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Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 13 September 2007

Architect Richard Sleeman’s view of how the Brill Place land could be developed

My Brill vision, by architect for £26 million
library site

A SOCIAL housing community in which the railway heritage of St Pancras would blend with the copper domes and shaded squares of the East – this is the vision for Brill Place in Somers Town proposed by Camden Town architect Richard Sleeman.
As the government this week pressed ahead with plans to sell the land behiind the British Library to the highest bidder, Mr Sleeman outlined his proposals for affordable housing for 330 people on a site incorporating a “Phoenix Palace”, with a youth centre, workshops, shops, a health centre and Turkish baths.
The view above is his impression of the homes as they would be seen from Ossulston Street, incorporating the railway arches on the site.
The 3.6 acres, officially valued at £26.6 million but expected to fetch much more, are being sold by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport despite concerns raised by Somers Town residents about the impact of commercial development and calls from Labour MP Frank Dobson and others that the land should be used for much-needed social housing.
On Monday Camden’s Lib Dem council leader Councillor Keith Moffitt accused the Town Hall Labour opposition of “jumping on the bandwagon” when they challenged him to boost the amount of social housing the Brill site should have.
At a full council meeting, Cllr Moffitt told them: “You are viewing the site in isolation. I’ve heard calls for the whole site to be handed over to social housing. I think that’s a naive and simplistic view... That is not the way you shape a place.”
Opposition councillor Jonathan Simpson and his Labour Party leader Cllr Anna Stewart – who broke months of silence last week by pledging to lobby the government for housing on the site – accused the council of missing an opportunity to dictate how it will be developed by failing to act during the sale.
They specifically demanded that the council tear up the 2003 planning brief – a guidance document drawn up when they were in power and dictating a mixed development including 50 per cent affordable housing.
Cllr Stewart said: “There is a real case for this to be looked at again. The Camden New Journal revealed last week that absolutely no lobbying has taken place... but the council does have control over the planning brief and that is where I’d like to ask for assurance from this administration that you’ll ask your planners to dust down the planning brief.”
Cllr Simpson said: “A week is a long time in politics and four years is clearly longer – this is our one opportunity to make sure we get what we want from the site.”
But Cllr Moffitt said the site was recognised as “part of an area undergoing fundamental change”, adding: “It’s got to deliver fully in all the requirements of our planning policy,” including a housing quota.

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