Press Coverage
Camden New Journal. 12th November 2015. "Designs on new canalside homes".
New plans to build 50 homes by Regent's Canal have been unveiled this week by social housing group One Housing.
The site, on the corner of Georgina Street, is known as Bangor Wharf and has been used an electricity company's depot and service area.
Now One Housing has commissioned TM architects to design a project for a mix of offices, affordable homes and private houses for sale. Plans revealed so far propose a three-storey building and a seven-storey building and a landscaped courtyard.
It was originally a refuse store used by St Pancras parish council in the 1800s and included stables. By the 1930s, it had become a wharf for a plaster of paris manufacturer called Stringfield and Blyth. In recent times French electric company EDF used the site as a depot.
A spokesman for the group said the plans were at an early stage and they were hosting exhibitions this week on the half-acre site to gauge reactions to the project. They added they hoped to submit a planning application to Camden Council in the coming weeks.
The spokesman said the group would look to have as many affordable homes on the site as they could but no plans were confirmed, nor had they decided the size of each property in terms of bedrooms. They added: "This site is identified within Camden Council's Local Development Framework and is in need of regeneration. We hope to provide urgently needed affordable homes for Camden, funded by private homes and space for businesses."
But Ian Shacklock, chairman of conservation group the Friends of Regent's Canal, has urged the developers to consider a scheme with greater flexibility to allow the site to be used for canal freight as well as housing. He said: "This is a prime site that could act as a waterways and road interchange and if the buildings are used exclusively for housing then this would drive a massive nail into the coffin of environmentally friendly transport.
"I have yet to see any of the details of this proposal but at this early stage I am urging the council to consider the opportunities for exploiting this waterside location for the benefit of the canal. It would be a terrible shame if the ground floor of this highly practical site were to be sacrificed for unimaginative housing or retail purposes."
To comment on the scheme, go to www.onehousingbangorwharf.co.uk
Camden New Journal. 10th March 2016. "Vision for wharf site not future proof"
"Housing association's plan for new homes lacks adequate access to canal say campaign group"
A canalside site built for freight use has been earmarked for a new housing estate - prompting campaigners to warn that the designs are ignoring the land's traditional use.
Chalk Farm-based housing association One Housing have submitted plans to build a six-storey tower on Bangor Wharf, Camden Town, for a mix of private and affordable housing.
Campaign group Friends of Regent's Canal say the scheme should include better access to the water's edge, as part of a ground floor commercial space already planned.
They say with canal use soaring and the need to get heavy goods vehicles off roads, buildnig such a facility would "future proof" the design.
The project includes 46 new homes, of which 33 will be sold privately, with nine socially rented and four rented with the tenants contributing to a mortgage scheme that means they will eventually own the property outright.
Friends of Regent's Canal chairman Ian Shacklock said that Bangor Wharf was one of a handful of sites left in London's canal network to be redeveloped and the designs should reflect the changing use of the canal, allowing freight to be loaded and unloaded once more as ther cit switches away from road transport.
"We are losing these access points at a drastic rate," he said. "Quaysides are being lost all the time. We are not saying there should be a fully blown warehouse or depot, but there is nothing in the plan to recognise the importance of this site or what it could be used for in the future."
He added that while the block itself was too larger and would overshadow the canal, wrecking historic views, One Housing could still change the ground floor.
"What is being proposed on the ground floor will be suuited to an office," he added. "We want them to look at how they could make the ground floor relevant to the resource of the canal. Instead they are just plonking a commercial space on there. In five year's time we are likely to have a real demand for waterborne-freight. If they build this as it is now, it will cut out the option of using the wharf for its original purpose again."
The canal, built in 1816, was used for freight and for many years Bangor Wharf had brought coal and other fuels into the area. In 1914 it was taken on by St Pancras Borough Council and was used for removing rubbish. It suffered bomb damage during the war, and in the 1960s the London Electricity Board used the site as a depot and for workshops. More recently, French energy providers EDF owned the land.
Mr Shacklock also criticised the aesthetics of the building. He said, "It is all wrong - there is just 1.5 metres gap from the building to the water's edge, and this cuts down access.
"They are also talking about it as a publicly accessible 'precinct'. It will be absolutely deserted. The building is too high - at the moment, as you come round the corner on the canal, it really opens up. Instead there will be a huge, looming block."
A One Housing spokesman said: "This proposal could bring a brownfield site into new use as much-needed housing. We are still in discussion with planners regarding the scheme"
Waterways World. April 2016. "Another wharf threatened on the Regent's Canal".
The London waterway pressure group Friends of Regent's Canal is challenging proposals for a new housing development scheme that would remove the old Bangor Wharf in Camden.
For some years canal campaigners have earmarked the site near St Pancras Way (the A502 main road) as a prime site for revival of water transport, since it forms a convenient interchange with a side road.
Now Camden Council and social housing developer 'One Housing' have submitted proposals that include demolishing existing buildings and erecting affordable housing, a shaded courtyard and office space - but no mooring spaces, loading bays or other facilities for boats.
The Friends spokesman, Ian Shackleton, said "Nearby residents feel the buildings will be too bulky, destroy the character of the conservation area and 'close in' the canal. Boaters are unhappy because London's Blue Ribbon policies have not been enforced and this is a missed opportunity for canal carrying and for facilities such as water points and fuel supplies."
Section 7.26 of the London Mayor's 'Blue Ribbon Network' waterways policy seeks to increase the use of waterways for freight and protect wharves.
A spokesperson for One Housing said a 'duck-friendly' barrier, erected in the old loading bay some years ago to encourage wildlife, would be removed during construction but reinstated afterwards. However, boats would not be permitted back.
Camden New Journal. 17th March 2016. "Wharf plan would put the canal in the shade"
ONE Housing's plans to build offices and 46 flats (only 13 affordable) on Bangor Wharf on the Regent's Canal not only means the loss of this rare historic wharf for sustainable transport (New Journal, March 10) but also sounds the death knell for a weeping willow tree on the site next to Gray's Inn Bridge and opposite Constitution pub.
This is despite appraisals, submitted in One Housing's planning application, listing the willow as Category B (retention desirable) and Category 1 (the highest) for bat habitat. As at Camden Lock, willows next to bridge abutments contribute to the character of Regent's Canal Conservation Area. For the developers, this specimen is simply in the way, as was the much loved bird nesting area in front of the wharf, a site prolific with coots, moorhens, mallards and Canada geese; this was stripped away.
The proposed blocks will reach five- and six-storeys high, the latter being twice the height of a neighbouring Victorian warehouse and double that of the locally listed terraced houses behind on Royal College Street.
They will dominate and sadly shade what is currently an open and sunny section of the canal (between Gray's Inn and College Street bridges), likewise a nature reserve on the grassy bank beside the towpath. It is no wonder that, nearly two weeks after submitting the application to Camden Council, One Housing has left residents waiting for a "missing" sunlight and daylight report. This is a development that benefits a few to the detriment of tens of thousands of Londoners, visitors and boat-users who enjoy the canal every week.
FIONA RUSSELL
Reachview Close, NW1
Camden New Journal. 17th March 2016. "Bangor Wharf on the canal should be 'future proofed' and not lost to housing"
DAN Carrier's report (Vision for wharf site not 'future proof', Property News, March 10) is timely and should be read in a national context, certainly a London context.
The site in question is Camden Town's historic Bangor Wharf (not Butler's as in the caption).
Lord Adonis, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, has made abundantly clear the need for improved transport infrastructure, particularly in the light of the rapidly increasing population.
Our old canals have a part to play in the future movement of freight, relieving roads and railways like coastal shipping.
The last chief executive of British Waterways was a property man and there were widely-held fears he was undertaking large-scale development of land each side of the Regent's Canal and a beautiful national resource would be lost.
The new chief executive of the Canal & River Trust is a railway man, so one would hope he understands the need for better movement of freight by all modes of transport.
It is clear Ian Shacklock, chair of the Friends of Regent's Canal, understands the wider context and one trusts C&RT does too. One Housing and Camden Council should take heed of Mr Shacklock's counsel.
The canals can help relieve the capital's congestion and it is short-sighted to lose another of the few remaining wharfage sites. In the 1960s, one plan saw the then little-used Regent's Canal as an urban motorway! Let's learn from that short-sightedness.
Housing should only be built on canal-side industrial sites with careful thought and sites with good road access like Bangor Wharf should afford future use for freight. Nearby Lawford's Wharf changed use from industrial to housing 15 years ago. Bangor Wharf should not have the same fate.
One Housing's current designs are also out of scale in relation to the size of other buildings in the area.
Immediately alongside part of the site, London Wildlife Trust has nurtured a breeding area for wildlife.
While housing should be part of a mixed use development at Bangor Wharf, the intelligent approach is a completely new design, one that "future proofs" the wharf site. One Housing's planning application, in its current form, must be refused.
LESTER MAY, Reachview Close, NW1
Camden New Journal. 17th March 2017. "Wharf development objectors call for canals to be used for freight"
One Housing wants permission to build new housing complex next to Regent's Canal
By Dan Carrier
Artist's impression of how the new housing blocks at Bangor Wharf could look
HOPES of revitalising canals in Camden Town for transport and freight will be punctured if a wharf site is turned into a new housing complex, campaigners have warned.
The Friends of Regent's Canal group are urging the Town Hall to reject proposals to turn a warehouse at Bangor Wharf in Georgiana Street into a new 40-home development, which they say will make the dock inaccessible.
The wharf was used for decades for a variety of freight and cargo, and objectors believe north London's famous waterway should be put back into use to reduce the number of heavy lorries on the roads.
One Housing wants permission to demolish the warehouse and an electricity power station to make room for two new blocks on the site, including one six storeys high. Of the 40 homes, six will be rated as "affordable housing". It is the second run at winning planning permission after the council rejected an initial application, partly due to the lack of infrastructure for canal users.
One Housing is appealing that decision and submitting an alternative design. Friends of Regent's Canal chairman Ian Shacklock told the New Journal the latest designs failed to tackle issues raised from the last attempt.
"I fail to see how anybody can describe this revised plan as an improvement on the last one," he said. "Once again the developers are trying to shoehorn an oversized ugly block into a purpose-built access point that could - and should - be used for road-to-water transfers. I hope the council rejects this swiftly before we all incur pointless costs. If the developers are not interested in helping to revive the canal then I think they should exercise their vandalism elsewhere. "
He added: "Clearly the business leaders and planners of today are more interested in short-term solutions than in what they are leaving behind for future generations. They are allowing or encouraging HGVs to saturate our city streets while the purpose-built waterways remain idle."
A spokesman for One Housing said: "We have listened to local people and worked with the council to develop plans that will benefit the community. This brownfield scheme will open up the canal side to the public and provide space for local businesses to grow while creating much-needed housing in the borough. We have also listened to canal users and our plans include moorings for barges as well as a water tap for their use."
Camden New Journal. 17th March 2017. "LETTER: Revised One Housing plan for canalside must be rejected"
A YEAR has passed since you reported on the planning application for housing at Bangor Wharf, by the Regent's Canal.
It was rejected with 18 points for developer One Housing to note.
Residents adjacent to the site recently received a glossy leaflet from One Housing concerning its revised planning application 2017/1230/P.
The new plans, not very different from last year's, are incomplete. It must be hoped that once they are lodged properly, the deadline for objections will be extended beyond March 29.
The scale of the buildings proposed is quite out of keeping with the immediate area. Two storeys higher than any nearby buildings, yet hardly set back from the canal, the planned edifices are of little merit and will contribute to a corridor of shadow along the canal.
Pity the residents of the Georgian terrace housing at 118-134 Royal College Street whose back windows would be so close to the development.
One Housing ignores Camden's wish to "conserve and enhance the existing character of the canal" and its intention that "designs for new buildings. should respect the character and appearance of the local area and neighbourhood'.
One Housing also makes much of creating a publicly accessible space in and around the development. There is no such need. The towpath and the canal itself are the principal amenity.
We don't deny the need for housing or, indeed, for commercial space affording employment. We do say that six storeys is far too high.
Only a developer could claim the proposals are an improvement on the first application and they will visually improve the area and enhance the canal!
It's a pity, though, that further industrial use is not being considered for this particular site, its being so used for a century and more.
London's population increases apace, the one-lane Royal College Street is often one long traffic jam, and yet we all expect more and timely home deliveries of online purchases. Thought must be given to future commercial use of the canals and space reserved for canalside warehousing.
This revised application must be rejected.
PENNY GAMEZ & LESTER MAY
Reachview Close, NW1