Lambeth's plans to demolish Cressingham Gardens and other estates without the consent of residents

[Greebo]

BTW the leaflet lists (in small print) how many flats will be demolished and how many "new homes" will be built. Allegedly anyone overcrowded won't have to worry about that, but I don't see it, unless rooms are going to be smaller and ceilings a lot lower.

There will also allegedly be a lot more M class flats with either ground floor entry or lift access. Call me a cynic, but I don't really trust lift maintenance in Lambeth. And if that puts up the service charge, that's not covered by housing benefit.

 

[leanderman]

The simple truth is: Lambeth's Labour council and their developer mates want as many rich people as possible to move in so they can flog all our public assets and trouser lots of cash.

Brockwell Park could be partially surrounded by tower blocks. I predicted this many years ago when they stole a corner of the park to add an extra traffic lane at Herne Hill. Slippery slope….

I think the redevelopment of that corner is something of a success.

 

[leanderman]

The simple truth is: Lambeth's Labour council and their developer mates want as many rich people as possible to move in so they can flog all our public assets and trouser lots of cash.

Brockwell Park could be partially surrounded by tower blocks. I predicted this many years ago when they stole a corner of the park to add an extra traffic lane at Herne Hill. Slippery slope….

The simple truth is that your original post may not be the simple truth!

 

[Manter]

Dubious but any help is welcome. As it is, the Telly Tubby mounds are safe as they're part of the Brockwell Park Conservation Area. Small victories. Crosby Walk and that side are probably going to be sacrificed.

Which bit is Crosby walk? Right hand side of the rotunda as you look at the park?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Scans of the relevant proposals. Sorry they're big, but they're the smallest I could get them without losing detail. If a mod such as Lazy Llama has a way to trim them without losing detail, please do!

Page one

I'll post one scan per post.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Page two

 

[ViolentPanda]

Page three

 

[ViolentPanda]

Page four

 

[ViolentPanda]

Page five

 

[Greebo]

Which bit is Crosby walk? Right hand side of the rotunda as you look at the park?

It's one of the rows on the part of the estate (as well as which is along one side of crap tesco, and tucked behind that lowrise block on it's own which isn't part of the estate. Left of the Rotunda, if you're walking towards the park, from the main road.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Page six

 

[Manter]

It's one of the rows on the part of the estate (as well as which is along one side of crap tesco, and tucked behind that lowrise block on it's own which isn't part of the estate. Left of the Rotunda, if you're walking towards the park, from the main road.

I think I know where you mean. Thx

 

[ViolentPanda]

Page seven

 

[ViolentPanda]

Page eight

 

[ViolentPanda]

There we go, that's all the proposals.
You can guess which one Lambeth will plump for!

 

[Manter]

Thanks ViolentPanda that's really interesting. Will read properly later

 

[Greebo]

NB: Any tenant who is moved out for the duration of building work, will not be moved back into their original home afterwards.

There will be a "one move" operation. One new block A built; existing tenants from B which will be worked on moved into A; B rebuilt, tenants from C moved into B, repeat ad nauseam.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I find Cressingham Gardens an immensely depressing estate. Many (but not all) of the people who live there love it to bits, but I can't see the appeal - besides being right on the edge of the park

Fortunately, your opinion of our estate is meaningless.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Greebo was there any info from the council on projected numbers of new/refurbished/social housing homes? Is there anything online yet?

It's all listed on the pages I posted up, although one of the options doesn't mention that if Crosby Walk is demolished, the estate will gain an extra ten homes on top of the developer's figure, because that's how many are bricked up and unusable.

 

[SpamMisery]

 

[ViolentPanda]

Option one (refurbishment), option two (partial redevelopment and infill, 19 homes demolished, 38 new homes built) and option 3 (partial redevelopment and infill, 31 homes demolished, 51 new homes built) are all stomachable to me, but options 4 and 5, which call for a lot more demolition, and will be more favourable to Lambeth, because they'll mean Lambeth has to invest less, are pretty much abominations.

 

[Greebo]

SpamMisery where do you live and what sort of building do you prefer? Seriously, I'm quite interested in architechture. I could probably bore you to tears on form following function, or how it often fails to do so.

 

[SpamMisery]

In short Greebo, I like old buildings.

I prefer late medieval architecture extending to Tudor. I'm not a fan of mock Tudor, however I think some examples are quite nice (but those that I do like tend to be on the traditional Victorian side rather than the more modern examples). I also like early Medieval, but not to live in (like I could afford it anyway). I also like Gothic revival too (and of course Gothic - I'm a sucker for fan vaults) but a lot of non European examples are terrible and I don't know if that many residential examples exist besides one fantastic block in Wandsworth. Georgian, of course, makes me weak at the knees and Victorian generally is beautiful but South London massively looses out to a north London on this front besides the oddity that is Kennington - although I'm probably being swayed by the abundance of pre Victorian.

Modern architecture for me isn't appealing and don't even get me started on Brutalism. Basically, post WWI, residential buildings have been ok at best; except some of the really recent stuff, but that may well be a passing phase.

Where I live and what I like are not the same. And yes, I realise community is not the same as construction; but I would rather live in a home I love beyond compare and not know my neighbours than live in Cressingham Gardens with great neighbours. It's nothing personal, it's just my own preference.

 

[boohoo]

Thank you for your opinion SpamMisery
I'm a sucker for fan vaulting too!

I use to hate tower blocks but then I lived in one for a while and I loved the space and light inside. And the ones I lived in stood out on the landscape in a row like a set of ancient standing stones. I actually appreciate some of the shapes they make in the sky more than most of the incredibly dull new builds going up. I've come to appreciate the styles of building like Cressingham Gardens - some of those little estate are green and open and I imagine the living spaces are of a decent size too. Stockwell Park estate has elements that show it is of the same era but I find it dark and dingy even with the lovely lake in the middle.

However, the ins and outs of aesthetics aside (and btw - have you checked around Crystal Palace for some splendid huge detached Victorian villas?), having a community who you interact with can really add some much value to a place you live. I lived in Carlton Mansions - what a wonderful building - the giant sash windows, high ceilings and remnants of the late Victorian fittings, the space up on the roof, the chimneys, the staircases - beautiful and full of character but what I really really really miss is bumping into the people that lived there and having a cup of tea with them or a glass of wine or evenings on the roof watching fireworks.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Stockwell Park estate has elements that show it is of the same era but I find it dark and dingy even with the lovely lake in the middle.

really? a lake? My sister-out-law used to live in the middle of the estate in the 80s, and I thought it was horrible. I know they have been doing a lot of work around the estate, but I can't imagine a lake there.

 

[boohoo]

really? a lake? My sister-out-law used to live in the middle of the estate in the 80s, and I thought it was horrible. I know they have been doing a lot of work around the estate, but I can't imagine a lake there.

Largish pond is perhaps a better descriptions!

 

[sleaterkinney]

Depressing stuff.

 

[Manter]

Greebo I think your and my first discussion on this site was a disagreement on Cressingham gardens as I said it wasn't very pretty

Externally, I don't like the 50s-70s (usually council) blocks, but having lived in one, the flats are big, and light, and well thought through and designed. And not liking them much externally isn't a good reason to sell them off and build nasty little boxes and displace communities…..

I've also warmed to Cressingham living near it- it is very green, and an interesting layout, and very friendly and safe feeling (and that isn't just because I know it and people that live there now). But if you only see it from the road on the way past, you just see another brick and concrete maze with a patch of green in front of it- it doesn't turn its best face to passersby, its best face is to the park. It takes a while to realise there is a different view to it, and community spaces, and then you realise it doesn't loom like the other estates nearby, its windows are bigger, there isn't rubbish on balconies and other signs of overcrowding. I can see why people like SpamMisery say they don't like it. I happen to disagree, but I've only come to disagree over time. I really hope as much of it as possible can be protected as it is low, and unusual, and visually unobtrusive.

If there is anywhere that really offends me its Jemma Knowles Close- it looks like they took the cheapest, meanest ingredients and put them together into an abomination designed by a computer. Ugly, badly laid out, the flats are small and cramped and illogically laid out with no balconies, bugger all light, no storage- absolutely dreadful.

 

[leanderman]

Yes, but are all the residents going to be turfed out - with the land used for luxury apartments for the rich? Or not?

 

[Greebo]

You find it depressing? That's the most beautiful piece of understatement ever.

Spoiler

The kitchen has been in the early stages of being redone for about 9 years, the replacement worktop's propped up in the living room, ditto the new unit doors, the sink's in the boiler room, and it's hard even deciding whether to continue with it. The woodwork could do with repainting, I should do something about the stuff on the balcony, there are carpet tiles stacked in the hall and wetroom to go down in the kitchen (if the lino ever comes up) and the planters need replanting, but's what's the bloody point?

And breathe - this isn't just about me, or just this flat. Even if this place remains intact, there are other people of the estate having similar thoughts and feelings, who may have to go through far worse. Even if decanted into a newbuild on the same estate, it will be more expensive, they won't have the same neighbours, the ceilings will be low, flat, and boring, the light will be less, and the rooms will probably be smaller - no need to waste money on light, air, and space for plebs, povs, and crips (a lot of people here are disabled or live with longterm illnesses).

The estate will look even worse from the main road than it does right now - that patch of grass in front of the Rotunda? There'll be a lowish rise block covering part of that, more of less tacked onto the beginning of Hardel Walk. The brickwork here has had 40 or so years to weather and mellow. New bricks, even in the same colours, will jar horribly.