Tuesday 26 April 2011

Architectural Folly



Anyone who has ever been to Redchurch Street will be shocked to see LondonNewcastle's 'regeneration' proposals.  Follow the links below to see their 'design-orientated' plans to monopolise the skyline of an area characterised by low-rise buildings, independent retail and market stalls.  The company's high-rise, mixed-use development would be sorely out of place and has been met with a mixture of ridicule, disgust and disbelief by local campaigners such as open-shoreditch. 





"OPEN Shoreditch member Jago Action Group is taking up arms against the gross over development of the Huntingdon Estate, the light industrial estate bordered by Bethnal Green Road and Redchurch Street, next to the Tea building. Developers Londonnewcastle are so passionate about the neighbourhood that they want to bless this low-rise mixed residential quarter with a 25-storey tower block.

In a cynical bid to buy off Tower Hamlets development committee, Londonnewcastle proposes to build affordable housing squidged between two busy railway lines half a mile from the gleaming tower block. The 'fact' sheet issued in support of the development application omits just one really crucial fact: the Huntingdon Estate application is for a 25-story tower block. And neither do the pictures tell the real story, as only eight floors of the proposed tower can be seen.

In a covering email, the developers claim to be 'tremendously passionate about the location, the area and it's possibilities...' There's no doubting their passion – to dig themselves out of the large hole in their balance sheet, as a result of taking an option on the site at the height of the property boom. Faced with a site cost of double what's it's currently worth, Londonnewcastle is desperately trying to claw back potential losses by bequeathing the neighbourhood a monument to its folly."



Above excerpt quoted from the article 'ditch The Block' - http://open-shoreditch.blogspot.com/




No comments:

Post a Comment