeks ago.

• Click here for the full story
• Auction brochure
• EGi subscribers click here for full details of the proposed new site  

Howard Hotel site

...is on Hamilton Terrace, St John's Wood, NW8 9RE.

Above is what you'll get on Google Streetview.

I was also out of the office yesterday like Nigel, site visiting. His may have been a double rainbow but mine wins. Sorry Nigel... 

Taken from South Bermondsey. You can make your own analogy up along the lines of 'pot of gold', 'Canary Wharf' and 'money'... 

...in Greenwich: 

 Yesterday at about 2 in the afternoon. 

Last week Guildhouse Rosepride LLP, a joint venture between Rosepride Properties and Guildhouse UK submitted plans for a huge tower in the centre of Croydon. The site is No.1 Lansdowne Road, which also fronts on to Wellesley Road. The plans by CZWG Architects have been in the pipeline for a while but have only just now been submitted.

The plans are for a part 12, part 16 and part 55 storey building comprising 397 residential units in total (377 private and 20 shared ownership). A 217 bed hotel and 23,709 sqm of office space will also be provided.

After years of inactivity it seems development in Croydon is definitely on the up. Berkeley have recently started construction at their Saffron Square site and Menta's tower adjacent to East Croydon station (Cherry Orchard Road) was also recently granted permission.

It's always hard to go on renders but let's hope the finish of these new developments are of a high quality and they are more pleasing on the eye than the 60's stuff they are replacing. If they're not, they could be even worse, a drab concrete, 1960's 10 storey building can be seen from the local vicinity, a 55 storey tower can be seen from a lot further afield...

Developers Londonewcastle have submitted plans for their Dollar Bay site on Marsh Wall, Isle of Dogs, E14. Over on the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs, the less developed side, their plans include 121 residential units (111 private and 10 shared ownership). Here's a render...

Designed by Ian Simpson Architects the development will provide fantastic views afforded from winter gardens. If you think the facade looks a bit odd at first (like me), then the blurb below from the applications design and access statement reveals why...

"The double skin clear glazed facade will maximise natural daylight into each apartment and capitalise on the stunning views offered from the site. It will act as an insulating buffer during the winter and a naturally ventilated amenity space during the summer which reduces the requirement for heating and additional cooling. Residents will have stunning views all across London through the clear glass panels, which when residents open their individual louvres will create a vibrant constantly changing textured surface across the entire facade. During periods when all apartment louvres are closed, the natural reflections of the glass from the sun and sky will ensure the facade is constantly changing". View the application here.

Below is the site in context with Canary Wharf estate as it stands now as well as with approved schemes and other future developments.

 Londonewcastle have also submitted plans for 64 off-site affordable homes on Thomas Road, fronting Limehouse Cut Canal in Poplar, also designed by Ian Simpson.

More info can be found at Londonewcastle's website for the dual development here. 

And following on with a Masons connection, did anyone see Batman in the bell tower of their headquarters last week? The cape crusader was in town promoting his new video game (Batman: Arkham City) that was released this month. 

 Photos courtesy of www.pocket-lint.com

Those, like me, mourning the demise of the long running BBC spy drama Spooks may want to visit some of the locations used. Many people recognise their headquarters as the headquarters of the Masons near Covent Garden, but it's likely fewer will have recognised the discrete centre of operations in Moscow of that naughty Russian chap from last night's final episode.

Being both a reader and contributor to this blog I was able to broaden my wife's knowledge about this (she was delighted), thanks to Nigel's comments on a house in Highgate Cemetery.

It was described as "Spooky" then for different reasons.

BBC iPlayer has the episode, with the building appearing one minute into the program.

...that there is a permanent electric current flowing through the statue of Churchill in Parliament Square to ward off pigeons?

Or that there's a nose embedded into the fabric of Admiralty Arch?

No? Neither did I until I visited chartered surveyors Tuckerman's new website Vickipedia, all the trivia about Victoria and its environs that you could wish for.

...costing £132,000 go to Barratt's Vickers Green development in Crayford (that's the old Samas Roneo site for the locals) this Saturday when it'll be launching. This is what it looked like before the development started.

 This is what it looked like in August:

These are our most recent photos so if you do go down there this Saturday email us some pictures. Thanks.

Activities and uses in buildings are classified alpha-numerically, B1 for offices etc but whatever you do stay well clear of Class B7 because it allows for this:

Breeding maggots from putrescible animal matter.

Boiling blood, chitterlings, nettlings or soap.

Boiling, burning, grinding or steaming bones.

Boiling or cleaning tripe.

Cleaning, adapting or treating animal hair.

Making manure from bones, fish, offal, blood, spent hops, beans or other putrescible animal or vegetable matter.

Making or scraping guts.

Manufacturing animal charcoal, blood albumen, candles, catgut, glue, fish oil, size or feeding stuff for animals or poultry from meat, fish, blood, bone, feathers, fat or animal offal either in an offensive condition or subjected to any process causing noxious or injurious effluvia.

.

...is on the unfashionable, everything-must-go, closing-down-sale (honest we are) end of Oxford Street. I've never quite understood why this end of one of the most famous streets in the world, in one of the major cities of the world should be so dishevelled. It's crying out for a dose of modernity, luckily developer Derwent agrees and is about to deliver it:

In partnership with Crossrail, the developer has now submitted plans for a mixed-use development on the site, above and next to the Tottenham Court Road East Crossrail station, which will be completed in 2017. EG News has the story. 

...Brick Lane:

...has started and not just the refurb of Lambeth College. Take a look at these two pictures, the first from early October 2011:

The second from about two days ago:

You'll notice the GLA building in the background, when this development is complete the view from it will look like:

Many developments claim to be on iconic sites but this is the real deal:

Flanked to the east by Tower Bridge and lying directly opposite the Tower of London we've blogged about this site more than any other here, here, here, here, here and finally here.

...trajectory will look something like this:

Starting on the left at the 02 and finishing on the right at the Excel. Ready by 2012, branded Emirates Air Line, works have just started:

More details here, here and here.

Two more stories to recount in the ever on going and bitter story of Eileen House, between developer Oakmayne and would-be developer Ministry of Sound as well as now architects Allies & Morrison and would-be architects Marks Barfield. Read the prelude 'Elephant planning struggles' part 1 here.

Firstly Marks Barfield Architects plans for Eileen House, commissioned by Ministry of Sound (view here) have been blasted by Allies & Morrison, the firm whose plans for the site got vetoed by Southwark councillors last week. According to Building Design, Allies & Morrison said Marks Barfield's work amounted to "predatory" behaviour to undermine the planning application and said he was shocked by the timing which he felt amounted to "propaganda" intended to undermine their scheme at the key moment. Also interestingly he revealed the two practices were working together on a mixed-use scheme in Vauxhall. "It's not as if I didn't see them and they never mentioned it," Morrison, co-founder of Allies & Morrison said. "They owe us an explanation. I can't imagine working in that way against someone I thought was a colleague and a friend. I think it's an action they will regret for the rest of their lives." Awkward...

As well as this another development appeared in yesterday's Sunday Times. The story here is of Ministry of Sound's sobering finances. Apparently turnover fell to £43m last year from £50m and their pre-tax loss widened to £2.4m. However despite the fall in profits, they still found £34,336 for political donations; £31,000 for Labour and £3,336 for the Liberal Democrats, coincidentally the two parties controlling Southwark Council. Interesting...

Update: Southwark Council is actually controlled wholly by Labour, they replaced the Lib-Dem coalition last year.

...markets, the prime and everything else. The non-prime market (note I did not say sub-prime, that, as we know, is something entirely different) has recovered slightly since 2008, however, in comparison the prime market has prospered. This continued polarisation of the London housing market should come as no surprise.

The mainstream market to a large extent is underpinned by first time buyers but their entry into the market has been severely curtailed by low LTV ratios, typically 75-80%, and overpriced stock, although increasing knock-down figures would suggest that there are deals to be made here.

The prime market however is driven by a very different type of purchaser, the cash-rich.

Be they individuals, Sovereign wealth funds or large institutional investors, property acquisition for this sector, unburdened by the need for mortgages, is more to do with finding a safe haven for their money than taking up residence. Property is still seen as a safe bet, but it has to be in the established prime locations, somewhere like this.

More details on the market together with a list of the biggest knock-down figures of the last couple of months can be found by downloading the latest Red Book Bi-Monthly Update.

...economies may wobble and regimes may fall but one thing we can be sure of is that the new American embassy will be built in Nine Elms by 2017. Not only does the new embassy bring with it around 800 new jobs, it also brings a degree of instant gentrification to the area, and its influence is already beginning to manifest itself.

Radiating out from the embassy core are two pivotal sites, Ballymore's Embassy Gardens (below) and Barratt's Riverlight development. The former is yet to gain planning permission but, despite this, site preparations for the 2,000 unit scheme are already underway, whilst works proper have started on the latter which is set to deliver not only 653 residential units but moorings for over 38 boats as well.

Set to deliver in excess of 10,000 private units this vast area is already being dubbed the "Mini-Manhattan", but amidst all the large scale redevelopments are smaller sites who, for one reason or another, either failed to gain planning permission, or have seen their planning consents lapse. The LRR database has over 2,000 of these sites which have either fallen out of the planning pipeline or were never in it in the first place. For details of around 20 of these sites around the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area, ranging in potential from five to 75 private units in size download a copy of the latest Red Book Bi-Monthly Report.

...right across the centre of the capital have kicked-off in the last few months with the combined capacity to deliver around 6,640 residential units. Notable amongst these were:

...often fret about the impact a new building will have on the immediate built environment. Will it be sympathetic? Will it fit in with the streetscape? What about the massing? Is it just too big? Prepare to brace yourselves planners, here comes Daniel Libeskind's fundamental dislocation:

Copyright Bitter Bredt Courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind

This is the new extension to the Dresden Museum of Military History, and it's a bit too late for any objections because it's already been built.

Copyright Bitter Bredt Courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind

More on the story here and here.

...looks exactly as it did 5, 10, 15? years ago, so why am I blogging about it?

I won't go into the planning history of this site, suffice to say that it's long, complicated and strewn with consents, refusals, appeals, objections and ministerial interventions. To complicate matters further the site itself is really two sites, the K&C element which includes the power station and the H&F element which covers the site to the south and it is this latter site that we're interested in.

Recently a planning application was submitted by Circadian to amend the 2006 consent for this element to provide 110 social and 18 private units. Interestingly though, the usual 70-30% social tenure split in favour of rented accommodation has been reversed, with the new amendments proposing a 25% rented and 75% shared ownership unit mix.

John Lewis has revived plans for the redevelopment of a warehouse in Chelsea, as a result of the resurgence of prime residential prices in London. It tried to sell the site back in 2007, but a deal with Heron International fell through as a result of planning obligations.

It seems likely the site will come to the market once planning permission is achieved.

A planning brief for the site was drawn up back in 2007. CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle are both advising on the proposals.

Savills is looking for offers in excess of £40 million for a site in Knightsbridge. Seems a lot for a cleared site, but as locations go it doesn't get much better. Five minutes from Knightsbridge, and just a stroll over the road to the Victoria and Albert museum.

The site was cleared in 2009 and a planning consent granted back in 2006 was part implemented. Apparently work has begun on the basement levels, meaning the planning consent won't expire.

Six family houses (5x4 and 1x5 bed) and five studio flats are to be built at the site, with a total floor area of nearly 42,000 sq ft. According to plans lodged at Kensington and Chelsea a couple of them will even include swimming pools.

Good timing for a sale, it has been reported that One Hyde Park, just down the road, has broken another sales record, with an undisclosed buyer paying the equivalent of £7,500 per square foot. 

The planning struggles for Eileen House are set to continue. Personally I thought they may be put to bed last night when it went to committee with the recommendation from Southwark planners to approve the scheme. However, councillors refused it and it now appears Ministry of Sound have come up with their own proposals for the site along with plans to maybe even buy the site and develop it themselves. See their plans here.

More on the reasons for refusal will be published by Southwark in due course; an appeal by Oakmayne is probable who probably wish they never got involved with the site. This application was submitted more than two and a half years ago, which nearby club Ministry of Sound have resisted fierecly, fearing noise from their club will impact on its neighbours adversely with implications leading to a move away from Elephant; its home since it opened in 1991. More on the story can be viewed in past blog posts here and here.

Less than a hundred years ago, on a Sunday morning, you could have wandered down to Sclater Street market, just off Brick Lane and bought youself an elephant.

This is how George Sims describes the market in 1911:

"There was a wonderful assortment of wild beasts. Lions coming from Africa, and elephants on the way from India, a telegram announcing the arrival at Liverpool of a consignment of apes, and letters from clients inquiring the lowest price of various Noah's Ark specialities, from a boa-constrictor to a giraffe, from a zebra to a Polar bear."

Today Sclater Street is being transformed by Telford Homes' Avant-Garde development the social element of which looks like this:

Almost complete; whilst the private element is just getting off the ground:

And what of the animal market, sadly/happily this is all that remains:

We've been banging on about pod living (some may say obsessing) quite a bit of late (see this and this)  but the folk on Great Easten Street have taken it way too far:

...in the heart of London for £60 a week? Then become a Guardian. This is a building on Willow Street in Hackney, about 5 minutes walk to the City protected by Liveinguardians.com:

...is about a prime location as you can get directly opposite Kensington Palace and two minutes from the Albert Hall. Candy & Candy are currently rebuilding the site, a little bit of new behind retained facade, a little bit of new build facing Kensington Road. As a good rule of thumb the swankier the marketing suite the more prestigious the development, until it gets to this level of course. Here, I suspect that there will be very little marketing, this'll be one of those invite only affairs. But if you are passing it, keep an eye out for this:

You can't miss it seeing as it takes up half of the road. It's not part of the development and it isn't the marketing suite, no this is just the site office.

In the last couple of years Old Street roundabout, where Hoxton and Shoreditch meet the northern reaches of the City of London, has been dubbed 'Silicon Roundabout' due to the rising success of new technology firms and the number of small start ups making a name for themselves.

The public realm around the site it must be said though is pretty dull with a three-lane roundabout and under passes for pedestrians. London-based design practice 00:/ ('zero zero') in partnership with Space Station, aim to change that though and have published proposals for the redevelopment of the site it self.

On the design, their press release states,

"On the outside, the faceted facade is a vast, programmable advertising board, reminiscent of Tokyo's Shinjuku district. "We're told the advertising space on the roundabout is some of the most expensive in Britain. Rather than resist that, we saw an opportunity in turning that onto its head, by opening the whole thing up. By selling the façade per pixel, per minute, the building creates a system which allows small, local companies, individuals and online campaigns to use it, alongside the big global players." The result is a kind of neighbourhood-based 'million-dollar homepage', reflecting outwardly the energetic entrepreneurialism which is driving the change in this part of London."

Islington Council have yet to state their opinion of the plans, nor TfL who I assume own the site? Correction: TfL have said they would be happy to talk and Islington retweeted saying "very interesting". 00:/ ('zero zero') were also keeping their cards close to their chest when I asked them more on their ideas. The old adage 'only time will tell' I think describes this proposal in seeing whether it will see through to fruition.

Personally I quite like it and can see many imaginative uses of the site being applied. However, I'm not sure how cyclists would feel about it, with the roundabout already being a notorious hot spot for cycling accidents. For more info see here: 

Below is a North London property recently built in Highgate, consisting of two family residences each of around 4,000sq ft. One is currently on the market for £3,350,000 and comes with 4 en-suite bedrooms. Thanks go to the developer behind the project; Bliss for use of their pictures. More on the project can be viewed here.

Personally I love the look of the development. It has clean lines, open floor plans and is strikingly modern in design as well as having a great use and range of materials. Amazingly too the structure was built by 6 men over 6 days! Here are some more pictures.

The short construction time was owed to materials being pre-fabricated before being assembled on site and features many eco-friendly materials. Congratulations to Bliss on this development, other developers take note. For more info from Bliss, see here.   

You may have seen in the press over the past couple of days, news of Chelsea FC's need for a bigger ground as their current home at Stamford Bridge, is seen as too small for requirement. Basically they need bigger match day revenues in order to compete competitively against the likes of Manchester United in England and Barcelona in Europe.

The Independent ran an article on how the club are trying to buy the ground, back off a consortium of fans who bought it back in the 90's. They also went on to state the likely sites Chelsea will be eyeing up if it's a move away from their current ground that has to happen.

The sties are as follows:

Old Oak Common (proposed hub site for HS2 and Crossrail)

White City (land to north of Westfield, within a 5 minute walk to QPR)

Earls Court (big new plans for mixed-use scheme by Cap & Co)

Imperial Wharf (even Chelsea concede this site would be too small)

Battersea Nine Elms (again big new mixed-use plans proposed) 

This then leaves the only options being to stay at Stamford Bridge and redeveloping, something architects have concluded isn't possible (for an increase in the region to 55,000 to 60,000) or a move to Wormwood Scrubs, which wouldn't go down well with conservationists.

I can't see Capital & Counties selling up and I'm sure Chelsea fans wouldn't be too favourable of a move to White City or even south of the River. The price of Battersea would also have shot up drastically within the past year, with it now having full planning permission.

Basically the story here is that it looks as though Chelsea have missed the boat if they want to find a site locally, which is big enough to accommodate a new stadium. Apparently you need around 18-20 acres to build a 60,000 seat stadium; Stamford Bridge currently sits on around 12-13 acres.

Maybe this is something they should have thought about 10 or 15 years ago before developers snapped up these large sites in fairly prime West London neighbourhoods. As we all know the need for more housing in the capital is great and it looks as though housing developers may have beaten Chelsea to the land...    

I was looking at the shortlist for the Wood Awards 2011 and although there were some spectacular works, one certainly caught my eye more than the others. Following on from my last blog about interior design, I thought I would write about a part of the house that I never thought could be imaginative (which maybe why I'd be an awful Architect/Interior Designer.) Atmos Studio won the Innovation award for the best staircase I think I've ever seen:

I love the way that even looking at it now I still wait for my eyes to adjust, assuming that they are lying to me. It would be amazing to watch friends come round for dinner and get thoroughly confused when trying to scale the staircase and feel like they're going back in time in an eighties movie.

We now have the location of the final 16 contestant's house click here to see it on Google Maps where it'll look surprisingly like this:

And if you want to know where the Young Apprentice House is go here.