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How the Camden Road development could look |
Towers plan ‘is social engineering’
Developers aim for Primrose Hill luxury block go-ahead by building social housing nearby
IT’S a tale of two tower blocks. One with the potential to offer views over Primrose Hill, the other in the grittier location of a former solicitors’ office in Camden Town.
Both towers are in need of planning permission before builders can affect Camden’s skyline, and in both cases residents living nearby say they will fight to stop them being built.
Property company Camden Regeneration Ltd are behind the two-for-one application which binds the two developments together.
They have mapped out plans to build an eight-storey luxury development in St Edmunds Terrace in Primrose Hill, complete with an underground car park and a private gym.
To meet planning obligations, the developers have agreed to build a 12-storey social housing block at Twyman House in Camden Road, Camden Town, the former headquarters of legal firm Hodge Jones & Allen.
Objectors say the Primrose Hill scheme threatens to wreck views from the park while the Camden Town building will be a “carbuncle”.
Malcolm Kafetz, chairman of the Friends of Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, said of the St Edmund’s Terrace complex: “Put simply, it’s a wholly inappropriate building for the landscape.
“In reality, it will be an eight-storey-high eyesore, completely destroying the skyline from Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park. And that’s not to mention the people in St Edmund’s Terrace itself. Can they really fit another 22 Rolls-Royces down that narrow street?”
Architect Peter Clapp, who runs a practice in nearby Jeffreys Place, said the Twyman House scheme was too big and would not offer good quality social housing.
“This is quite the most outrageous and cynical planning application that has been made in Camden Town in recent years,” he said. “These proposals are simply a massive over-development of the site, end of story. It is the Camden Carbuncle.”
Under planning law, developments of 15 or more homes must include social housing. Home builders can play with these stipulations by agreeing to build the cheaper homes on a separate site.
According to Camden Town and Primrose Hill Labour councillor Pat Callaghan, by tying the block in Camden Town to their Primrose Hill site, Camden Regeneration Ltd, can use all of the St Edmunds Terrace design for top-end flats and make up the social housing content on the less expensive plot.
Cllr Callaghan said: “This is social engineering. There is no reason that if you can build luxury housing on the plot in Primrose Hill that you can’t also provide affordable units, instead of putting it elsewhere.”
Anna Snow, a spokeswoman for the developers, said the Camden Road site was suitable for a high-density scheme.
“This is a regeneration project,” she said.
“It is in central London and next to both Camden Road train station and near Camden Town Tube and there are other buildings of a similar height nearby.”
In relation to the upper-end development in Primrose Hill, Ms Snow added: “Anything on the site is going to cause some issue.
“But it should be recognised that the land has always been earmarked for housing.
“It would be wrong to say that you can’t see it from Primrose Hill but it is an urban park and it’s not a protected view.
“We feel the development will help to define the park.” |
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Your comments:
A spokesperson for the developers of the Barrow Hill site in St Edmunds Terrace, says the proposed block will 'define the park'. In what way does the park need defining? The park needs to be left alone to continue to give pleasure to local residents and to visitors, and not to be overwhelmed by such a monstrous luxury tower block. Developers are interested in one thing - to cram as many flats into a given space as possible in order to maximise their profits. Coming from developers the term 'Regeneration' and such phrases as 'define the park' is p.r.-speak of the most cynical kind.
N. Jason
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