November 4, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
Food for thought
Found this nice little blog that offers musings about the relationship between transport and planning. It has this to say about Walthamstow:
Walthamstow is a suburb in North East London. Since it is the terminus of the Victoria Line and has suburban rail servcies too is is one of the most accessibe places in London. However most of it was developed in the late nineteenth century with mostly two storey buildings. The plan was to make Walthamstow a reception area for higher density to capitalise on its accessibility but this was met with a storm of protest against high rise developemnts. Earlier developemnts in the East End had imposed tower blocks which were not only very unpopular but had also become very unsafe. They held an enquiry by design which showed that mansion blocks of 5 to 8 storeys with internal courtyards, and terraces with more than 2 storeys woudl be acceptable and increase net resiential density. They also developed a plan to rebuild the existing one storey shopping mall into a 5 to 7 storey building with retail on ground floor. They also “increased permeability” of the centre to create easy walk to station. In a survey this design was preferred by 60% of the respondents. When built out they will have added 2,438 new households and also reduced emissions of CO2 by 4,654 tonnes.
Opposition to development is based on the impact that people have experienced. Development has usually made the place worse. The aim now is to produce developments that enhance the quality of people’s lives.
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Posted by Stephen Rees
November 6, 2008 @ 12:21 am
Glad you found your way to my blog. To be clear, I was simply reporting what the CEO of the Prince’s Trust was telling us about their project in Walthamstow Central.
As it happens, I was born and raised in East Ham and up until last year my Mum lived in Loughton. So I feel some affinity for the area still
Posted by Michael
November 8, 2008 @ 11:53 am
Thanks for popping by, Stephen. As you can see, we’re all still very much thinking about the relationship between planning and quality of life!