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Developer’s heart transplant bid
Plans for Hawley Wharf including market and homes unveiled to wary public
IN an atmosphere of suspicion and courteously veiled hostility, the developer which will decide the future of Camden Town’s dilapidated industrial heart outlined its plans to a packed hall on Thursday.
The area known as Hawley Wharf – a swathe of workshops, market pitches, offices and terraced housing stretching north from the canal between Chalk Farm Road and Kentish Town Road – has been bought by the owners of the existing Stables Market and is set for demolition and redevelopment.
At Castlehaven Community Centre this week, developer Stanley Sidings showed the first drafts of plans for two thirds of the site – a new market complex alongside the waterway, a public square at the canal’s widest point and 130 new homes in blocks up to seven storeys high along Torbay Street.
The remaining third – known as site C by planners and straddling Castlehaven Road – remained blank, the “hole in the doughnut”, according to one resident.
Stanley Sidings’ director Mark Alper said that plans for site C were “still under consideration”.
The developer has been criticised for rebuilding the fire-ravaged canal market without planning permission, only recently submitting a retrospective application for a new complex of stalls and outlets which opened in May.
Resident Billy Osborne, who questioned the intentions of the developer over site C, said: “This community needs more food and drink outlets like it needs a hole in its head. We’re up to here in booze.”
Director of Castlehaven Community Centre, Eleanor Botwright, asked: “Can I have the developer’s assurance that the planning process will be followed in future?”
The challenges came despite the efforts of the developer and its architects, Sean Affleck, from Make in Fitzrovia, and Nic Sampson, from ESA off Oxford Street, to highlight the benefits of the project.
Pedestrianised streets running from north to south would improve flow to and from the canal, the architects said, while the new canalside market site would host small workshops and new public spaces. But Mr Alper acknowledged that the concerns over the canal market and site C were widely held.
He said: “We had expected that sort of reaction and we expect more meetings like this. We need more time for consideration [on site C] to be honest.
“One of the reasons we have waited is to hear things from local people. We can’t ignore local opinion.
“We have put in a retrospective planning application [on the canal market]. We should have put one in at the time. But I don’t think we get any special treatment from the council.”
A planning application for the main site is expected before the end of the year.
The developer is known to have spent at least £17 million acquiring the site piece by piece over five years or more, under various company names. Ground Gilbey Ltd, Stanley Sidings Ltd and Stables Market Ltd are all part of Camden Market Holdings Group. |
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