Planning applications

Protecting the Gardens today means scrutiny of planning applications as much as planting plans and development is coming or threatened all round the Gardens.

Update: 12/02/2012

The houses going up on the old car park in Wakefield Street are now nearing completion. The majority of comments from Members have been broadly favourable as to their impact on the Gardens.

Coram’s new East building, which got approval last year, is still on hold. We understand that the charity has given priority to a new entrance building (off Brunswick Square) to make the site more accessible, before proceeding with this one. Nevertheless we expect demolition of the old buildings, including the ‘swimming pool’ building and Gregory House, to go ahead in the near future.

Passion Group’s development on the old Westminster Kingsway College site, at the Eastern end of the Gardens, is due to start building sometime in the spring. The approved plans were developed in consultation with local groups including FoSGG following the refusal on appeal of the former application. The new development will have about 50 flats in two separate buildings, closely following the footprint of the original plans approved with the new college building, and include a number of housing association units, of which several are family-sized.

The dairy site has taken up a lot of your committee’s time in the last 18 months. An application to build mixed use building in five separate blocks (of which the three central ones were unacceptably tall, massive and bulky) was turned down by Camden in the summer. The good news: since then the developers have worked with us and other local representatives to develop new plans, and an application has now been submitted to Camden planners for one commercial-use building and private housing. The design is much more appropriate to the setting and will cause less disruption to the trees in the Gardens. The bad news: simultaneously, an appeal has been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate against the refusal of permission for the previous plans. We are seeking assurances that this appeal will be withdrawn if the new plans are given the green light.

Update: 26/09/2010

There continues to be a great deal of planning activity around the Gardens in recent months.

The application to build 31 affordable flats, plus student accommodation for over 100 students, on the old Westminster Kingsway site (at the eastern end of the Gardens) was turned down by Camden's Development Control Committee on 1st October 2009, following strong objections from FoSGG, local residents and councillors. Passion Group, the developers, appealed the decision, and the appeal was heard at a public enquiry at the end of March this year. The Inspectors' decision, published over the summer, dismissed the appeal on a number of grounds, including that the building of a commercial student residence of that size was inappropriate to the neighbourhood and to the Gardens. Clearly the site needs to be built on, and we await with interest a new proposal. However, the Inspector's comments are heartening in that they showed that the planning inspectorate is capable of sensitivity to the special character of the Gardens.

A new application to replace the proposed town houses next to the Handel Street gates (which had also been turned down by Camden and by the planning inspector) was submitted and finally approved earlier this year. The revised plans take account of objections made by FoSGG and others, reducing the number of houses from four to three and materially lowering their overall height, as well as reducing the intrusiveness of "overlooking" of the Gardens. Thanks to all who submitted comments supporting our position on the original application.

A new application to build several houses, and a mixed-use facility including an arts club with bar and restaurant and 37 short-stay guest rooms was submitted for the old "dairy site" in the spring. FoSGG had a number of strong objections to the plans, as did local residents and others. The application has now been withdrawn; we understand that new plans will be submitted before the end of the year.

To the south, the Coram Family site has a new application registered for their new East Building. This would replace the building for which planning approval was given nearly three years ago. As in the previous application, it will mean losing the old Victorian "swimming pool" and mortuary buildings, but this seems inevitable as permission for their demolition is already granted. Coram consulted extensively with FoSGG about the new proposals, and your committee feels that the plans are more sensitive and less oppressive to the eastern end of the Gardens than the originally-approved building. Provided there have been no material amendments to the plans we saw in the early summer, we will be supporting the new application.

We welcome comments from our members and other interested local parties on these and forthcoming applications - it helps lighten the load a little.

Update: 29/12/2009

There has been a great deal of planning activity around the Gardens in recent months.

The good news is that the application to build 31 affordable flats, plus student accommodation for over 100 students, on the old Westminster Kingsway site (at the eastern end of the Gardens) was turned down by Camden's Development Control Committee on 1st October 2009, following strong objections from FoSGG, local residents and councillors. We are now anxious to know whether the developers will take this to appeal, or revise their plans.

The proposed town houses next to the Handel Street gates were also turned down by Camden and by the planning inspector.

New proposals for the old dairy site are being developed. An early view of the plans indicates that these may be more acceptable than the application submitted several years ago, and are interesting in local terms because a mixed-use site is proposed. But we need to see much more detailed plans and information as to likely use before being able to form a view.

To the south, we are still awaiting news on whether the Coram Family Campus will pursue their plans, approved 3 years ago (and which we opposed at the time). We are hoping that they will come back with revised ideas for a more modest development, more in keeping with the site.

Update: 20/11/2008

Developers have been accused of “vandalism” for chopping down trees in a Bloomsbury conservation area without waiting for the green light from the Town Hall. The Friends were involved in trying to protect the trees but their efforts were in vain. For the full story visit the Camden New Journal website (opens in a new window).

Update: 2007

The biggest current threat is replacement of the human-scale Coram Family buildings on the south side with a long office block, many storeys high.  Camden Council gave planning permission in October 2006 with the proviso that building must start within three years. The Friends have consistently argued that the plans will damage the Gardens and continue to urge the Coram Family to modify the design.

To the east, rebuilding of Kingsway College will begin shortly, with the part of the site nearest to the Gardens being used for flats. As with the Coram development the Friends’ fear is that the new buildings will overpower the Gardens and make them a less enjoyable amenity for local people.

Finally, to the north, the site used by Express Dairies is also awaiting development. The Friends have challenged one inappropriate application and will continue to scrutinise all development proposals around the Gardens.