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New End under threat
• THANK you for alerting your readers to the proposal to build a truly appalling and utterly hideous new block of flats in New End, Hampstead (Homes to be nursed back to health? March 20).
The artist’s impression accompanying your article shows just how huge and grossly overbearing this building would be. It is hard to imagine any building less appropriate to its surroundings, so it comes as no surprise to learn that Camden’s planners are giving it their support.
This is not the first time that New End has come under threat from a developer. In 1988, the old New End hospital, directly opposite the present threatened nurses’ home, was also scheduled for demolition and redevelopment. Then, as now, the proposed residential blocks were totally out of scale and character with their surroundings, and again the scheme was back by Camden’s planners. Only a hard-fought campaign by the Heath & Hampstead Society and its specially formed New End committee, over a period of nearly eight years, finally succeeded in securing the retention and refurbishment of the existing buildings.
The wisdom of this approach is reflected in the prices which those flats now command, and confirmed by the subsequent listing of two of the buildings originally scheduled for demolition.
There is nothing wrong with the former nurses’ home in New End. The architect claims it is “not of any particular quality” and “not old” to justify its demolition. But this is exactly the sort of building that that conservation areas need, to provide contrast in scale and style with the surrounding buildings.
It should be retained and converted to new residential use. If that is not possible, then any replacement building must be carefully and sensitively designed to enhance New End’s existing harmonious streetscape.
DAVID CHRISTIE
Rosslyn Hill, NW3
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