Author: Cyril Richert
Peabody’s construction site – Comyn Road
“At the start of it there were a lot of mini earthquakes. Now it seems like there are tiles shifting and cracks appearing“. Hence started the email from one of the local resident in Comyn Road. Another one said “I am fed up with my house shaking whilst I am trying to work“. Continue reading
Author: Cyril Richert & David Curran
Debenhams in Clapham Junction – all board up and closed in June 2020
As many (most?) of you will have noticed, Debenhams is now fully disappearing from Clapham Junction. The lockdown period was surely the last nail on the coffin for the Arding & Hobbs occupancy, and the boards that are now surrounding the ground floor are announcing that the building is “looking ahead to the next chapter of its history” as the owners have put in the leaflet they distributed in the area (download the leaflet here).
As we reported last October, W Real Estate, the new owner of the building (bought for circa £48 million), wanted them out so they can redevelop some or all of the property. Continue reading
Author: Cyril Richert
32 and 20 storeys where the Council think it would make a positive contribution to the area and that would not harm the townscape. The area is currently mainly built with 2 to 8-storey blocks.
In 2015 Wandsworth Council distributed a Planning News leaflet called “Battersea Riverside Consultation” asking for opinions on their planning framework to guide the development of the Lombard Road/York area. Although the final policy ignored the consultation comments, the latest proposals for the area show that the full procedure (including drafting the policy itself!) was just a waste of time and money and – as usual with Wandsworth planning policy – is meant to be ignored. Continue reading
Arding & Hobbs by Edwardx, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence
Last week we read that Debenhams was filing for administration after the coronavirus lockdown forced it to shut its shops across the UK.
According to Debenhams boss Stefaan Vansteenkiste, the move aims at protecting the business in the current uncertainty but wish to resume trading when government restrictions are lifted. Continue reading
Author: Cyril Richert
Image taken from GoogleMap, because we all need to STAY AT HOME!
Eventually, Boris Johnson told us yesterday: “You must stay at home“.
From Monday evening 23 March 2020, people can only leave home for one of the four following reasons:
In a ministerial broadcast from Downing Street the Prime Minister said citizens would face fines (the punishment in England for not complying would be a fixed penalty notice initially set at £30) if they fail to comply with the government’s new instructions. Continue reading
See update at the bottom of this article: A new 16 storey tower proposed near York Road
Author: Cyril Richert
At the beginning of January was submitted a variation of conditions for the scheme located on Homebase site, Swandon Way. Although this is not called a “new application”, it resembles a new scheme in any aspect. Amongst the most major new features, we could cite the increase of units by 20%, the suppression of all car parks but blue badges, 64% reduction in shared amenity, no more basement (it saves money) and the removal of a third of commercial space. Continue reading
Author: Cyril Richert
The Clapham Junction Action Group is providing an online tool to help you shape your comment on any planning application, both quickly and efficiently (i.e. with the necessary planning jargon that will make most impact on the planning report). Continue reading
Author: Susan Lofthouse
Winterville has always proved controversial. There were frequent complaints about the noise and intrusion, and there was a sigh of relief when Lambeth Council decided it was not going to agree to its return in 2019.
As a consequence, last year was Winterville free, and Lambeth were able to carry out £200,000 of works to restore the damage caused by this, and other equally excessive commercial events. Continue reading
Authors: Cyril Richert & David Curran
You may never have heard of the Local Plan, but it’s important. It’s a fairly weighty document that sets the overall vision for almost all future development in the Borough – it’s a key thing that future planning applications will be assessed against, as it gives a steer on what can and can’t be done, and what the Council will be looking for from developers. To complicate matters, it has to fit together with the ever-changing policies of central Government, as well as the wider London plan. It has to be reviewed every few years as priorities evolve and new challenges emerge, and this is a big exercise that Wandsworth’s currently working on. Continue reading
