|
|
 |
| |
The Hawley Wharf site, on Regent’s Canal |
Developers buy £17m of canalside properties
Police station among possible uses of Hawley Wharf
THE fence around Hawley Wharf was built to veil the ugly remnants of Camden Town’s industrial past. Now it conceals a goldmine.
The network of workshops, railway arches, dilapidated office blocks and warehouses that stretch from the canal up to Castlehaven Road are ripe for development: “poor... undeveloped land characterised by unsightly structures”, as a new council’s 26-page public consultation document makes clear.
The site also includes the area damaged by the Camden fire in February.
But the papers, aimed at mapping out potential future uses for the site, do not mention that much of the land has been steadily bought up by the area’s most powerful landowner, the Camden Market group.
“People look at the site and recognise that it can’t stay the way it is. There needs to be something here,” said Eleanor Botwright, director of the Castlehaven Community Association, which hosted a public consultation on the site last week.
“The elephant in the room in these discussions is the lack of confirmation that Stables Market owns the site.”
The land has in fact been bought up by British Virgin Island-registered Ground Gilbey Ltd, who are part of the Camden Market Holdings Group, which also own Stables Market. Ground Gilbey has spent at least £17m steadily acquiring land in the area over three years.
Ground Gilbey bought a swathe of the wharf area for £6.5million in June 2005, including much of Leybourne Road, Haven Street and Chalk Farm Road, as well as the railway arches on Hawley Wharf.
Another chunk of land – the former home of James Phelps Ltd Plumbers, comprising much of Hawley Road and Torbay Street – was sold to Ground Gilbey in June this year for £5.6m.
And last year Ground Gilbey paid Camden Council £5m for the adjacent James Cameron House, a 12-unit suite of small studios and offices in Castlehaven Road, giving it control of nearly all the land inside the Hawley Wharf area, with the notable exception of the Hawley Arms pub.
Under the Cameron House deal, the council will gain an undisclosed additional payment, known as “clawback”, if the land is redeveloped.
Ground Gilbey said at the time of the Cameron House sale: “There are no current plans other than to actively manage and maintain the property.”
The landowners’ position – that there is no overriding vision for the site – has not changed.
A director of Camden Market Holdings (CMH), Piers Codling, said yesterday (Wednesday) that plans would be “very much driven by the London Borough of Camden and the development framework” in Hawley Wharf.
He dismissed the rumour that a casino was planned and firmly ruled out “a shopping mall with all the big names in there”.
Mr Codling said: “We own a reasonable proportion of the land between the canal and the viaduct, and a proportion between the viaduct and Castlehaven Road.
“We don’t own all of it. We bought them [the plots] on their own individual merits. It is all income-producing land, and there may be a possibility that development may happen.”
The main area of potential development was the market, Mr Codling said.
He added: “We believe there is a good healthy demand for market stalls.”
Neighbours have so far suggested better links to the canal and the removal of the more unsightly or fire-damaged properties.
Labour councillors this week mooted the possibility of a police station being built on the site, giving Camden Town a permanent police presence. Council planners have suggested a mix of market retail, housing, and leisure facilities.
The consultation, which is the first stage towards the council creating a planning brief for the site, runs until November 28. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
