September 2012 Archives

Homes for Britain is a united voice for housing, which has been brought together and involves 40 organisations, mostly housing associations. Expect to hear more of their message over the coming party conference season. 

The recent reshuffle made by David Cameron had one big change for our industry; namely the loss of Grant Shapps as housing minister and in his place Mark Prisk.

Here's another one of those fake facades. This is what you get when construction / development firms are prepared to go that extra mile in keeping the street scene pleasant whilst undertaking works.

This example comes from St John's Church on North End Road SW6. More fake facades can be found by typing "fake" in the search box.

image courtesy of Google Maps    

Designed by OMA, its steel and glass tower reflects the image of  Wren's St Stephen Walbrook church to the west. But that reflection is not what it seems, or so I thought.

This is what Skyscraper News said about it:

"(it) will incorporate a semi-transparent image of the nearby St Stephen Walbrook Church on it mimicking a reflection".

I read that in 2008 and it stuck, probably because it conjured up an image of a Rothschild demanding a reflection of the church on the new building even though it contravened the laws of physics.

Four years later and the massed ranks of LRR were in the vicinity at the excellent The Developing City exhibition at the Walbrook Building (next to the temple of Mithras, read all about that here) in the City. Afterwards we had beer, but just before that we had an amble around the Rothschild HQ (outside of course) in search of this "false" reflection. But despite our efforts and the bemusement of security staff we failed to locate it. Is this just an urban myth or does it really exist? Help required.

...referred to the number of degrees you could view from this building (Panoramic had already gone) if it had been built. First Base was to develop it and probably would have if the economy had not gone into free-fall post 2007. So the cleared site, formerly home to the London Park Hotel, has lain fallow ever since. This is what fallow looks like:

It's that time of year again. All the old favourites, Lloyd's, 30 St Mary Axe, Tower 42 etc

along with far flung new comers like The Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes and Ickenham Manor in err... Ickenham (nice gardens) all worth a visit. Here for details.

The age old North/South debate kicked off this morning at the NLA's 'The North/South Debate: Protecting views across the Thames - cultural imperialism or intelligent conservation?' breakfast talk. With UNESCO now demanding for more control over the construction of tall buildings that are potentially harmful to the view of the Tower of London and Parliament Square, the argument raised was whether this was a hindrance to the development and evolution of London.

While protecting the views of Wold Heritage sites such as the Tower of London and Parliament Square is imperative, can this be done at the expense of the development and evolution of an ever changing city? As highlighted by Paul Finch, chair of the Design Council Cabe, the beauty of London is that each building provides a layer in its history. The city itself represents not a stagnant environment but rather, the evolution and change of the city is projected through buildings such as the Tower of London and the Shard. While it is often accused of being obtrusive and domineering with its architectural brilliance being arguable, it is certain that iconic buildings such as the Shard leave a mark of an era on London.

Image courtesy of 'Lets Tour England' 2012

Building to rigid guidelines and standards, may protect the views of our more historic buildings, however are arguably a hindrance to the newer development that will shape the future city. The importance of preserving key heritage sites however should not be dismissed, as the history of London cannot be engulfed in a wave of new tall buildings. Yet it is imperative that preservation of the more historical London should not be a concrete justification in hindering the development and evolution of an ever changing city. 

A £300,000,000 house has just come onto the market in Central London, making it the most expensive home in British history.

Click here for details

picture courtesy of Google Maps

Here's an interesting map showing the number of sales across the capital in August 2012. The bigger the circle the larger the sales, the deeper the colour the more clustered those sales were:



Clearly there have been more sales in the inner boroughs, but what's driving these sales?


Photograph by Michael Kyle | www.michaelkyle.co.uk

The full presentation is available to LRR subscribers but the essence of our findings goes like this. Last year there was almost no growth in the number of sales in the inner boroughs but capital values increased by nearly 7%. Simply put the market in the inner boroughs was being driven by equity, the cash rich in other words. Did this trend continued into 2012? Here's the last of the 100 or so slides in the presentation:



 Clearly the market continues to be equity driven. Marketing and sales are on the increase but just look at the difference in the number of units sold overseas, up 280% from the 2011 figure. We suspect that this demand for super prime stock may well outstrip supply forcing foreign equity to spread its net wider to incorporate the less prime areas.

North Southwark is changing fast. The SE1 postcode is probably the most populous and dense postcode in terms of LRR schemes and for site visiting purposes. Imagine a triangle between Waterloo, Elephant and Castle and Tower Bridge. There are over 100 schemes at either the permission or under construction phase, across all uses (residential, office, student, hotel). However as these photos show from my site visiting last week, there's still the odd gem to be found amongst the rapidly changing built environment.

A hybrid planning application has been submitted to Bexley council for the regeneration of the Larner Estate in Erith (DA9). The estate which was transferred from the London borough of Bexley to Orbit Housing Association in 1998, will now be demolished and redeveloped to provide between 520 and 650 new residential units. The development will compromise a mix of houses and low rise apartments a move away from the tower blocks which currently exist on the site. The development will be carried out in two phases.  A detailed planning application has been submitted for Phase 1 which will provide 343 residential units (66 private and 277 social). The outline planning application for Phase 2 intends to provide between 207 and 279 new homes (up to 55 private units and 224 social units.), as well as 150 sq m of community facilities. The developer is Orbit Housing Association and Turley Associates is the appointed agent. 

Image courtesy of News shopper 2012 

...of  "Jimmy the Greek". Apologies to Mark Haddon fans but this is a story of property development and a bit of footy.  Here's the story in one sentence. A number of small businesses had to be relocated in order to build the Arsenal Emirates Stadium, one of those businesses was owned by "Jimmy" who recently sold his site for £14m. Go here for ex EG editor Peter Bill's full account in the Standard. Below, Generation and Carlyle's 400-bed student hostel Pure Highbury (just completed), the reason behind the pay out.

The Olympic and Paralympic games are barely over (sad face), in fact as I write this the parade of athletes is proceeding down the Strand, just a few hundred yards away from EG towers.

When builders don't build enough houses why is it always the planners who get the blame? According to Planning Magazine, legislation designed to speed up planning decisions is to be introduced in the next few weeks and the green belt might be vanishing too, as it apparently 'restricts growth'.