29 and 20 storey tower blocks proposed for Hardess Street /Wellfit St, Loughborough Junction.

[teuchter]

Although this is just word of mouth and should be treated with the appropriate caution, I understand that the occupants of the industrial units on Hardess Street have been given notice, which suggests that this site may be up for redevelopment soon.

It's the single-storey building with the sawtooth roof visible in the aerial views. Just the other side of the railway line from the Higgs Industrial Estate, subject of an ongoing planning apllicatin for redevelopment.

At the moment its ocupants include a steel fabrication company and the Firezza pizza kitchen.

I suspect an attempt will be made to redevelop as housing, with yet more industry/employment lost from the area. Unlike the Higgs site, it borders directly with existing residential properties so will be subject to more limitations. I'd put my money on a 3-4 storeys type building.

I'll be keeping an eye out for planning applications...

 

[CH1]

Circumstances seem to be conspiring to turn LJ into a purely residential suburb.

Funnily enough at Goldsmiths this afternoon there is a lecture on how middle class residents in Chile are desperately trying to list their neighbourhoods to avoid demolition to build office blocks.

 

[bolgerp]

I was just thinking the other day whilst waiting for the train how much of an impact the redevelopments may have on public transport but also on the Herne Hill Medical Centre. At the moment, it's usually not too bad to get an appointment to see the GP but what happens when all these extra people come to live in the area?? I keep hearing tales of woe from my friends/colleagues who have to wait 2 or 3 weeks to see their doctor!!

 

[teuchter]

So, I've just been to the consultation for this. Firstly a couple more images to help show exactly where the site is.

In this image, LJ train station is oat the bottom left hand corner. The site is outlined in pink:



..and looking from the other direction:



and this is what Hardess St currently looks like (looking into it from the junction with Herne Hill Rd):

 

[teuchter]

Here are some not very great photos of the display boards at the consultation. They say they will email PDF versions and I might put those up at some point.

Not terribly exciting architecturally.

Commercial space on the ground floor and then flats above. As with the Higgs scheme, commercial space to "reprovide" what's lost from the site, but of course, it'll be set up for very different types of business and would kill the "light industrial" element that's there at the moment.

I have to say, they don't seem very savvy about what's going on currently, and what people want for LJ, as the images suggest a full-on gentrification of the arches opposite with pictures of Monmouth Coffee etc amongst the "precedent" images. The arches are not part of the site - however the plan does propose widening the access alongside the viaduct. I think, in fact, they are obliged to do this anyway as Netwrok Rail rules prevent anyone building within about 3m of a viaduct.

In the "draft(?)" LJ masterplan it was suggested that this site, along with the scrapyard adjacent (not part of this scheme) be developed such that a through-route is re-established through to Wellfit St and Hinton Rd. The proposals don't provide this (although the building has a door onto Wellfit St). The scrapyard site would have to be developed as well, to create this connection.

They say a planning application will go in at the end of the year.

 

[CH1]

Here are some not very great photos of the display boards at the consultation. They say they will email PDF versions and I might put those up at some point.

Not terribly exciting architecturally.

Commercial space on the ground floor and then flats above. As with the Higgs scheme, commercial space to "reprovide" what's lost from the site, but of course, it'll be set up for very different types of business and would kill the "light industrial" element that's there at the moment.

I have to say, they don't seem very savvy about what's going on currently, and what people want for LJ, as the images suggest a full-on gentrification of the arches opposite with pictures of Monmouth Coffee etc amongst the "precedent" images. The arches are not part of the site - however the plan does propose widening the access alongside the viaduct. I think, in fact, they are obliged to do this anyway as Netwrok Rail rules prevent anyone building within about 3m of a viaduct.

In the "draft(?)" LJ masterplan it was suggested that this site, along with the scrapyard adjacent (not part of this scheme) be developed such that a through-route is re-established through to Wellfit St and Hinton Rd. The proposals don't provide this (although the building has a door onto Wellfit St). The scrapyard site would have to be developed as well, to create this connection.

They say a planning application will go in at the end of the year.

View attachment 119454 View attachment 119455 View attachment 119456 View attachment 119457 View attachment 119458 View attachment 119459

You're right about the computer modelling of the arches. I told him (the guy from Alan Camp Architects) about it - "you seem to be wanting car mechanics to be retrained as baristas" I said.

He gave a "nothing we can do about that" look.

BTW I thought Alan Camp Architects had a consultation at "The Junction" about the property on the corner of CHL and Hinton Road? (currently the bed shop). The spokesperson today seemed to not know about this.

For some incredible reason 219-223 Coldharbour Lane was turned down by Lambeth Planning on delegated powers 16/03749/FUL | Demolition of existing 2 storey building and rear extension and erection of part 2-, part 5-storey mixed use building comprising of approximately 145sqm commercial floorspace on ground floor (Use Class A1/A3), 209sqm (Use Class B1(a)) floorspace on first floor, 268sqm flexible workshop/creative units (Use Class B1) on ground and first floors, nine Class C3 residential flats on remaining upper floors (4 x no1 bedroom, 5 x no2 bedroom); including provision of balconies, communal roof garden, bin stores and cycle parking; and other ancillary works. | 219 - 223 Coldharbour Lane London SW9 8RU

Possibly because Heritage Properties Limited (owners of the building housing the Green Man Skills Zone and flats above had vetoes it (see their objection)
Meanwhile look at what we missed out on!

 

[teuchter]

For some incredible reason 219-223 Coldharbour Lane was turned down by Lambeth Planning on delegated powers 16/03749/FUL | Demolition of existing 2 storey building and rear extension and erection of part 2-, part 5-storey mixed use building comprising of approximately 145sqm commercial floorspace on ground floor (Use Class A1/A3), 209sqm (Use Class B1(a)) floorspace on first floor, 268sqm flexible workshop/creative units (Use Class B1) on ground and first floors, nine Class C3 residential flats on remaining upper floors (4 x no1 bedroom, 5 x no2 bedroom); including provision of balconies, communal roof garden, bin stores and cycle parking; and other ancillary works. | 219 - 223 Coldharbour Lane London SW9 8RU

There are a number of reasons given in the refusal notice...



Edit - I don't think it was the same architects as the Hardess proposal, by the way. The designers for that scheme seem to be "Andy Smith Design".

 

[snowy_again]

That’s the consultation agency that’s a front for a planning permission consultant, or have I got my imagery memory wrong?

 

[bimble]

That is an unusually ugly unashamedly functional proposition. They really should not have dared to include in their bid the claim that they want to "improve the aesthetic of the area" .
Miserable.

 

[teuchter]

That is an unusually ugly unashamedly functional proposition. They really should not have dared to include in their bid the claim that they want to "improve the aesthetic of the area" .
Miserable.

I think I prefer the aesthetic of the genuinely functional sawtooth-roofed industrial building that's there at the moment.

 

[bimble]

bleak. As a work of art about the alienation of bad urban planning that's not bad but for an architects sales pitch quite special.

 

[teuchter]

That’s the consultation agency that’s a front for a planning permission consultant, or have I got my imagery memory wrong?

I don't understand your question.

 

[teuchter]

I noted that a Virgin Trains Pendolino appears to be running along the railway viaduct, with pantograph raised to the overhead wires which will apparently be installed as part of this development. So am looking forward to catching my direct train from Denmark Hill to Glasgow.

 

[bimble]

The speed at which new flats are being built here in LJ must be an outlier, it does feel like the density is increasing in a completely unsustainable way given the infrastructure we have. And as soon as they're built they are sold too, the one on my street that was completed a couple of months ago is fully occupied now, despite twice the developers having to remove the fuck gentrification graffitos.

 

[teuchter]

The speed at which new flats are being built here in LJ must be an outlier, it does feel like the density is increasing in a completely unsustainable way given the infrastructure we have. And as soon as they're built they are sold too, the one on my street that was completed a couple of months ago is fully occupied now, despite twice the developers having to remove the fuck gentrification graffitos.

I think it's pretty much the same throughout London. If anything we are a bit behind things here, I'd say.

 

[bimble]

I think it's pretty much the same throughout London. If anything we are a bit behind things here, I'd say.

I don't think so, unless you can think of another part of inner London that has(/very recently had) a similar mix of residential and light industrial cheek by jowl as here?

 

[CH1]

View attachment 119466
I noted that a Virgin Trains Pendolino appears to be running along the railway viaduct, with pantograph raised to the overhead wires which will apparently be installed as part of this development. So am looking forward to catching my direct train from Denmark Hill to Glasgow.

It must be a faulty Siemens Thameslink train with pantograph inappropriately raised.

BTW I'm sure I noticed some sort of inspection lights on the roof of the power units - do they need their pantogrpahs inspecting from time to time?

 

[teuchter]

I don't think so, unless you can think of another part of inner London that has(/very recently had) a similar mix of residential and light industrial cheek by jowl as here?

I don't know specifically about the light industrial element. But look at what's happened pretty quickly in Lewisham for example - almost unrecognisable when you get off the train, compared to just a few years ago. And of course there's elephant and everything up along the Walworth Rd. All the bit between Brixton and here. Big development near Clapham North where there used to be a builder's merchant. etc.

 

[teuchter]

It must be a faulty Siemens Thameslink train with pantograph inappropriately raised.

BTW I'm sure I noticed some sort of inspection lights on the roof of the power units - do they need their pantogrpahs inspecting from time to time?

I assume it's so they can clearly check via CCTV that they have raised/lowered them as appropriate at Farringdon when they go from 3rd rail to overhead and vice versa.

 

[CH1]

I don't think so, unless you can think of another part of inner London that has(/very recently had) a similar mix of residential and light industrial cheek by jowl as here?

I think at LJ the industrial were always infill - which you don't get at Wier Road in Wimbledon or Park Royal (I imagine).
So we get this mix in our face.

 

[bimble]

I know nothing of Lewisham, it's far away. Elephant's new high rise blocks - what was there in the footprint that they've taken up ?
It looks like blocks of flats are being built wherever there are not already (usually victorian) residential, so mostly where people produce(d) things, or fixed things, which all is now not viable inside the m25.

LJ is an oddity because of its arches, that lend themselves to work, but soon enough each of them will probably be a cool post-industrial windowless studio flat too.

 

[CH1]

I know nothing of Lewisham, it's far away. Elephant's new high rise blocks - what was there in the footprint that they've taken up ?
It looks like blocks of flats are being built wherever there are not already (usually victorian) residential, so mostly where people produce(d) things, or fixed things, which all is now not viable inside the m25.

LJ is an oddity because of its arches, that lend themselves to work, but soon enough each of them will probably be a cool post-industrial windowless studio flat too.

I think Elephant & Castle's redevelopment is a second iteration.
In other words probably before the council flats - Heygate, Aylesbury etc were build it was more mixed between employment and residential.

By the way Elephant One is roughly on the site of a Rowton House - large hostel for homeless men which was in the 1960s converted into a budget hotel for German tourists who like those breakfasts where you can go round as many times as you like! (see pic)

 

[bimble]

I’m in Stratford, the amount of new flats here makes LJs speed of new developments seem comparatively gentle.

 

[editor]

View attachment 119465

bleak. As a work of art about the alienation of bad urban planning that's not bad but for an architects sales pitch quite special.

That does look like dystopian artwork!

 

[editor]

If anyone wants to publicise this development further and put together something for Brixton Buzz, please do!

 

[Lizzy Mac]

Is Firezza still there? It's no longer listed on their site.

 

[teuchter]

Firezza went quite a while ago. Sadly putting an end to the pizza deal in the cinema.

 

[Lizzy Mac]

Firezza went quite a while ago. Sadly putting an end to the pizza deal in the cinema.

Just spotted your post was from 2015...

 

[teuchter]

From LJAG email today:

Hardess Street: developers here are working on plans for the site on the south side of Hardess Street running through to Wellfit Street taking in the now abandoned scrap metal yard. Likely to be 10 storeys high with 45-50 flats. The developer expects to put in a planning application before the summer.

10 storeys seems quite extreme.

 

[teuchter]

Latest on this site: a developer now has ownership of it along with the adjacent site that was the metal scrapyard, and is looking to develop it as one. That is probably preferable to the two being done separately as it hopefully will allow a sensible connection through from Hardess St to Wellfit st.

There is a consultation this Saturday, 1st Dec.

Wellfit Street