Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
New plan from Wards Corner Developer
A new plan from Wards Corner developer Grainger would see this:
become this:
Grainger wants to build 196 new homes and a new shopping area, but the traders and local residents have been fighting an eight year long campaign to stop the plans.
The new plan is almost identical to the previous one, except for the removal of the tallest storey of the building, more greenery, and the installation of ‘memory panels’ around the Tube station with pictures and history of the area.
Grainger is claiming that an independent survey it commissioned showed that 69 per cent of Tottenham residents want the site to be replaced with new buildings.
Tags for Forum Posts: ward's corner
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Ah yes, "Memory panels"
I think I recognize Memory Panels as being in the same vein as council/developer-speak with which I'm familiar.
The would-be developer of Alexandra Palace promised a "Heritage Facility" to replace the world's oldest surviving television studios (the Trust Board has now accepted as a strategic goal, that we should eventually apply for UN World Heritage site status for the south east wing, containing these studios).
I remember thinking at the time, that a "Heritage Facility" for the studios could end up being no more than a couple of display boards (PR speak = memory panels?).
"Memory Panels" is a travesty and insulting, but still mildly amusing. Which PR company dreamt that one up and how much did they charge?! As long as you stick up memory-panels (low cost and taking up little space), knock down whatever you like.
Grainger's "independent survey", with the result they like, is in the same credibility-class as the council's "independent" surveys that shows Haringey People magazine is the preferred method of council communication. Who pays for these "independent" surveys?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Absolutely hideous. There is a great opportunity to use what is already there and restore back to the way it was originally developed. The plan looks like they've just relocated the lovely Apex House onto the site.
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If the councillors on the next planning committee - who will review this re-heated proposal - like the idea of the memory panels (I'm sure they will) I have a suggestion for their further installation.
Lets have memory panels around the site of a demolished, brutalist Civic Centre with "pictures and history of the area". And lets have a public competition for the text on the Civic Centre Memory Panels - I've got my entry prepared!
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Unless the blue building is on a hill I think you're right about the 7 storeys.
I suppose restoration is too big an ask as the developer won't make enough dosh. The least they can go for is for it to be sympathetic to the buildings on either side and to give you some sense of arriving in the place. The corner part of the development really looms oppressively over Seven Sisters Road.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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It's a very complex site engineering-wise, because of the tube station below. eg Any disruption to the escalators, which are quite shallow below the surface, means they will jam. Grainger's solution will be to have a great concrete raft across the site, and tall 7-storey (6-storey? who can tell) towers either end. Because it will cost more to build, they won't be able to make sufficient profit from the scheme if they have to include social housing, so they can only build 'luxury flats'. Their 106 requirement to build an equal amount or is it now 30%, or is it now none, of social housing will be met 'elsewhere' so watch out if you live near, or on, a cheap patch of land. We haven't yet heard where they are going to build the matched low-cost housing, strangely enough.
They have said at our public meetings that they did try really really to plan to conserve at least the corner store but there was no way they could do this and still make a profit. So just bulldoze it all, obviously.
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Pam, are you not aware that Graingers are Securing the future of housing. This screen shot is from their website in the last few days; here's the proof:
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Permalink Reply by Rachella on
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I notice that one one's commented on the original article. Perhaps that might be a way of showing our disapproval to a wider audience, especially since Granger is stating that 69 per cent of residents want new buildings.
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On the one hand, the council has made cuts to services for the young and the elderly (which they blame on others).
On the other hand, the council made a gift of approximately £2,000,000 to the "UK's largest listed specialist residential landlord" (Grainger).
Where are the council's priorities?
Grainger profits last year (before valuation movements and non-recurring items) was £126,200,000, up 34% on 2010.
The £2,000,000 payment from the local council was a form of inducement in order to ensure the proposed development would be profitable for Grainger, and that it would proceed.
Was the intention all along to railroad through the developer's scheme?
How wise was it of the council to give so much taxpayer money to this company?
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To be accurate, it wasnt exactly LBH, it was the New Deal organisation The Bridge which gave them the £2m bung (funded by central govt via LBH). The original remit of The Bridge was to regenerate the area around the bridge at St Anns Rd/Seven Sisters Road up towards Manor House, but it was tweaked to include Wards Corner. We have searched in vain for the minutes of the now wound-up Bridge where the gift was agreed upon.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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"... it was tweaked to include Wards Corner."
Pam, I'm pretty sure that was not the case. A map of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) area was included in the "Delivery Plan" in March 2001. It was bounded by High Road Tottenham. To the north, Wards Corner, Suffield Road and Westerfield Road were included in it.
I recall a meeting perhaps 18 months earlier when I had argued that the area south of Broad Lane should have been included as well - on the basis that there was significant deprivation there. But that was not agreed.
"We have searched in vain for the minutes of the now wound-up Bridge".
I would have expected documents to be archived by the Bridge NDC staff team shortly before the ten-year programme ended. It's possible that some archived records are now held by the Bridge Renewal Trust.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Hidden from view in your top pic is the enormous space above the market.
LBH and TfL between them have deliberately neglected it, but there have been dozens of offers to use it over the past decade. We all know Wards Corner needs work, but it has fabulous potential.
I live here - do I want another branch of JD Sports and a selection of bookies on my doorstep? Um, now let me think....
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Permalink Reply by Neville Collins on
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Here we go again..... yet another plan to demolish Ward's Corner. As I have repeatedly mentioned before, with some exceptions, because of Haringey's poor reputation, major redevelopments often never get built in the borough. The reality is that large parts of Tottenham remain derelict and underused to this very day, yet there hasn't been any strategic plans by 'those in authority' to help repair and maintain empty buildings and improve local amentities. The WCC, local people... and sympatheic councillors... must continue the battle against the council's on-going degeneration policy
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