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

[editor]

Yeah that's pretty uninspriring.

Perfect fit for the blander-than-bland office-block architecture, mind.

 

[cuppa tee]

Perfect fit for the blander-than-bland office-block architecture, mind.

at least it's low key, it could have been like this

 

[pissflaps]

I've seen better signwriting on noodel restaurant's

and better spelling too.

boom!

 

[teuchter]

The Loughborough Estate by the Hero of Switzerland ?

Yes

 

[teuchter]

at least it's low key, it could have been like this

I like that

 

[pissflaps]

save for the 'suburban accountancy firm' blinds, it's pretty tidy.

 

[Winot]

So do I. Looks 'Balearic'.

 

[pissflaps]

a bit david hockneyey.

which is nice.

if you like that sort of thing.

 

[editor]

I like that

I do too.

 

[Crispy]

It's impossible to say for sure, but I'm pretty sure that (the shit one) is Arial.
Arial FFS.

 

[editor]

It's impossible to say for sure, but I'm pretty sure that (the shit one) is Arial.
Arial FFS.

As close as dammit. They're probably the cheapest letters they could get.

 

[cuppa tee]

Edited... in a bleak place atm.

 

[simonSW2]

whats with the miniature ampersand!?

 

[Vibrant-Hubb]

Mm, that lettering is a bit strange, though I've seen worse. A lot of places look like that now; aspirant, sad and generic. Almost as if people know before they move in that it is going to be a disappointment.

 

[Manter]

Such an ugly building. Now with ugly signage. Sad really.... I know the while build etc is cheap, but it must be possible to put a tiny bit of thought in and make something a bit less visually offensive

 

[teuchter]

Not that I want to defend this building or anything but sometimes it seems you can't win...build something nondescript and people complain it's "sad and generic", build something more adventurous and nonconventional and it's showy, ostentatious, doesn't "fit in" or is even "fancypants architecture" (cf thread about the grand designs house on Lyham Rd). I'm struggling to think of when anyone on U75 has given a specific example of modern housing that the approve of. And 150-year old stuff that would be impossible to build in the same form today doesn't count.

Also, isn't "aspirant" a slightly snobbish term to use?

 

[Cheesypoof]

at least it's low key, it could have been like this

awful.

 

[editor]

I'm struggling to think of when anyone on U75 has given a specific example of modern housing that the approve of.

You can 'win' with effort and imagination.

The development of award winning family eco-houses at Angela Carter Close in Brixton is a example of good urban architecture. It's leagues above Barratt's shabby office-block offering. I like the Akerman building too.

Metropolitan Housing Trust and designer Anne Thorne Architects Partnership set out to create homes with a top level Excellent rating under the EcoHomes environmental measurement system with their small scheme of nine family houses at Angela Carter Close, a backland site in a conservation area in Brixton, south London.

The houses are built from timber frame, insulated with Warmcell recycled newsprint insulation, have sedum roofs, solar thermal panels, and are surrounded by porous paving to plot an environmentally-friendly course for the future.

PDF feature:
http://www.sandwood.co.uk/images/stories/properties/wiltshire_road/angela carter close - construction news november 2007.pdf

 

[CH1]

at least it's low key, it could have been like this

I assume that's where my old surgery disappeared to. They wouldn't register new patients when they were next to Iveagh House at Five Ways. Now they are advertising for patients. I imagine the concentration of three NHS doctors surgeries in one building a couple of miles from most of their patients is an enormous efficiency saving. Nice to know that the NHS is spending its money wisely and tastefully. I wonder if Milles Square and Carney Place are in the catchment area?
Still if you can afford £500,000 for a flat you've no need to get ill eh? Oh sorry, forgot - the ones who can afford the flats are on government subsidised buy-to-let mortgages, and the one who get sick are either on HB or get evicted.

 

[leanderman]

I assume that's where my old surgery disappeared to.

That's in Myatt's Fields?!

Amazing, I thought it was California.

I rather like it

 

[editor]

I assume that's where my old surgery disappeared to. They wouldn't register new patients when they were next to Iveagh House at Five Ways. Now they are advertising for patients. I imagine the concentration of three NHS doctors surgeries in one building a couple of miles from most of their patients is an enormous efficiency saving. Nice to know that the NHS is spending its money wisely and tastefully. I wonder if Milles Square and Carney Place are in the catchment area?

I like the building but I really don't like the fact that it's a mighty long walk to see my doctor now.

 

[CH1]

I like the building but I really don't like the fact that it's a mighty long walk to see my doctor now.

I changed to HRH in Herne Hill Road, which unfortunately looks like a crack house.

 

[ChrisSouth]

I changed to HRH in Herne Hill Road, which unfortunately looks like a crack house.

Does it? What specifically makes it look like a crack house? Are there particular criteria that crack houses have to have to make them look like crack houses?

 

[cuppa tee]

I assume that's where my old surgery disappeared to. They wouldn't register new patients when they were next to Iveagh House at Five Ways. Now they are advertising for patients. I imagine the concentration of three NHS doctors surgeries in one building a couple of miles from most of their patients is an enormous efficiency saving. Nice to know that the NHS is spending its money wisely and tastefully. I wonder if Milles Square and Carney Place are in the catchment area?
Still if you can afford £500,000 for a flat you've no need to get ill eh? Oh sorry, forgot - the ones who can afford the flats are on government subsidised buy-to-let mortgages, and the one who get sick are either on HB or get evicted.

If you can afford a half million pound flat you'll probably be one of the private patients they are trying to entice in.

 

[CH1]

Does it? What specifically makes it look like a crack house? Are there particular criteria that crack houses have to have to make them look like crack houses?

I meant the shutters. It looks kind of fortified out of hours.
Iveagh House surgery never had shutters, AKERMAN doesn't. When SLAM opened their outpatients at 308 Brixton Road in the 1990s they put shutters outside but Lameth Planning had them removed - as it was a conservation area.
I think HHR surgery would benefit from a less fortified appearance, though that's down to them. It is not a CA.

 

[Winot]

Does it? What specifically makes it look like a crack house? Are there particular criteria that crack houses have to have to make them look like crack houses?

We lived a few doors down from a crack house once. No idea it was one until someone was shot in the head sitting outside in his car. Nice leafy bit of SE24 that was.

 

[CH1]

Whatever next? Barratts (apparently via the ex-Lambeth Planning Officer who now works for their planning consultants) are now requesting that their planning permission be varied to remove the irksome requirement for 923 square metres of commercial floorspace (A1,A2 and B2) alongside their high cost low space buy-to-let residential. See here: http://planning-docs.lambeth.gov.uk/AnitePublicDocs/00385015.pdf
The (consultants) planning justification is given here:
http://planning-docs.lambeth.gov.uk/AnitePublicDocs/00385017.pdf Apparently Kalmars have "intensively marketed" the commercial space for the last year to absolutely no avail. No doubt Jerry Knight will sympathise.
It is proposed to provide 9 new residential units instead of the commercial space. 4 for shared ownership and 5 for sale.
If Lambeth approve this application, which seems highly likely, they will just be confirming what we already know - the Co-operative Council uses the language of the Rochdale Pioneers, but has the morals of Berlusconi.
Full application details here: http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/onli...CaseNumber=IATT91BOXK000&keyVal=MP3X0ZBO67000

 

[teuchter]

I've not looked at the drawings but I'm guessing that the commercial space will just happen to have been arranged in such a way that it can easily be converted into residential units.

 

[Manter]

Oh FFS they're venal. I despair

 

[leanderman]

These commercial floorspaces are a joke though. They usually lie empty.

We need more homes. Although I suspect the five private flats will be snapped up by speculators