Say hello to Barratt Homes' 'Brixton Square' on Coldharbour Lane (old Cooltan site)

[Brixton Hatter]

Interesting that the planning application to restrict the social rent/affordable housing element of this development (which loads of us objected to) has still not been determined by the council planners. Should have been done back in November...

http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/onli...ils.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=MAA4WOBO0GL00

 

[Gramsci]

Interesting that the planning application to restrict the social rent/affordable housing element of this development (which loads of us objected to) has still not been determined by the council planners. Should have been done back in November...

http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/onli...ils.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=MAA4WOBO0GL00

I was wondering about that. If it goes to committee or is refused by officers they should let those who commented know by letter.

 

[shakespearegirl]

Thinl Lambeth has a massive backlog of planning applications. We objected to one in late 2010, took nearly a year for it to officially get turned down. They resubmitted and objections closed in early December 2011, we objected again but still haven't had any response.

 

[shakespearegirl]

Doh, my dates are out by a year! Meant 2011 and 12

 

[Mr Bim of Bar]

I don't really see why this guy should get hassle for moving into the development. Have a go at the developer for squeezing out the affordable housing or whatever, but he's just one of many people planning to buy somewhere to live in Brixton. There are lots of properties around Brixton that are way more expensive than these flats, and have been for a long time.

Hey just in case you are Interested, Barratts have released the prices for the 2nd phase, the 1st phase sold so fast they have upped the price of a 2 bed from £350,000 to £386,000 and they say there's IS NO MONEY AROUND

 

[leanderman]

Hey just in case you are Interested, Barratts have released the prices for the 2nd phase, the 1st phase sold so fast they have upped the price of a 2 bed from £350,000 to £386,000 and they say there's IS NO MONEY AROUND

10pc! These kind of prices are going to leave people in debt for decades, whether they rent or buy in 'Brixton Square'.

 

[MillwallShoes]

Hey just in case you are Interested, Barratts have released the prices for the 2nd phase, the 1st phase sold so fast they have upped the price of a 2 bed from £350,000 to £386,000 and they say there's IS NO MONEY AROUND

you can get a beauty of a house for that just a bus ride away. a fool and his money etc. i can't see them being amazing investments either, brixton's prices will flatten out soon enough.

 

[ViolentPanda]

you can get a beauty of a house for that just a bus ride away. a fool and his money etc. i can't see them being amazing investments either, brixton's prices will flatten out soon enough.

Depends on supply and demand at the end of the day, and demand outstrips supply by a fair margin.

 

[leanderman]

As I keep saying, prices will rise as long as we build homes for x people and london's population rises by 2x

 

[Agent Sparrow]

Hey just in case you are Interested, Barratts have released the prices for the 2nd phase, the 1st phase sold so fast they have upped the price of a 2 bed from £350,000 to £386,000 and they say there's IS NO MONEY AROUND

Bloody hell, with a bit of searching you can get three bed+ houses for less than that, away from the centre or in the surrounding areas. £386k for a two bed flat in Brixton is obscene!

 

[MillwallShoes]

Bloody hell, with a bit of searching you can get three bed+ houses for less than that, away from the centre or in the surrounding areas. £386k for a two bed flat in Brixton is obscene!

i put one two bed flat up the other week that was a cool half a million. and it was nowt special. kennington borders was why some said it was normal. but HALF A MILLION ENGLISH POUNDS for a nothing special two bed. if i really think about it, it makes no sense on any level.

 

[crawl]

Yes I get it, I have seen somewhere I want to live, I have been told the price, I can afford it so I buy it. I would love to ask the developer to reduce the price by £100,000 as its in a deprived area with lots of poor people. I think we all know the answer to that. I also hear what you are saying but there is nothing I can do if I want the property. There are poor people and wealthy people in every neighbourhood.

Are there any reassurances that you will stay inside your gated community?

 

[teuchter]

Am I right in thinking the Barrier Block is a gated community too?

 

[MillwallShoes]

just a point on the "soaring house prices mean soaring social housing rent increases" - now this is a genuine question, and i am not stirring up anything, but if that was the case, how about all the estates in chelsea, W1, westminster, etc - are they also on prices that are high due to their proximity to very value property? genuine question! i thought the price of paying rent for a council place is pretty stable, no? could be wrong.

 

[editor]

Am I right in thinking the Barrier Block is a gated community too?

Only if you were so desperate to prove some tedious point or another point you were hell-bent on stretching the commonly understood meaning of a gated community into hitherto unknown and quite fanciful territories.

It's a tower block. It has no gates, just normal doors.

 

[Crispy]

Am I right in thinking the Barrier Block is a gated community too?

Most apartment buildings are "gated" - ie. you must pass an outer door/gate that only gets you as far as the shared hallways/stairs/courtyard. From there you can knock on peoples doors.
I take "gated community" to mean a series of separate residential and amenity buildings, with a gate across the only access road.

 

[editor]

I take "gated community" to mean a series of separate residential and amenity buildings, with a gate across the only access road.

That's how most normal people see it too:

Gated communities usually consist of small residential streets and include various shared amenities. For smaller communities this may be only a park or other common area. For larger communities, it may be possible for residents to stay within the community for most day-to-day activities.

Gated communities are... often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gated_community

 

[MillwallShoes]

might as well say most homes are gated because they've got, eh, gates!

 

[cuppa tee]

Gated communities usually consist of small residential streets and include various shared amenities. For smaller communities this may be only a park or other common area. For larger communities, it may be possible for residents to stay within the community for most day-to-day activities.​

​

Gated communities are... often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences​

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gated_community​

so similar to a compound in some respects then ?

 

[editor]

so similar to a compound in some respects then ?

You're trying hard here and I respect that, but your analogy is brimming with bubbling globules of fail.

 

[cuppa tee]

You're trying hard here and I respect that, but your analogy is brimming with bubbling globules of fail.

how so ?

 

[Crispy]

Gated communities usually consist of small residential streets and include various shared amenities. For smaller communities this may be only a park or other common area. For larger communities, it may be possible for residents to stay within the community for most day-to-day activities.​

​

Gated communities are... often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences​

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gated_community​

so similar to a compound in some respects then ?

Yes, in some respects.

 

[editor]

how so ?

Edit: I thought you were doing a teuchter-style daft twist to suggest that the Barrier Block was some sort of 'compound'.

Apols if I misread it.

 

[teuchter]

The point is that whatever definition you take of "gated community", surely the Barratt development is no more a "gated community" than the barrier block or lots of other housing developments, social or otherwise.

It seems slightly unfair to criticise it for having controlled entrances, in other words.

 

[editor]

The point is that whatever definition you take of "gated community", surely the Barratt development is no more a "gated community" than the barrier block or lots of other housing developments, social or otherwise.

You're quite wrong. The Brixton Square development contains five individual large blocks and a large courtyard, all kept secure from the public behind a big gate at the front. And each individual block will have its own secure entrance.



The Barrier Block has no gates and no private courtyards.

 

[Crispy]

It's definitely nestling up to, or even straddling, the border between definitions.

 

[cuppa tee]

a compound is a type of fortification made up of walls or fences surrounding several buildings in the center of a large piece of land.

.....Compounds can be designed to double as living spaces and military structures in the middle of hostile territory or as a military area within a country's territory; they are also used by the extremely wealthy, powerful, paranoid or criminal to protect against threats to themselves or their property.

my reasoning was gated communities in the accepted sense are similar to compounds in certain respects some of which I have quoted in bold above, the wiki article on compounds contains a link at the end to the entry on gated communities, which suggests the correlation is correct so to say my post was "bubbling with globules of fail" seems a little harsh, which I see you have now acknowledged, apology accepted

 

[editor]

It's definitely nestling up to, or even straddling, the border between definitions.

Like a converted flat in a house then?

 

[teuchter]

In the barrier block (if I remember correctly from last time I was in there) there is a controlled entry at street level, which takes you into the stairwell, then you go out onto a non-public open terrace/walkway on the other side, then through the front door to the individual flats (some of them I think have private outdoor spaces between the terrace walkway and the flat).

In the Barratt development there's controlled entry at street level, then a non-public courtyard, then controlled entry to stairwell, then door to individual flat.

The main difference is in the nature of the non-public/communal outdoor space - in the barrier block open terraces, in the Barratt building a largish internal courtyard. Both are inaccessible to the public. The question it seems to me, if you are going to criticise the Barratt development and describe it as a "gated community" or whatever, is whether it would be reasonable to expect that communal courtyard to be open to the street.

It's not space that was previously public space, it's not blocking a through access route to anywhere, and if there are bike stores and suchlike in there I can see why you might want entry to be controlled.

It's also not in any way unprecedented or abnormal to have an urban development with a street entrance and private internal courtyard. It's a very common arrangement that you can see examples of in cities pretty much anywhere in the world and from any historical era.

I can think of various types of housing which would have been built with a publicly accessible internal courtyard originally, but to which controlled entry has been subsequently added. Glasgow tenement blocks for example, or various postwar social housing developments. I think I'm right in saying that the controlled entry to the barrier block was added later and that originally the terraces were publicly accessible.

If there are good reasons for social housing to have controlled access and private outdoor communal spaces then why don't they apply to a development like this? What actually is the problem here?

 

[Crispy]

Clifton Mansions has exactly the same arrangement, it's just a bit more tightly packed.