| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Poet's corner residents call meeting at The Rocket this Sunday | |
| Posted by: | Richard Grange | |
| Date/Time: | 11/01/11 13:24:00 |
| I objected yesterday - The most egregious points are 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 - which appear to be a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the buildings architectural importance and quality. As such it demonstrates the weakness at the heart of their application. (Basically they know they are about to knock down a beautiful building - and are trying to minimise its importance) The text states: 1.3 The building at the front of the site (the Conservative Club) is uncharacteristic of the street, and stands out as being an incongruous element, with tall parapet walls , in a street of small terraced houses with pitched roofs. 1.4 The industrial use and the office are non-conforming uses, within the more general residential character of the street, so this site seems right for redevelopment. The introduction of more sympathetically designed houses would therefore improve the streetscene, fill in the current gap between the houses and remove the inconsistent uses. 1.5 The design currently proposed is therefore to change the appearance to much smaller scale Victorian style houses with pitched roofs, bays and sash windows, which are more in keeping with the design, style and size of the existing houses elsewhere in the street. Firstly - their claim that the building is "uncharacteristic of the street and stands out as being an incongruous element" is casuistrous. The building is in fact the grandest building in the street, is entirely consistent with with the date and time period of the other buildings in the street - and is part of what makes the street the prettiest in Acton - ie the wide-mix of Victorian architectural styles (not its conformity). Secondly - the argument that the industrial use and office use are non-conforming uses - ignores the buildings history. The building has been in industrial / office use for almost 150 years - and thus if their argument is to be accepted - non-confomring for this entire period of time. It is in fact an integral part of Poets Corner historic architecture infrastructure. In the Victorian period housing was built directly adjacent to small work-shops. There used to be a number of these in Poets Corner which have now disappeared. 89-91 Shakespeare road is the last one. Thirdly - the idea that the the street-scene will be improved by knocking down a real Victorian building and replacing it with a line of fake "Victorian-style" housing is a joke. (How "Victorian-style" is a hydraulic car lift?) There are aspects to the site that can be improved - but knocking down the main building just feels plain greedy. |