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Our campaign showed the way
• IT seems to be a trick played by supermarkets that they first buy up a garage to acquire the land (Anger at Archway supermarket plan, April 20).
Tesco did this at Islington Green and I cannot understand why the meticulous conservation requirements which have always ruled in the borough in the past were not applied.
No design standards or requirement to reflect the architectural history of the area were demanded. The result was cheap and nasty materials and clashing frontages of the store against the inevitable flats for more profit.
The Anderson’s Yard Campaign Group (AYCG) was determined that standards would apply for the area behind the Green, and every community priority was achieved – housing, a garden, restaurants, a gym, swimming pool, a theatre to replace the old Collins Music Hall and a walking route through the site but no vehicles.
Waterstone’s bookshop spent a substantial amount to make its frontage an exact replica of the Collins one, and we gained a new town space above the underground theatre, the shell of which is already built, with flats around it.
It is an insult to all who care that the supermarket was allowed to ignore such considerations.
I can only think that things have changed to such an extent that co-operation and equality between developers, councillors and officers, planners, commercial interests and the community have not worked in this case as they did in ours.
Inevitably, some compromise must occur on all sides. As I chaired AYCG for a number of years I am attempting to record how this was achieved, both in a book, which must by necessity be long, and a booklet to be available when the theatre is opened in the coming months.
I feel it is rather sad that, while King’s Cross area has its modernised stations, little seems to have changed environmentally as well as from a community point of view, when this should be a showcase area for entry into London.
Community groups should not exist just to cause delay and achieve nothing.
AVIS SALTSMAN BALDRY
Gerrard Road, N1 |
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