/

Peabody in the Press

1 min read

Author: Cyril Richert
The article below was published in the Architects’ Journal on May 11th, 2012 (I put my comment in red).

Hawkins\Brown submits Clapham Junction plans

Hawkins\Brown has submitted a planning application for the £120 million revamp of a Peabody housing estate in Clapham Junction, London
The project for Peabody features 527 apartments with just over half affordable. The scheme also includes a 530m² community ‘hub’ featuring a café, club room, crèche and function rooms.
Hawkins\Brown’s original plans for the site were first unveiled in 2009 but have since been revised.
The new scheme includes buildings of between four and 12 storeys and 13,600m² of public space. An on-site District Heating System and CHP unit is planned, with residential units expected to achieve Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4.
A series of 5-storey 1930s residential blocks and a community centre on the site would be demolished to make way for the scheme.
Peabody’s project leader, Richard Stanway-Williams, said: ‘These plans will help us realise our 21st Century Peabody vision which is to integrate developments into the wider community.
‘This is best expressed in the creatively designed open spaces including a square, and amenities such as a community centre.
‘Since late 2007, we have spent a considerable amount of time discussing the redevelopment of the estate with residents, along with local stakeholders and the wider community. The Residents’ Steering Group plays an important role in representing the views of residents and will continue to do so through to completion.
Indigo Planning managing director Phil Villars said: ‘These plans will offer Peabody’s residents a higher standard of living in larger and more sustainable homes, making more efficient use of a site that already benefits from being very close to a major transport hub and the centre of Clapham Junction.
However Cyril Richert of the Clapham Junciton Action Group said the scheme was ‘too dense and too tall’.
In a letter sent to local authority Wandsworth Council objecting to the scheme, he said: ‘History and experience suggest that multi-storey blocks, which are significantly out of kilter with the rest of Clapham Junction, will simply become the new normal.’

This article received one comment on the website saying:
I hate to agree with a local politician, but this scheme is too dense. Compare the previous scheme from 2009 and this is obviously a poorer quality proposal. No articulation, no variation, just massive heavy slabs filling every space to the edges.
Er, is the comment describing me as a “politician”? 😀 Anyway, glad we we have the same view…

Did you like reading this article? Help us write more!

Clapham Junction Insider (formerly known as the CJAG website) has been publishing local news for over 14 years and remains committed to providing information about the local community and engaging in public interest journalism.

Our goal is to feature a wide range of community campaigns and initiatives, local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, and provide assistance to residents.

We have always been dedicated to these endeavours and have no intention of changing. In fact, we would like to expand our efforts further.

Until recently, all the stories, analyses, and reports published have been made possible with the invaluable help of many volunteers. However, it requires a significant amount of time and effort, and we are frustrated that we cannot do more. There are numerous topics we would like to cover, but we require financial resources to provide regular information.

Therefore, we kindly ask our readers to consider offering financial support to sustain these efforts. Any contributions made will help support community and public interest news, as well as the expansion of our coverage in this area.

2 ways of supporting our project

Do you think what we are doing is helping the community and you want to encourage us to do more? We have set up two ways of supporting our project:

  1. Paypal: For one-off contributions, you can just use your bank card. However if you wish to encourage and support us regularly with a small amount, you will need a Paypal account to set up a monthly subscription. Click here to donate.
  2. Patreon: this is a well-known membership platform that connects content creators with supporters. Mainly, it offers financial tools that let supporters subscribe to projects that give creators a predictable income stream as they continue to create content. Click here to subscribe and support us regularly.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

CJI editor and Clapham Junction Action Group co-founder and coordinator since 2008, Cyril has lived in Clapham Junction since 2001.
He is also funder and CEO of Habilis-Digital Ltd, a digital agency creating and managing websites and Internet solutions.