CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I want an Aldi
Say hello to Barratt Homes' 'Brixton Square' on Coldharbour Lane (old Cooltan site)
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I want an Aldi
leanderman
Street Party: July 2
editor
hiraethified
Considering the supposed pressure clamour for commercial space in the Village you might have thought that it wouldn't have been too hard to get tenants for the commercial spaces in the Viaduct.
The fact that they haven't made any effort at all to actually make them look appealing is no doubt part of the process of eventually gaining planning permission to convert them to housing (they've been boarded up since day one).
Imagine if they'd done something really crazy like made one up to be a showroom - you know, just like they do with their homes.
I note there's people living in the 'offices' at the side of the building in Valencia Place. I wonder if they got permission for that.
editor
hiraethified
I think that's how they got planning permission in the first place because they were replacing commercial properties.
With Piano House closing Brixton needs more commercial properties, IMO.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Regarding the side units of the Viaduct they don't need permission to use existing offices as residential now apparently. It would be permitted development since April 2013. It's the same issue as the Piano House.
As for the front of the Viaduct - maybe that would be like the Barratts situation. Certainly there have been Kalmars signs up for a year or two. I imagine Lexadon might apply to change the front units to residential as they have been unable to let them for commercial use. I'm surprised Sainsbury's aren't sniffing around though. Must be a need for a third Sainsbury Local in Brixton town centre - especially proximate to those upwardly mobile customers from Barratts and the Viaduct.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
You are right - neither the Viaduct nor Brixton Square would have been approved as purely residential schemes - the council's development brief included employment generation/commercial use as an integral part of the schemes.
This current fad for everything residential in Brixton is down to how much money can be extracted and how quickly. Residential attracts currently heavily discounted mortgages. Barratts are just leaching as much cash as they can from their site. Presumably Piano House want to do the same.
Those taking the mortgages and their tenants will pay for the next 25 years so Barratts have a good result THIS YEAR ONLY. Maybe the banks and the government will also have to pay in due course if we turn out to be in a property bubble.
Lexadon looks like a different case, as they seem to be in it for long term rental income rather than quick capital profits from hyped up sales. They have not really done anything to the Viaduct side offices - they could revert to commercial if required no doubt.
Manter
Lunch Mob
Don't think they lie empty if they put any effort into filling them! Even horrors like st George's Wharf are not just accommodation blocks.... IMO some mixed use is important to keep any area 'living'- we don't want a dormitory suburb where people sleepwalk from blank, faceless blocks of flats, down identikit high streets and into the tube- we don't want this place to turn into your average Berkshire commuter town! The idea is to keep some jobs locally, encourage local commercial activity and engagement, get money circulating in the local area- which the developers will obviously jettison for a quick buck, but which the council planners ought to be aware of and protect. But hey, it's Lambeth...
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Doesn't particularly look that way from the drawings. I'm seeing quite a few ugly bodges. The Western block has all its bedrooms in the basement fronting onto a lightwell. The other half of the basement is being turned into "cellular storage" for use by residents and management, purely because it gets no sunlight. No, I'm pretty sure these were designed as commercial units.
thatguyhex
Well-Known Member
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Are you saying it might be worth using inappropriate conversion as a ground for objecting (should anyone wish to do so?)
leanderman
Street Party: July 2
Are we short of business space? The Josephine Avenue job centre has been empty for seven years.
Predictably the plan is now residential.
It may be that it is too easy to price out would-be business tenants. But I am not sure how you police this.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Of course we don't want Brixton to become a dormitory town. But I don't really think there's much danger of that. If the development were in some other location which was mainly residential and lacking shops and other services (and particularly if it was being built on a site which previously had commercial stuff on it) then I can see there's a strong planning argument to resist the development being entirely residential. But in that location on Coldharbour Lane, two minutes from the centre of Brixton and on a street which already has shops, restaurants, etc, I don't see that the same argument applies.
shakespearegirl
just worked out taglines
It should be part of the planning to prove that the business units will be affordable/leasable. The Green Man and Warrior units lay empty for years, adding to the desolate feeling of LJ at the time. They were priced ridiculously highly.
When I was at a planning meeting a few weeks ago, lots of questions were asked about one of the developments that contained retail at ground level and how they could ensure we wouldn't end up with another LJ situation
When I was at a planning meeting a few weeks ago, lots of questions were asked about one of the developments that contained retail at ground level and how they could ensure we wouldn't end up with another LJ situation
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Wonder what the units could be used for? I reckon the only likely candidates would be solicitors/estate agents that type of thing. Too far back from the road for normal shops. Ideal for something like Diamond Merchant/Plumbase if the forecourt was available for plumbers etc to park whilst popping in for their spares. No doubt the £350 per week residents might be a bit pissed off at tradesmen parking in their forecourt though.
snowy_again
Slush
It's the same ploy as the old shop on Brixton Water Lane - converted to flats, clearly no market for an A1 A2 premises at the bottom, stays empty for 2 years, planning permission gets granted for a house with no windows. Leasehold sold as a lump sum.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
The case is that it supplies local employment. As planning policy is supposed to protect areas that formerly provided local employment. As this site did.
Otherwise Barratts or other developers would just turn areas into dormitory areas.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Here is Barratts justification. From page 17 of there consultants report
As CH1 says above the planning guidance has recently changed to favour change of use to residential of commercial property.
6.10 says the Council tried to exempt the Brixton area from this but failed.
Notice officers already were disposed to support change from commercial to residential. Not really there place to do so considering the Council had actively tried to oppose this for Brixton as a whole. In order to protect local employment I assume.
Also not happy that senior officers seem to have a big say in planning policy as its put into practise. When this should be for local residents and Cllrs.
As CH1 says above the planning guidance has recently changed to favour change of use to residential of commercial property.
6.10 says the Council tried to exempt the Brixton area from this but failed.
Notice officers already were disposed to support change from commercial to residential. Not really there place to do so considering the Council had actively tried to oppose this for Brixton as a whole. In order to protect local employment I assume.
Also not happy that senior officers seem to have a big say in planning policy as its put into practise. When this should be for local residents and Cllrs.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
This site previously had commercial office premises on it. Voice newspaper used to have there offices on the site.
leanderman
Street Party: July 2
I used to work for the Voice in Blue Star House. Were they up the road before then?
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
The Voice had offices on the 1st floor of an industrial building immediately on the east side of the Labour Exchange/Cooltan site at least until 1998. So the Barratts site replaces that industrial/office building and the Labour Exchange.
The Viaduct site on the other hand was originally a disused garage which from the mid 1980s was a used tire depot.
Both sites were blighted for years in planning terms because Lambeth would not accept ANY residential - even mixed use. Now they are going to the opposite extreme.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I don't think local residents have had any input into the goings on on this site for many years.
BTW if Brixton is so vibrant and edgy why are we getting this bland Brixton Square tat?
Have you seen their blurb on the Loampit Vale Renaissance scheme? - now that's more what I would call sexy - at least as far as Barratts are concerned http://www.barratthomes.co.uk/new-homes/greater-london/H454601-Renaissance/
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Or this for example. Zaha Hadid project in Austria:
Modern architecture can be dramatic not mundane tat.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Here is a photo of the Voice Communications Group office at 370 Coldharbour Lane (looks like the photo was taken round 2005 some years after they moved out)
