Author: Cyril Richert

You surely know that larger pavement at the corner of Lavender Hill/Falcon Road, fronting the Revolution bar with 3 (young) trees. This is pictured on the top left of the photo below. Well, well, well, that is an ideal place for a big advertising panel, as some thought!

Clapham Junction after the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.

Planning Application 2013/4604 is labelled as

“Erection of single sided Digital Advertisement Display Unit (measuring 6m high by 3m wide) with associated logo box housed within a structure 8.4m high, 3.4m wide and 30cm deep.“

Example of the advertising board that they want to implement at Clapham Junction

The proposal claims to be additional revenue for the Council’s cash reserve

From the beginning of October, the application has received 11 objections and no support. Eleven seems already a big number, knowing the fact that the plan was not publicized and mainly kept hidden from the public (I personally live less than 100 yards from the location and I have not received anything).

The common concern to all objections is very clear and simple: while the borough spent millions in improving the layout and pavements of the Clapham Junction area throughout the last 4 years (and the work is still ongoing in St John’s Road), it is a surprise that we are now facing an application proposing just to do the opposite and undermine the public realm.

The site lies inside the Clapham Junction Conservation Area. In its documentation appraisal it says:

“1.9 – The quality of the public realm is important to the area to provide an appropriate setting to the buildings as well as a high quality environment for pedestrians. There are opportunities to enhance the character and appearance of streets by improving the quality of the experience for pedestrians as well as improving its visual character by removing extraneous clutter, rationalizing signing, and by providing good quality materials for surface finishes and well-designed street furniture.

1.10 […] This scheme is now being implemented following clear public support from residents and the business community.

2.1 The fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings represent the distinctive character and appearance of the conservation area. The protection of the retail use to ground floors in the town centre is crucial to maintaining the vitality and vibrancy of the shopping centre.”

In the more recent Visioning Project from the Mosaic Partnership, the study says:

“1.12 – The centre’s main strength lies in the character areas that have evolved across the centre and their distinct identities and offer.”

So what is the planning application suggesting? To improve the quality of experience for pedestrians? To remove extraneous clutter? To rationalize signage? To preserve the distinctive identity of the conservation area? No, rather exactly the opposite!

The Heritage Statement submitted with the application states (take a seat , then read and burst into continuous laugh!):

“A well-designed digital board would not seem out of character or out of place within such a vibrant and busy commercial context. On the contrary it is exactly the type of feature that could be expected in this type of townscape context. The presence of the board at a busy traffic junction in the commercial heart of the area would not materially erode the character or appearance of the conservation area, and instead would be legible as a part of the on-going and ever-changing evolution of the conservation area.”

But perhaps the key argument of the proposal lies in paragraph 8:

“this requires consideration of the wider public benefits of the advertising board, which involves an additional revenue stream to the Council – specifically provision for a ‘cash reserve’ to fund further improvements to the area in the future“.

Councillors, Business associations and Societies are objecting

Already, the three councillors of Northcote ward, Jenny Brown, Peter Dawson and Martin Johnson, have submitted an objection to the Council (and they have also featured their objection in their newsletter sent on October 7th). They said:

“Such a unit will seriously impact the visual amenity of the Clapham Junction town centre.

[…] We believe that the changes being brought about by the “exemplar” scheme are consistent with the aspirations of the Conservation Area appraisal and will result in significant improvements to the public realm of the town centre. However we are of the opinion that the installation of a large digital display unit would run counter to these aspirations and would negate recent improvements in the area.

The unit will adversely affect the free movement of pedestrians; introduce large scale signage which is out of keeping with the surrounding environment and has the potential to distract motorists who are negotiating a complex and busy junction thereby worsening highway safety.”

It refers also to the Clapham Junction Partnership Board’s objection (the representatives of the business associations) which wrote:

“It would undo the effect of the exemplar scheme in the central town centre as the proposed structure is intrusive; is detrimental to the visual amenity of the Victorian architecture of the town centre and could compromise highway safety at an extremely busy junction used by pedestrians as well as vehicles.

When the Exemplar scheme was initially presented to the Board the wide pavement area in that location was presented as an area which would provide a much needed central point in the town centre (e.g. for a Christmas Tree, switch-on ceremonies, gathering point for launches etc).

The need for such a space is something which also featured in the recent Town Centre Visioning exercise;
Board Members were surprised at this proposal in the middle of the Town Centre Visioning Exercise, as they freely gave a lot of their time to the initiative, and this proposal seemed to ignore the exercise.“

The Battersea Society is also surprised and concerned that the Council is submitting such application:

“It seems extraordinary that the Borough should be proposing such an intrusive structure and visual diversion after the expense recently incurred in improving and enhancing this pavement area as part of the Junction street improvements”

Do they try to get some funding for the sweeping and washing of the pavements? The Council said back in August that they were trying to get Transport for London to pay for the cleaning of the pavement. As it happen, the applicant / client is TfL and the agent is Wildstone, who seem to be in partnership with TfL for a London wide proliferation.

The Council has submitted a series of application for advertising boards

The Battersea Society also said:

“We are also concerned that the borough should submit this and the other similar applications with so few supporting details about the type of advertising to be displayed, the effect on the streetscape or the justification for erecting these signs across the Borough.”

There are indeed a few other applications such as 2013/4034, on the pavement beside Asda’s entrance (Land Adjacent to 202 Lavender Hill SW11) which is well described by the Battersea Society as “visually intrusive, add unnecessary street clutter and create an obstruction to pedestrians” (we all know how busy it can be in front of Asda, not even talking about the amount of street furniture and cluttering already existing on lavender Hill). As well as planning application 2013/4032 (Land Adjacent to Queen’s Circus Roundabout Battersea SW8).

Similarly, application 2013/4605 (Advertising Hoarding North of East Hill Bridge over Trinity Road Underpass & Advertising Hoarding South of Huguenot Place Bridge over Trinity Road Underpass) has attracted objections from the Wandsworth Society and 2013/4617 (Wandsworth High Street corner of Buckhold Road SW18). They wrote:

“We believe that these huge signs are totally inappropriate and unacceptable in these locations and are in direct conflict with the Conservation area and established policies including Policy DMS 8.”

In the past, such proposal for advertising board applications 2012/0179 (1 Armoury Way London SW18 1TH ) and 2012/1574 (Shell Service Station 262 York Road London SW18) where refused by the committee and also refused on appeal.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

An interim Visioning report has been released before the Strategic planning Committee on September 16th.

The final stage of the work is intended to be completed within the next two months and will include:

• Finalisation of, and agreement on, the vision statement, Unique Selling Propositions (USPs), competitive positioning strategy;
• completion of the final project report, which will include detailed recommendations and a comprehensive implementation strategy for each town centre, as well as detail on overarching recommendations across the Borough;
• Development of unique brand identities for each town centre, including brand guidelines.

With a government grant of £100,000 in hands, Wandsworth Council decided to commissioned a study on the five town centres of the borough. The Mosaic Partnership was asked to “identify a positioning strategy for each of the borough’s five town centres“.

Online surveys were held in each of the town centres. In total, nearly 1,500 individual survey responses have been recorded, with 253 responses for Clapham Junction town centre. We have been discussing the interim result of the questionnaires in our previous article.

In order to propose the final brand for Clapham Junction, the team presented the various options to an online survey so that stakeholders could virtually vote.

Here is a link to the online voting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GQ69B7H

Their interim report on the Visionning project for Clapham Junction is below.

In any case the director of finance commented:

There is currently no identified budget provision to fund the implementation of any future recommendations in relation to the issues highlighted in paragraph 13, and so will have to be framed within the reality of the current financial situation or identify possible alternative sources of funding.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

With a government grant of £100,000 in hands, Wandsworth Council decided to commissioned a study on the five town centres of the borough. The Mosaic Partnership was asked to “identify a positioning strategy for each of the borough’s five town centres“.

The consultant team has discussed the results of their questionnaire, based on the responses of about 1500 people across the borough, with 253 responses for Clapham Junction town centre.

According to the data, Clapham Junction has got the highest population within the 30-45 years old range: young with good income. The respondents have characterized Clapham Junction as:

• not really a centre, rather pockets of activities,
• become Northcote road centric,
• an opportunity to capitalize on what the train station can offer,
• well positioned for small office space, business meetings and working opportunities.

However the words grubby, shabby and scruffy have also emerged  and people cite the lack of cleanliness, the need to be more focused on pedestrians, and the need for … a cinema.

The key recommendations of the respondents are:

•  keep in mind the future aspect of major developments
• diversify the daytime economy
• embrace appropriate developments
• regular cleaning
• open-up the entrance/exit to the station (on Lavender Hill)

The consultants think tall buildings are inevitable for Clapham Junction

In a response to the question regarding the definition of “appropriate developments” as a key recommendation, the Mosaic consultants first said that within the next 10 years, Clapham Junction will be completely different and that the town centre needs a mixed of developments, including tall buildings.

As they confirmed that they are aware of the overwhelming opposition to the scheme of skyscrapers at the station proposed  in 2008-2009, I was surprised to hear that. Apparently they do not have the same understanding of appropriate development as the thousand people who wrote to the Council 4 years ago.

First of all, it is less than obvious that Clapham Junction will be drastically different in 2023 than what it is in 2013. I was already here in 2003 and the major visual changes in the town centre within the past 10 years have been the exemplar scheme (new paving) and the opening of Brighton Yard entrance for the station, both happening within the last 4 years.

Second, all urban developers will confirm that you do not need skyscrapers to achieve appropriate redevelopments. As we said many times, there are other ways of redeveloping the station with new facilities, while preserving and enhancing the area. Basel station ins Switzerland, with similar characteristics, is a striking example of a considerate and efficient redevelopment

With the station at its heart, operating as a bridge between a preserved side with historical buildings (the Clapham Grand, Arding&Hobbs, The Falcon, Brighton Yard and the former parcel building, the TA entrance, …) and a more modern and tall one (Grant road, Winstanley), any transformation of Clapham Junction station should consider this aspect.

We need a global vision for the town centre

Elizabeth James, from the Battersea Art Centre, addressed the visioning project with some very interesting thoughts. She says:

“Appoint an internationally renowned architect for the master plan to give our regeneration the profile and positioning it merits.  A re-imagining of this corner of Battersea centred on a station design.  John McAslan & Partners have transformed Kings Cross station while respecting its heritage features.“

Her idea of increasing the retail space is actually exactly what they did in Basel in our example above. While some concepts might be more difficult to work on (“Re-orient the town centre access to make better use of the Arding & Hobbs building as a sightline on arrival“) the idea of a piazza has often been discussed, with the front of Asda (including the car park) has been seen as the ideal location (it might be a very good idea to involve Asda within the discussion!). This is actually reflected in the long term vision of the borough planners masterpiece for Clapham Junction (currently under discussion, see HERE):

CJ spatial strategy – Site Specific Allocation Document

Recommendations and branding

Developing Clapham Junction as a business hub that will also increase the daytime retail and shopping experience? De-clustering the entrance of Clapham Junction station on St John’s Hill and moving up the flower shop? Improving the signage and the link with the Battersea Art Centre as the destination to sustain independent creative retailers? Those are some of the ideas discussed at last week’s workshop organised by the consulting team.

In a search for branding, the Mosaic Partnership is suggesting a motto such as “The welcome mat”, “Make your connection” or “Your platform to” associated with the name “The Junction” or just “Clapham Junction”.

Watch our pages for more information on their findings and final recommendations for Clapham Junction Town Centre.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

Lidl (Clapham Junction/141 Falcon Road) is currently currently working on the construction of a small single-storey extension along the south-west elevation of the foodstore building to create ancillary warehouse space.

Planning permission 2012/3044 was granted last October.We contacted Lou Harris, the site manager, this morning and he told us that it aims at providing a facility for a small bakery, with “fresh bread everyday“.

The new extension (in red on the image above) will match the existing building material.

The construction should happen during normal working hours and they plan to finish mid-September 2013.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

Two churches near Plough Road are currently either with plans approved for demolition or with a proposal to refurbishment.

St Paul’s Church – St Johns Hill/Brussels Road

There is an application for St Paul Church (92C St Johns Hill SW11, corner between St Johns Hill and Brussels Road). Externally the church house is retained as it is with internal conversion and the church hall is demolished and replaced by a 2-floor residential building:

• community use on the ground floor of the church
• adding floors and constructing flats in the body of the church above
• demolishing the church hall and constructing a house (specific conservation area application 2013/3143)

The full detail of application 2013/2619 says: Internal and external alterations to St Paul Church including the insertion of rooflights, inverted dormers, a glazed canopy and new entrance and creation of new mezzanine levels and excavation to enlarge basement in connection with the use of the ground floor and basement for community facilities (use class D1) and the upper floors as four residential units (C3); demolition of the existing church hall and erection of a two-storey plus basement house.

The whole church is derelict and needs repair. The ground floor and mezzanine in the church has been used in recent years as a community centre for the neighbouring school. We could say that, at last, something is to be done to restore the external appearance of the church. Removal of the ghastly wire-mesh protection frames around the lower windows, matching any new entrance doors and new windows, new original-design railings, etc. The inside is unrecognisable as a church any longer, so conversion to housing above community use ground and basement seems likely to be an improvement.

The church hall in the courtyard has remained redundant and dilapidated. Although St Paul Church and the adjoining school are Grade II listed buildings St Paul Church is in the borough listed buildings list and the adjoining school is Grade II listed building (92 St John’s Hill), the church hall is of no particular interest, set-back from the street and in an awful state (the lack of maintenance – fallen roof with holes, crumbling walls – means that the building has fallen into a state of disrepair). In those conditions, it seems appropriate to destroy the building and replace that small part into a more modern but still considerate block.

Proposed block of flats to replace existing church hall

We are aware of a series of objections, mainly related to the intrusion that the new flats (both in the church’s hall and the church house) would cause to the neighbouring properties. However as we cannot see any change of the roof on the main building (the church house) we do not understand the comments saying that “the top floor of the new church house will be a modern cladded “box” which is out of keeping to the properties in the immediate area” (I assume they wanted to address the church hall, not the church house). Other comments talking about an “ugly box” like a”sore thumb” are much too excessive.  Another criticism is regarding the velux windows and open windows to replace some of the church windows or to be disposed on the roof. Although we have sympathy for objectors who will be overlooked more than at
present, this does not seem an out-bearing feature (and apparently neighbours seek more reassurance on their concerns regarding their privacy, than a total objection). Similarly the fear of people sitting on the small part of top flat roof on the new building and enjoying the sun does seem very unlikely to us and not critical enough to refuse the planning permission.

All in all we are happy with the proposal and would like to support it.

Everyone can comment on the scheme until July 16th.

If you want to comment on the proposal, all details are:

Ref: Planning Application 2013/2619 – St Paul’s Church (St John’s Hill)

Mr Mandy Ryeland
The Planning Service
Wandsworth Council
The Town Hall
Wandsworth High Street
London SW18 2PU
planningapplications@wandsworth.gov.uk

And for a little bit of History

St Paul church was used once to be a temporary Church called St John’s. Then in 1869 it became St Peter & St Paul designed by H.E.Coe. He designed three other unremarkable churches (in Pevsner’s eyes) in South London, St. Andrew, Stockwell (he ‘remodelled’ a 1767 church), St. Philip, Kennington Road (demolished) and All Saints, Camberwell. However, he was much better known as the architect of the two exhibition halls behind the façade of Olympia and co-designing the Agricultural Hall.

In the 1950s Chad Varah was a Vicar at the church – he went on to found The Samaritans, undeniably laudable, and was involved with Marcus Morris in setting up The Eagle, less worthy, but nonetheless important to those of us of a certain age. The church itself is a beautiful building: quite small as churches go, elegant spire, externally simple design, attractive stone construction. A real visual asset to St John’s Hill.

St Peter and St Paul Church, Plough road ( near Grant Road)

This is completely another matter as the planning proposal for demolition (2009/0699 & 2009/0716) has already been granted January 2012:

Demolition of all existing buildings on the site. Erection of new church and community building and 69 residential units (including a new vicarage) in buildings up to eight-storeys high; basement car park for 56 vehicles accessed off Plough Road.

However, as some of our members have received a leaflet with the new building layout in the recent months, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the case.

The Wandsworth Society (the Battersea Society and English Heritage were also against the proposal) objected strongly to the St Peter & St Paul in Plough Road application when it came in about 18mths ago, particularly to the demolition of the listed hall and the vicarage (not listed). They also objected to the cramming/height of the new  flats and the fact that any social housing was to be separated from private by separate stairways in one block. This last is a requirement by housing associations who manage social housing. It defeats the aim of social inclusion of all communities.  Needless to say it got permission.  The new application 2013/2964 is to get approval for the recording (visually and written) of the listed hall that is a requirement when a listed building is demolished.

Modern and preserved Clapham Junction

The comparison of the treatment for those two churches is a superb example of the divide between the two areas of Clapham Junction: a modern one on the Grant Road side and a more classical, Victorian style, on St John’s Hill side.

With the station at its heart, operating as a bridge between both sides, any transformation of Clapham Junction station should consider this aspect. A good example with a station redevelopment in a layout very similar to Clapham Junction is Basel station in Switzerland.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

Territorial Army Centre, Lavender Hill SW11

On July, 3rd it was confirmed that St John’s Hill barracks (Territorial Army) will close (rationality, said the Secretary of States). That’s part of the global reshuffle that sees the Army Reserve replacing the Territorial Army brand.

The rumour was already spreading during the Peabody development plans that the TA site would become the next spot open to redevelopment.

However, in the latest planning documents for Clapham Junction published by the Council, there is not a word on the site. In our submission, we have therefore commented:

In view of the recent consent for the redevelopment of the Peabody estate, and as consideration was made during the Peabody planning application about the future of the Territorial Army site, we think that a section should be dedicated to provide guidelines for future development.

The Territorial Army premises sit between the listed Grand Theatre (equivalent to 4 storeys) and the Peabody Estate (soon to be up to 12 storeys). To comply with Core Strategy Policies IS3d and IS3e, any application here would need, amongst other things, the “preserve” and “enhance” the surrounding area’s character, and its massing and scale would have to be “well integrated into the surrounding development”.

It should specifically highlight

– conservation of historic part of the site (including frontage)

– tall building will be inappropriate in this location and heights should match at maximum those of the current building fronting St John’s Hill up to the junction.

And you, what do you think of the future of the site?

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Peter Deakins

I would like to put forward a number of thoughts as a possible basis for any discussion that there may be about design inclusions for projects at Clapham Junction.

At ‘The Junction’ there are quite a number of sites many of which are of similar importance to each other, and none should be allowed to appear to be more important than it really is. Significant properties belong to PCS; Shop-Stop; the Windsor Castle Pub; Network Rail; the land that Asda, Boots, Lidl, etc. are collectively situated upon; and – by no means least – all of the different property ownerships North of the Station. I believe that each of their interests, and value to the greater Community, must all ‘matter’ equally.

There are also many other ownerships that provide much, if not most, of the vitality of the whole area including all of the other businesses that operate on both the south-side of the Station along St John’s Road and St John’s Hill, as well as those along Falcon Road to the north.

I relation to individual properties and schemes for them, I as an architect personally believe that there should be far, far more to architecture than merely ‘how any individual building looks’. However, by no means all of my colleagues agree with me on this, and one can see from what has already happened around the Station that looks can matter a great deal.

Firstly perhaps, ease-of-access and circulation must be of paramount importance in any Town Centre area. This is so for pedestrians most particularly, far outweighing the convenience of those who are ‘merely passing through’. This must be so even though these latter may be persuaded to eventually ‘come-back’ by their ‘visual discovery’ of the area that they may be ‘going by’.

Activities that can be incorporated and how they relate to each other and interact to add to the urbanity of any locality must also matter a great deal, whether such activities be (for instance) offices; shops; places of public-meeting; centres for education; workshops and factories; or the most important aspects of transport facilities as highlighted by ‘getting-on-and-off positions’ for general users of the Town Centre or, perhaps less importantly, as storage as illustrated by provisions for car-parking, or as stand-by areas for off-peak buses and trains. Importantly too, what is to be the role of the cyclist in all of this?

Residential properties can also add greatly to the vitality and convenience of the Centre but the restrictions that the naturally higher densities that such sites impose, require particularly thoughtful consideration whilst attempting to sort out design conclusions. For instance, do individual properties require space for outdoor living? What happens to the needs of children? Can there be any facilities for community life? What is an acceptable level of visual intrusion or of overlooking?

‘Green Issues’ and Global Warming generally are clearly extremely important so that ways that building forms are developed must matter considerably.

I expect that a number of other issues could be added to these, but I believe that the above considerations could make a useful basis for conclusions that could form a workable ‘Design Brief’.

Peter Deakins – May 2013

Pp PDA Partnership – London
www.deakins.co.uk

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

As I stumbled recently on an old article (last year on the Council’s website) about the revamp of Clapham Junction with the Council’s “Exemplar Scheme” I thought it was time to give a little update.

The exemplar scheme is the major work on roads and pavements that started 3 years ago and included the revamp of the crossing at the Junction.

The first stage of Clapham Junction’s street improvement project was completed in 2012 leaving behind a more attractive and pedestrian friendly area around the junction.

The St John’s Hill / Lavender Hill junction has been completely remodelled, pavements widened, a new diagonal pedestrian crossing installed and unnecessary street clutter taken away.

Clapham Junction before the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.

Clapham Junction after the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.

Now the work is concentrating on St John’s Road. It started in April and is meant to stay for 30-34 weeks (~28 weeks for the footpath and ~6 weeks for the carriage works). The first phase was in front of Debenhams and TK-Maxx and now they are moving along the street to change the pavements.

The road treatment will be similar to the junction between Eccles, Lavender Sweep and Lavender Hill roads for the 2 segments in front of the public spaces ending Aliwal Road and Eckstein Road: no curve and small pavements similar to the larger ones used on the footpath.

At the end of the refurbishment, St John’s Road is to become the first 20mph zone in Clapham Junction.

At the same time, they are also working on Falcon Road in front of the new hotel where a (apparently already popular) café has opened. The will finish the paving zone joining the crossing between Falcon Road and Mossbury Road and then Mossbury Road/Lavender Hill.

There are further plans for pavement on Mossbury Road and further St John’s Hill but not definite time-line nor funding that we are aware of.

Filed under: Clapham Junction