Author: Cyril Richert

You surely know that larger pavement at the corner of Lavender Hill/Falcon Road, fronting the Revolution bar with 3 (young) trees. This is pictured on the top left of the photo below. Well, well, well, that is an ideal place for a big advertising panel, as some thought!

Clapham Junction after the re-modelling of the crossing and paving.

Planning Application 2013/4604 is labelled as

“Erection of single sided Digital Advertisement Display Unit (measuring 6m high by 3m wide) with associated logo box housed within a structure 8.4m high, 3.4m wide and 30cm deep.“

Example of the advertising board that they want to implement at Clapham Junction

The proposal claims to be additional revenue for the Council’s cash reserve

From the beginning of October, the application has received 11 objections and no support. Eleven seems already a big number, knowing the fact that the plan was not publicized and mainly kept hidden from the public (I personally live less than 100 yards from the location and I have not received anything).

The common concern to all objections is very clear and simple: while the borough spent millions in improving the layout and pavements of the Clapham Junction area throughout the last 4 years (and the work is still ongoing in St John’s Road), it is a surprise that we are now facing an application proposing just to do the opposite and undermine the public realm.

The site lies inside the Clapham Junction Conservation Area. In its documentation appraisal it says:

“1.9 – The quality of the public realm is important to the area to provide an appropriate setting to the buildings as well as a high quality environment for pedestrians. There are opportunities to enhance the character and appearance of streets by improving the quality of the experience for pedestrians as well as improving its visual character by removing extraneous clutter, rationalizing signing, and by providing good quality materials for surface finishes and well-designed street furniture.

1.10 […] This scheme is now being implemented following clear public support from residents and the business community.

2.1 The fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings represent the distinctive character and appearance of the conservation area. The protection of the retail use to ground floors in the town centre is crucial to maintaining the vitality and vibrancy of the shopping centre.”

In the more recent Visioning Project from the Mosaic Partnership, the study says:

“1.12 – The centre’s main strength lies in the character areas that have evolved across the centre and their distinct identities and offer.”

So what is the planning application suggesting? To improve the quality of experience for pedestrians? To remove extraneous clutter? To rationalize signage? To preserve the distinctive identity of the conservation area? No, rather exactly the opposite!

The Heritage Statement submitted with the application states (take a seat , then read and burst into continuous laugh!):

“A well-designed digital board would not seem out of character or out of place within such a vibrant and busy commercial context. On the contrary it is exactly the type of feature that could be expected in this type of townscape context. The presence of the board at a busy traffic junction in the commercial heart of the area would not materially erode the character or appearance of the conservation area, and instead would be legible as a part of the on-going and ever-changing evolution of the conservation area.”

But perhaps the key argument of the proposal lies in paragraph 8:

“this requires consideration of the wider public benefits of the advertising board, which involves an additional revenue stream to the Council – specifically provision for a ‘cash reserve’ to fund further improvements to the area in the future“.

Councillors, Business associations and Societies are objecting

Already, the three councillors of Northcote ward, Jenny Brown, Peter Dawson and Martin Johnson, have submitted an objection to the Council (and they have also featured their objection in their newsletter sent on October 7th). They said:

“Such a unit will seriously impact the visual amenity of the Clapham Junction town centre.

[…] We believe that the changes being brought about by the “exemplar” scheme are consistent with the aspirations of the Conservation Area appraisal and will result in significant improvements to the public realm of the town centre. However we are of the opinion that the installation of a large digital display unit would run counter to these aspirations and would negate recent improvements in the area.

The unit will adversely affect the free movement of pedestrians; introduce large scale signage which is out of keeping with the surrounding environment and has the potential to distract motorists who are negotiating a complex and busy junction thereby worsening highway safety.”

It refers also to the Clapham Junction Partnership Board’s objection (the representatives of the business associations) which wrote:

“It would undo the effect of the exemplar scheme in the central town centre as the proposed structure is intrusive; is detrimental to the visual amenity of the Victorian architecture of the town centre and could compromise highway safety at an extremely busy junction used by pedestrians as well as vehicles.

When the Exemplar scheme was initially presented to the Board the wide pavement area in that location was presented as an area which would provide a much needed central point in the town centre (e.g. for a Christmas Tree, switch-on ceremonies, gathering point for launches etc).

The need for such a space is something which also featured in the recent Town Centre Visioning exercise;
Board Members were surprised at this proposal in the middle of the Town Centre Visioning Exercise, as they freely gave a lot of their time to the initiative, and this proposal seemed to ignore the exercise.“

The Battersea Society is also surprised and concerned that the Council is submitting such application:

“It seems extraordinary that the Borough should be proposing such an intrusive structure and visual diversion after the expense recently incurred in improving and enhancing this pavement area as part of the Junction street improvements”

Do they try to get some funding for the sweeping and washing of the pavements? The Council said back in August that they were trying to get Transport for London to pay for the cleaning of the pavement. As it happen, the applicant / client is TfL and the agent is Wildstone, who seem to be in partnership with TfL for a London wide proliferation.

The Council has submitted a series of application for advertising boards

The Battersea Society also said:

“We are also concerned that the borough should submit this and the other similar applications with so few supporting details about the type of advertising to be displayed, the effect on the streetscape or the justification for erecting these signs across the Borough.”

There are indeed a few other applications such as 2013/4034, on the pavement beside Asda’s entrance (Land Adjacent to 202 Lavender Hill SW11) which is well described by the Battersea Society as “visually intrusive, add unnecessary street clutter and create an obstruction to pedestrians” (we all know how busy it can be in front of Asda, not even talking about the amount of street furniture and cluttering already existing on lavender Hill). As well as planning application 2013/4032 (Land Adjacent to Queen’s Circus Roundabout Battersea SW8).

Similarly, application 2013/4605 (Advertising Hoarding North of East Hill Bridge over Trinity Road Underpass & Advertising Hoarding South of Huguenot Place Bridge over Trinity Road Underpass) has attracted objections from the Wandsworth Society and 2013/4617 (Wandsworth High Street corner of Buckhold Road SW18). They wrote:

“We believe that these huge signs are totally inappropriate and unacceptable in these locations and are in direct conflict with the Conservation area and established policies including Policy DMS 8.”

In the past, such proposal for advertising board applications 2012/0179 (1 Armoury Way London SW18 1TH ) and 2012/1574 (Shell Service Station 262 York Road London SW18) where refused by the committee and also refused on appeal.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

An interim Visioning report has been released before the Strategic planning Committee on September 16th.

The final stage of the work is intended to be completed within the next two months and will include:

• Finalisation of, and agreement on, the vision statement, Unique Selling Propositions (USPs), competitive positioning strategy;
• completion of the final project report, which will include detailed recommendations and a comprehensive implementation strategy for each town centre, as well as detail on overarching recommendations across the Borough;
• Development of unique brand identities for each town centre, including brand guidelines.

With a government grant of £100,000 in hands, Wandsworth Council decided to commissioned a study on the five town centres of the borough. The Mosaic Partnership was asked to “identify a positioning strategy for each of the borough’s five town centres“.

Online surveys were held in each of the town centres. In total, nearly 1,500 individual survey responses have been recorded, with 253 responses for Clapham Junction town centre. We have been discussing the interim result of the questionnaires in our previous article.

In order to propose the final brand for Clapham Junction, the team presented the various options to an online survey so that stakeholders could virtually vote.

Here is a link to the online voting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GQ69B7H

Their interim report on the Visionning project for Clapham Junction is below.

In any case the director of finance commented:

There is currently no identified budget provision to fund the implementation of any future recommendations in relation to the issues highlighted in paragraph 13, and so will have to be framed within the reality of the current financial situation or identify possible alternative sources of funding.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

With a government grant of £100,000 in hands, Wandsworth Council decided to commissioned a study on the five town centres of the borough. The Mosaic Partnership was asked to “identify a positioning strategy for each of the borough’s five town centres“.

The consultant team has discussed the results of their questionnaire, based on the responses of about 1500 people across the borough, with 253 responses for Clapham Junction town centre.

According to the data, Clapham Junction has got the highest population within the 30-45 years old range: young with good income. The respondents have characterized Clapham Junction as:

• not really a centre, rather pockets of activities,
• become Northcote road centric,
• an opportunity to capitalize on what the train station can offer,
• well positioned for small office space, business meetings and working opportunities.

However the words grubby, shabby and scruffy have also emerged  and people cite the lack of cleanliness, the need to be more focused on pedestrians, and the need for … a cinema.

The key recommendations of the respondents are:

•  keep in mind the future aspect of major developments
• diversify the daytime economy
• embrace appropriate developments
• regular cleaning
• open-up the entrance/exit to the station (on Lavender Hill)

The consultants think tall buildings are inevitable for Clapham Junction

In a response to the question regarding the definition of “appropriate developments” as a key recommendation, the Mosaic consultants first said that within the next 10 years, Clapham Junction will be completely different and that the town centre needs a mixed of developments, including tall buildings.

As they confirmed that they are aware of the overwhelming opposition to the scheme of skyscrapers at the station proposed  in 2008-2009, I was surprised to hear that. Apparently they do not have the same understanding of appropriate development as the thousand people who wrote to the Council 4 years ago.

First of all, it is less than obvious that Clapham Junction will be drastically different in 2023 than what it is in 2013. I was already here in 2003 and the major visual changes in the town centre within the past 10 years have been the exemplar scheme (new paving) and the opening of Brighton Yard entrance for the station, both happening within the last 4 years.

Second, all urban developers will confirm that you do not need skyscrapers to achieve appropriate redevelopments. As we said many times, there are other ways of redeveloping the station with new facilities, while preserving and enhancing the area. Basel station ins Switzerland, with similar characteristics, is a striking example of a considerate and efficient redevelopment

With the station at its heart, operating as a bridge between a preserved side with historical buildings (the Clapham Grand, Arding&Hobbs, The Falcon, Brighton Yard and the former parcel building, the TA entrance, …) and a more modern and tall one (Grant road, Winstanley), any transformation of Clapham Junction station should consider this aspect.

We need a global vision for the town centre

Elizabeth James, from the Battersea Art Centre, addressed the visioning project with some very interesting thoughts. She says:

“Appoint an internationally renowned architect for the master plan to give our regeneration the profile and positioning it merits.  A re-imagining of this corner of Battersea centred on a station design.  John McAslan & Partners have transformed Kings Cross station while respecting its heritage features.“

Her idea of increasing the retail space is actually exactly what they did in Basel in our example above. While some concepts might be more difficult to work on (“Re-orient the town centre access to make better use of the Arding & Hobbs building as a sightline on arrival“) the idea of a piazza has often been discussed, with the front of Asda (including the car park) has been seen as the ideal location (it might be a very good idea to involve Asda within the discussion!). This is actually reflected in the long term vision of the borough planners masterpiece for Clapham Junction (currently under discussion, see HERE):

CJ spatial strategy – Site Specific Allocation Document

Recommendations and branding

Developing Clapham Junction as a business hub that will also increase the daytime retail and shopping experience? De-clustering the entrance of Clapham Junction station on St John’s Hill and moving up the flower shop? Improving the signage and the link with the Battersea Art Centre as the destination to sustain independent creative retailers? Those are some of the ideas discussed at last week’s workshop organised by the consulting team.

In a search for branding, the Mosaic Partnership is suggesting a motto such as “The welcome mat”, “Make your connection” or “Your platform to” associated with the name “The Junction” or just “Clapham Junction”.

Watch our pages for more information on their findings and final recommendations for Clapham Junction Town Centre.

Filed under: Clapham Junction

Author: Cyril Richert

Lidl (Clapham Junction/141 Falcon Road) is currently currently working on the construction of a small single-storey extension along the south-west elevation of the foodstore building to create ancillary warehouse space.

Planning permission 2012/3044 was granted last October.We contacted Lou Harris, the site manager, this morning and he told us that it aims at providing a facility for a small bakery, with “fresh bread everyday“.

The new extension (in red on the image above) will match the existing building material.

The construction should happen during normal working hours and they plan to finish mid-September 2013.

Filed under: Clapham Junction