Author: Peter Deakins

I would like to put forward a number of thoughts as a possible basis for any discussion that there may be about design inclusions for projects at Clapham Junction.

At ‘The Junction’ there are quite a number of sites many of which are of similar importance to each other, and none should be allowed to appear to be more important than it really is. Significant properties belong to PCS; Shop-Stop; the Windsor Castle Pub; Network Rail; the land that Asda, Boots, Lidl, etc. are collectively situated upon; and – by no means least – all of the different property ownerships North of the Station. I believe that each of their interests, and value to the greater Community, must all ‘matter’ equally.

There are also many other ownerships that provide much, if not most, of the vitality of the whole area including all of the other businesses that operate on both the south-side of the Station along St John’s Road and St John’s Hill, as well as those along Falcon Road to the north.

I relation to individual properties and schemes for them, I as an architect personally believe that there should be far, far more to architecture than merely ‘how any individual building looks’. However, by no means all of my colleagues agree with me on this, and one can see from what has already happened around the Station that looks can matter a great deal.

Firstly perhaps, ease-of-access and circulation must be of paramount importance in any Town Centre area. This is so for pedestrians most particularly, far outweighing the convenience of those who are ‘merely passing through’. This must be so even though these latter may be persuaded to eventually ‘come-back’ by their ‘visual discovery’ of the area that they may be ‘going by’.

Activities that can be incorporated and how they relate to each other and interact to add to the urbanity of any locality must also matter a great deal, whether such activities be (for instance) offices; shops; places of public-meeting; centres for education; workshops and factories; or the most important aspects of transport facilities as highlighted by ‘getting-on-and-off positions’ for general users of the Town Centre or, perhaps less importantly, as storage as illustrated by provisions for car-parking, or as stand-by areas for off-peak buses and trains. Importantly too, what is to be the role of the cyclist in all of this?

Residential properties can also add greatly to the vitality and convenience of the Centre but the restrictions that the naturally higher densities that such sites impose, require particularly thoughtful consideration whilst attempting to sort out design conclusions. For instance, do individual properties require space for outdoor living? What happens to the needs of children? Can there be any facilities for community life? What is an acceptable level of visual intrusion or of overlooking?

‘Green Issues’ and Global Warming generally are clearly extremely important so that ways that building forms are developed must matter considerably.

I expect that a number of other issues could be added to these, but I believe that the above considerations could make a useful basis for conclusions that could form a workable ‘Design Brief’.

Peter Deakins – May 2013

Pp PDA Partnership – London
www.deakins.co.uk

Author: Cyril Richert

As I stumbled recently on an old article (last year on the Council’s website) about the revamp of Clapham Junction with the Council’s “Exemplar Scheme” I thought it was time to give a little update.

The exemplar scheme is the major work on roads and pavements that started 3 years ago and included the revamp of the crossing at the Junction.

The first stage of Clapham Junction’s street improvement project was completed in 2012 leaving behind a more attractive and pedestrian friendly area around the junction.

The St John’s Hill / Lavender Hill junction has been completely remodelled, pavements widened, a new diagonal pedestrian crossing installed and unnecessary street clutter taken away.

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

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

Now the work is concentrating on St John’s Road. It started in April and is meant to stay for 30-34 weeks (~28 weeks for the footpath and ~6 weeks for the carriage works). The first phase was in front of Debenhams and TK-Maxx and now they are moving along the street to change the pavements.

The road treatment will be similar to the junction between Eccles, Lavender Sweep and Lavender Hill roads for the 2 segments in front of the public spaces ending Aliwal Road and Eckstein Road: no curve and small pavements similar to the larger ones used on the footpath.

At the end of the refurbishment, St John’s Road is to become the first 20mph zone in Clapham Junction.

At the same time, they are also working on Falcon Road in front of the new hotel where a (apparently already popular) café has opened. The will finish the paving zone joining the crossing between Falcon Road and Mossbury Road and then Mossbury Road/Lavender Hill.

There are further plans for pavement on Mossbury Road and further St John’s Hill but not definite time-line nor funding that we are aware of.

Author: Cyril Richert

Wandsworth Planning Application committee has refused, on Thursday 11th April 2013, the proposal to extend and refurbished the Mosque in Falcon Road.

By 8 votes to 1 (Cllr Billi Randall who thought that the principle of redevelopment was more or less agreed in 2010) following a successful motion to refuse, the planning permission 2012/3747 for the Islamic Centre, 75 Falcon Road was refused on the following grounds:

1. The proposed extensions by virtue of their increased size and siting would introduce unacceptable bulk to the property and the streetscene of the location to the detriment of their visual amenity. As such, the proposal is considered contrary to Policy IS3 of the Wandsworth Core Strategy 2010 and Policy DMS1 of the Wandsworth DMPD 2012.
2. The proposal would result in the unacceptable intensification of an already intensively used site, resulting in a harmful increase in noise levels and general disturbance when accessing and leaving the facility during peak times, while failing to demonstrate that the transport impacts of the development could be managed satisfactorily without resulting in an unacceptable impact on the local highway network. As such, the proposal is considered contrary to Policies DMS1 and DMT1 of the Wandsworth DMPD 2012.

The decision goes against the recommendation of the officers that we reported at the bottom of our previous article: Proposal to refurbish and extend the Mosque in Falcon Road.

It follows the main reasons (1. Scale and Design) for objection raised by the Clapham Junction Action Group.

Following a meeting that we attended a few weeks ago with local Councillors and people from the Mosque, it was said that in case of refusal, they would pursue with the granted application that they have from 2010 (ref: 2010/4850).

However, conditions apply, including that work shall begin with 3 years from the date of this permission, i.e. 18 February 2011. The money raised for the plan is currently only covering half of the cost (estimated to be about £300k) and time is running out. A new application will have to be submitted if nothing moves by 2014.

See below a drawing of the 2010/4850 proposal that was approved in February 2011.