One of last Victorian Buildings on Seven Sisters Opposite Finsbury Park Earmarked for Demolition

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Permalink Reply by kotkas on March 22, 2019 at 18:59

That’s a real shame, but the real loss were the ones where a new Travelodge is being built. They had gorgeous ironmongery. On the other hand they seemed quite seedy (as do the ones on Green Lanes by the pizzeria) so on balance I hope it’s an improvement...

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Permalink Reply by Costa on March 23, 2019 at 9:44

‘Tis a shame, they got consent for it back in 2017 and then sold it on to another developer, they’ll have to start soon or the consent will lapse. Arguably it is a good place for densification of residential but the proposed design is a bit of a by-the-numbers effort. 

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Permalink Reply by Don on March 29, 2019 at 11:01

It's a pity to see decent Victorian buildings demolished - they weren't architecturally distinguished, but the streetscape benefitted from consistency and a human scale of building. It would have been much better if they could have been refurbished rather than demolished. However, when I lived a bit further to the south in the 1980s, there were local concerns that almost all of them were used as seedy and decrepit "hotels" - mainly B&B accommodation allegedly not fit for purpose and rented to otherwise homeless families. Of course this was also linked to complaints about the then-prevalent kerb-crawling in the area (later stopped by barriers on the roads between Seven Sisters and Brownswood), but reflects the constant problem of bad landlords exploiting local authority housing needs by renting sub-standard accommodation. The new buildings facing the park mainly appear to be either sole or joint-venture housing association developments, so maybe they're an improvement, even if the designs are so bland and uninspiring?

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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on March 29, 2019 at 11:10

I think you've hit the nail on the head.  It may be a shame that older Victorian stock hasn't been maintained and treated sympathetically, but modernisation of the housing stock is the only way to maximise availability of new homes.  The inside of the Majestic was anything but.  A modern block offering reasonable quality permanent homes is an improvement, even if they are bland.

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Permalink Reply by JJ B on March 30, 2019 at 11:33

"reasonable quality permanent homes is an improvement, even if they are bland"

Such a pity that people settle for "reasonable quality" and "blandness", the lowest common denominator to achieve the goal of housing people. Where has the aim of achieving good quality and good simple design gone to?

Such short termism and continuous lowering of standards achieves the opposite of making our neighbourhoods into places that everyone aspires to live in.

But hey if you are all happy to settle for second or third best then good for you...!

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Permalink Reply by Don on March 31, 2019 at 15:15

It’s not a case of “if you are all happy to settle for second or third best”, it’s largely the conditions that successive government policies have created for new building, especially social housing, that make “reasonable quality” and “blandness” the defaults when anything gets built at all. 

Devastation of local authority housing stock through right-to-buy legislation, abandonment of Parker-Morris minimum space standards, creation of “permitted development” planning loopholes and tax incentives for conversion of offices to residential use, huge backhanders to private house builders through “help to buy”, and the destruction of council planning and enforcement powers through years of vicious cuts have all fed into declining standards, while getting any public or “affordable” housing built at all – let alone with decent space or good design – seems almost impossible. Just compare a local authority development such as the 1970s World’s End estate, at the unfashionable end of Chelsea, with the rabbit hutches being built today to see the degradation of space, design and conditions; and, closer to home, the Woodberry Down redevelopment appears to exemplify the ill-effects of a local authority having no option but to get into bed with commercial developers. 

The complete marketisation of UK housing (both private and public) over the past 40-odd years means that “settling for second or third best” is almost always the only available option. 

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