Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
22 storey tower
Doing re-boot for the post about the possible 22 storey tower as planned for Seven Sisters. There's a pre-planning 'advisory' meeting with the Planning Committee, next Tuesday 10th March, which needs a good turnout. This is AFAIK the first block of this height in all of Haringey, so if they get it, a dangerous precedent has been set. Maybe it will solve some of the need for new housing, but would you like it on the end of your road?
I mocked up some pics to show the size of it. The design will be more sparkly but this is the height - I took the three storeys of Apex House and multiplied by seven. It's to replace Apex House, the Customer Services building at the junction of Seven Sister Road/Tottnm High Rd. More pics +info on above link.
Tags for Forum Posts: 22 storeys, apex house, grainger, planning, regeneration, seven sisters
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Haringey asked residents to suggest possible sites for development. So should I correctly assume that you wrote-in urging them to "regenerate" your house, street, or perhaps whole neighbourhood? Or perhaps not?
Since one of the governing principles here should be the The Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or conversely, Rabbi Hillel's formulation: The Silver Rule. "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow".
In any case, your critique is an example of the fallacy that I've frequently seen used by the Kobertories. That because someone opposes their particularly favoured - and usually monstrous plans, it shows they are entirely "against change".
I accept that some people are indeed NIMBY's and don't want to see anything at all change in their neighbourhood. But my experience as a councillor was that most people are not worried about and rarely objected to development which - in scale and style fitted with or complemented their neighbourhoods.
So please tell us about your own situation. Do you have any "lines" which would lead you to oppose development affecting your own home? Or business? Or local shops? Or park? I'm assuming you are not a BAAANA (Build Absolutely Anything Anywhere Near Anything")?
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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They now have a website up with elegant delicate line drawings that make maximum use of wide-angle distortions of perspective. You can just feel the gentle breeze wafting around, I can almost see bluebirds flying about. Here you go. http://apexhousedevelopment.co.uk/
I'm particularly impressed by this: Workshop with Northumberland Park Community School run by JMP to develop ideas for Tottenham Green and Apex House site. ie a school at the far end of the borough, and really, is taking ideas from children the way to bring your public with you? They told us at one of their preview meetings that they did focus groups with children and they all want skyscrapers. Manhattan on the Lea. I expect they want to paint their bedrooms black as well. BTW Talking to children is part of the payback for getting their office conversion paid for by us, cost of £180,000.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
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The bus sums it up.
Eh??
In one of the drawings, there's a single-decker bus, presumably at a bus stop. Three doors. All opening onto the road.
Parallel universe.....
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Not at all. Only in their drawings. There are two extant planning permissions for the Wards site, one being the Community Plan, the other is the Grainger one. Grainger has no plans for Wards site till 2017 - post Apex rebuild - and they can't do anything till they have assembled all the land in the plot, 24 dwellings still to go and many of them will be contested. Meanwhile WCCC is progressing its plan, meeting the council + TfL etc. and developing the Trust which will carry out the restoration plan.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Pike on
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Yes I spotted that one. Foolish.
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Pam, the work with school students and others is called the "halo effect".
One example is where a commercial organisation has a "charity arm" or foundation which garners goodwill by doing and publicising the things it does for the community.
I'm not suggesting this is always done cynically or instrumentally. Several years ago I was involved in a local recycling charity and we had board members from a national commercial company. I spent hours with the individuals concerned, and I'm confident they were genuinely committed to the charity. In my view they offered their time and effort - and some corporate resources - because they believed in the charity's aims and work. And they wanted "to put something back". The fact that the company got some kudos from this was not - I'm certain - their central motivation.
Of course, there are businesses and individuals who do cynically exploit their good works as a cover for other activities. (Jimmy Saville is an extreme example.) The apparent "halo" of good works makes it very difficult for people to believe ill of them. And next to impossible for their victims to be believed when they complain.
To be completely clear, I'm not making any judgements about the motivations of John McAslan Partners (JMP). Having met a few of them very briefly, I'd guess they sincerely believe in "the good works" they see themselves doing in Tottenham.
But the "Halo Effect" links to another phenomenon I've posted about before. "Maslow's Hammer" - also called The Law of the Instrument - which means that people with particular knowledge and skills and a specialised "toolbox" tend to believe that those skills and tools are what's needed to solve any problem presented.
So following the Tottenham Riot, Mentors called for funds for more mentoring. Trainers for more training. Property developers - like Stuart Lipton - proposed property development. You may have met some people from the Tavistock who turned up to offer therapy.
And gosh, wouldn't you guess it? Architects think architecture saves cities.
Of course, some of the skills and "solutions" do have a role to play. The problem comes when one or two of these purported "benefactors" have the power to define the agenda and control the resources. They can then impose the actions or policy which they believe works.
Policy led-evidence is produced to show the solution will and does work. This is what Michael Gove did with academies and free schools. (As Henry Stewart showed on Local Schools Network.)
There's another larger context to this. Which, again, I've written about on HoL and other places.
In Tottenham we're seeing a small version of what Naomi Klein calls "The Shock Doctrine". She begins her book by describing how in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina there was talk about "clean sheets" and "some very big opportunities". What were the opportunities which seemed to ignore the fact that hundreds of people had died and thousands were made homeless? The answer: a blank slate to impose radical right-wing experiments on schools and housing, for example.
This is what I've been warning about in Tottenham. And now it's here. A right-wing led council are gleefully imposing Tory policies and slavishly carrying-out the bidding of a property developer's report funded by a Tory Mayor.
Now a plan for Tottenham which involves the potential destruction of several thousand Council-owned homes. A three years "Austerity" Budget only weeks before a General Election where policies may change. And instead of a "dented-shield" strategy from our leaders, we see virulent and hostile attacks on services for the most vulnerable residents.
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Permalink Reply by JoeW on
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I think the end of my road is already on drugs. Doesn't look like that though!
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Pam, in case you missed it, Martin Ball contacted the Haringey Independent which reported on the misleading way Grainger had asked people to sign-up to their "Consultation" website. (Link here).
I've posted about it in my Flickr photoblog.
Can I suggest that instead of starting parallel discussion threads on Hol, you ask Hugh and Liz if they could merge the existing threads so the material is in one place.
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