Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Art Deco Hotel for Central Crouch End Town Hall Crowds out Affordable Housing
Haringey Council look set to approve plans that will finally see a long term settlement made for the future of the now iconic 1930s Hornsey Town Hall Building in the very heart of Crouch End. The question remains of how many compromises have been made and how many are yet to come in the Council's efforts to finally get the building off their hands.
The future that the Council have in mind for the much-loved ex-town hall would combine community space, a boutique hotel, cafe/restaurants and new homes. The precise details of the plan are yet to be released, but some details are emerging.
The community based activities will probably be mostly be concentrated in, but not limited to, 'the more historically significant parts of the building', including the assembly hall, committee room and council chamber.
Apparently the hotel will be mainly in the east and west wings of the building but it will not be excluded from the more attractive parts of the building. A Council statement says:
The scheme intends to use the existing planning consent, however it will require some amendments for any parts of the listed buildings which now have a different use e.g. the hotel.
The Council has sought to reassure residents on the future of the town hall square. They say that although it is included as part of the lease, the developer will apparently "recognise that community use of both the outdoor and indoor spaces is integral to the success of the town hall".
The 'cafe/restaurants' would be on the ground floor, though exactly which part is not yet clear. Wherever they are located, it seems unlikely that they will offer the same community flavour of the current occupants, who it seems will be ushered out of the back door once work begins:
All of those currently hiring space are on short term hire agreements, and we will work with occupiers and advise on whether there are other local Council owned premises they can operate from.
The new homes would apparently be mostly concentrated on the land at the rear of the Town Hall. However, the requirement for affordable housing that is supposed to be a key part of any significant development in the borough has once again been all but waived. The Council said:
Hornsey Town Hall has been recognised as a challenging project because the responsibility of carrying out the necessary extensive works to improve a dilapidated Grade II* listed building and finding a financially sustainable long term operation for the building has significant cost implications. This is a unique project in which the restoration of the art deco listed building, and our guarantee of community access have been prioritised.
This means that the developer will include just four affordable units. The Council say that "any increase in the amount of affordable housing within the scheme will impact on the viability of the project." The financial calculations that underpin this position have been outlined in the top secret 'viability assessment' common to all developments and which the public are never allowed to see.
This isn't the first time Haringey Council have played fast and loose with their stated priorities. Two years ago in a searing article in The Guardian, Oliver Wainwright wrote:
Across the country – and especially in superheated London, where stratospheric land values beget accordingly bloated developments – authorities are allowing planning policies to be continually flouted, affordable housing quotas to be waived, height limits breached, the interests of residents endlessly trampled. Places are becoming ever meaner and more divided, as public assets are relentlessly sold off.
Haringey awaits the momentous arrival of Tottenham Hotspur’s new £400m football stadium. This bulbous mothership was promised to bring 200 new homes, half of which would be “affordable”, and an abundance of public benefits to the area. But, once again, the affordable component has been mysteriously waived, replaced with 285 flats for solely private sale, while the Section 106 contribution has been reduced from an agreed £16m to just £477,000 – a token contribution towards transport improvements.
Haringey Council’s cabinet will decide later this month whether their favoured developer, a consortium led by Far East Consortium International will be confirmed as the preferred bidder for the Town Hall project.
If approval is given, the Far East Consortium will start working up more detailed plans for the building and work could start on site as early as autumn 2017.
It remains to be seen how many more compromises Haringey Council will be prepared to make to wash its hands of the too-difficult-to-deal-with-town-hall as they dance along the yellow brick road hand-in-hand with the developer to the place where the great wizard will grant full planning permission.
Tags for Forum Posts: hornsey town hall
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Omotn on
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What leads us to believe it will be an Art Deco hotel? It will be a hotel in an Art Deco building.
Haringey is desperate to prevent a new planning application, because that would trigger CIL. S106 is a tax on completions (i.e. S106 provision comes only when the build is complete), CIL is a tax on commencements (i.e. LBH's collections dept send an invoice when the first sod is turned), based on area. Not sure about being based on increase in land values - LBH's rates are here - to paraphrase , it is £265 per sq m in Crouch End, £15 per sq m in Tottenham - seems more designed not to discourage in some areas, but to rake it in in others. LBH has already started to back away from the headline 'rules' that say its spending should be in in Neighbourhood Areas, and under the control of the Neighbourhood Plan
Interesting that LBH should choose to make a group of already rich Far Eastern Businessmen even richer, by granting a 125 year lease to FECIL when the mayor has just begun a foreign ownership inquiry to understand more closely just what effect that has. There is a spreadsheet of overseas ownership in Haringey attached to this post, based on the Private Eye research.
Hugh is right to ask "how many compromises?"
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Of course it'll be an "art Deco" hotel, Adrian. You know full well that the hotel will get all the prime bits reeking of art deco style. The sensible hotel operator will build on that theme.
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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on
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Anything goes, but nothing goes deep, I've never seen a great Art Deco hotel that is genuinely convincing. The preferred developers buildings are shiny a new, who will be their designer to pull it all together, and get into the mind of the buildings creators, without carving it all up, with their corporate vision. I would turn to some of the people who have had experience with fitting out our great Historic London Hotels, someone like Charlotte Crossland would have the depth to deal with the interior design, but I'm sure there is great expertise within our own borough.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Currer on
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And just for fun, FEC domiciled for tax purposes in the Caymans
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Read more about the bidders tax status and links to their corporate information. Follow https://twitter.com/HTHArtzCentre for more updates
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A group of trouble makers based in Crouch End are daring to question what they see as Haringey's 'perplexing' decision making process. Just one point they bring out is that consultants GVA advised Haringey not long ago that "There is no obvious demand for a hotel in this location. The absence of major rail infrastructure, any large employment hubs or institutional basis to support hotel use result in low market demand in this location."
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Fair enough, but one assumes that the hotel operators disagree and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
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Build it as a hotel, then cock it up, oo um then convert to apartments or even serviced apartments job done. What's the buildings current estimated worth and its land value?
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So the Rod Stewert Concert Hall is out? He could donate some of his net worth, for a night hood.
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Dam, the Queens just gone a stuffed that plan
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/10/arise-sir-rod-stewa...
Who else has a net worth of £220,000,000, with a historic link to the building?
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A celebrity gala, the great and the good could come together, with Rod etc, get networking Haringey.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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Here's a vid of Ray Davies inside HTH - a long term supporter, he describes HTH as the 'ideal venue'. Ray (a Muswell Hillbilly) has been known to work with the Crouch End Festival Chorus and still has a studio here.
He has said he will do a 'community' gig. He once hired the Stones to play HTH for £50 and
so I suppose could do so again.
I've made a list of past events in HTH (1936-2009) if anyone knows of any others, please post details here and I'll add them, together with any HTH memories of anything anyone cares to add.
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