The brochure about the plans for redeveloping New Covent Garden Market is available online here.
De Lieto's bakery opens in its new location is Island Place on Monday (wish it would return to South Lambeth Road)
There's a new book about the history of Vauxhall.
a hyperlocal blog
I went to see the exhibition this afternoon. This was initial presentation for planning application only (this is more about the mass volume of the buildings and landscape layout rather than finalised designs for buildings)
ReplyDeleteSome comments - I was bit disappointed with the initial proposal: all the public areas are located in the Vauxhall end only. There will be blocks of flats/offices/shops developed next to the Vauxhall roundabout and Nine Elms towers and this will stretch to the area near Simsbury’s only. So far so good. Unfortunately the rest is not as rosy:
The rest of the market (where the warehouses are at the moment) will be not available to general public. So no change with the current situation really. Also, there was no proposal of corridor thru the market - the only access to the river will be around US embassy or the Battersea. Not a great progress.
There were no shops/housing proposed at the boundaries of the market - I guess this will end up with the 4 meters high wall again (maybe bit fancier that the existing one, but still the wall)
Maybe the reason for this strange layout is that Market is not willing to fund extension of the Northern Line. Most of the developers in this area are pushed to contribute to this scheme as far as I know. Locating the public space near the existing hub will save them lot of money. The warehouse part of the market operates in the early morning hours where tube is not running.
Also, there will be no development on Lambeth stretch of the NCG and all proposals are related to the Wandsworth borough only. Please check the maps. The reason for this is unknown ;)
The plans will be handled to the council in 18 months.
There was no developer selected so far and no funding was secured.
I went to see the exhibit as well, and found it a bit vague really - you'll learn just as much from the brochure. I suppose not much can be expected for a plan that doesn't get underway until 2011 or so. Wish it were sooner, despite some quibbles I'm anxious to see these renewal plans for the area come to fruition (pun?).
ReplyDeleteThe claim that the market would have to sell some of its land to developers in able to fund the project surprised me. A market is, after all, a commercial enterprise and ought to be financially viable in its own right. Perhaps the fact that it's owned by a statutory corporation, and therefore not really answerable to anyone for its performance, is a contributing factor. Its board members seem to have spent their careers largely in the public sector (and none ever had a job related to the food industry). All that said, the market does publish accounts, so I'm having a browse.
I think it's necessarily vague at this stage but on the whole I really liked their plans. I was a bit dismayed to find that they don't expect to complete the work before 2019!
ReplyDeleteI imagine that the major obstacle will be permission for yet another load of residential buildings without any additional transport infrastructure.
On which topic... I hadn't realised that the "planned" (mooted would be a better word) site of the new Nine Elms underground station is Sainsburys. Will it ever happen? Doubtful.
From a local-living point of view I'm keen to see something happen too. Pretty much anything would beat the current ambience up there.
ReplyDeleteFrom a house-price perspective I have no idea if a) prices go down because there's a glut of housing b) prices go up because of the new facilities that new residents bring or c) they just stay the same. I don't imagine its shortage of supply that stops people flocking to the area. Does anyone have experience of any similar developments?