Covent Garden London
The heart of London's West End
Planning Report
The Planning & Licensing Sub-committee met 20 times in the past year, and considered over 420 applications. The number of applications is indicative of the enormous development pressure the area is under, especially during a period of relatively good economic conditions.
The committee made detailed comments on just over half of all the applications made affecting Covent Garden; the effect our comments achieve varies, but unquestionably both councils, Camden & Westminster, are able to be influenced by our representations, especially with regard to any conditions that we consider should be attached to any planning approvals. Our influence can be gauged by the number of developers and their agents who wish to present their proposals to the CGCA's Planning sub-committee. During the year we had 9 such presentations. We can not always agree to such presentations, as the time they take up is considerable, but generally we do ask or agree to those that concern large schemes. The sub-committee meetings are open to the public and generally take place at 6.30pm on every other Monday in the CGCA's offices.
During the year we have given evidence at two public enquiries, both by written evidence and in person; we have sent three deputations to Camden and one to Westminster. Westminster refused to hear our deputation. We have attended 6 liquor licensing hearings and 2 music and dance hearings and have made written observations on many more. Our endless protestations that the flood of late-night licences is out of control and causing major damage to the amenities in the area, particularly to residents, has had some effect, but while both local authorities continue to grant permission for more restaurants and bars (A3 use class), the limited controls that can be affected by the licensing laws is marginal.
However, recent High Court cases brought by residents in Soho are very encouraging and the possibility of local authorities, rather than the Magistrates Courts, having the power to grant liquor licences may offer some small solace.
Mark Twain's advice to "buy land, they don't make any more of it" is particularly appropriate to Covent Garden. Year in year out property prices go through the roof and in their train come greater and greedier speculative development schemes, which cumulatively are destroying all the special quality that makes up the neighbourhood. The local authorities either feign their powerlessness to control this commercial pressure or are active participants in the process.
The year began where it left off with Camden reconsidering a further scheme by Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame) for the St Paul's Hospital site. Despite being designated as a housing site in Camden's Statutory Plan (the Unitary Development Plan UDP - more later) and being surrounded by housing, Camden agreed to the 30,000 sq ft building to be redeveloped into a 65,000 sq ft private music and entertainment complex under the title of The Hospital Project. The politicians gave way because Allen offered to provide offsite 19 affordable dwellings which will not be for local people and will be built at the cost of the tax payer. Residents in Betterton Street endeavoured to get the matter reversed by the Courts as the decision by Camden was extremely suspect, but due to the inability of obtaining legal aid the legal action had to be abandoned.
One condition of the Hospital Project's planning permission was that they have to soundproof all the windows of neighbouring residential properties; this will involve approaching around 100 flats in Short's Gardens, Endell Street and Betterton Street. Some might say Camden politicians and officers would have been more gainfully employed stopping the noisy interloper in the first place, rather than trying to limit the noise it is likely to cause. The building work is due to commence this summer and last until mid 2002.
Down the road, in fact in Earlham Street, Schroders Pension Fund, the new owners of the Seven Dials Warehouse, have been busy preparing detailed proposals to redevelop behind the facade the whole building for a new restaurant and offices, with the Community Centre moving to new and better facilities but at a higher level. The huge fire that engulfed the building last September also burnt out no. 25 Shelton Street, recently acquired by Allied London. Both developers will shortly be submitting major development schemes.
Schroder's ambitions are clearly related to the huge price they paid for the 7 Dials Warehouse. Originally purchased by the GLC from Leppard & Smith (paper manufacturers) in the 1970's for just over £100,000 the GLC sold on to Goods & Chattles for circa £300,000 who in turn sold on to Covent Garden Estates for about £8 million, who passed it on for around £23 million. Unfortunately not just a game of bagatelle as it is the area that has to pick up the pieces and has to accommodate the huge rent increases and consequential loss of a mix of small and various different businesses and activities.
The Royal Opera House opened its doors at the beginning of the year. While the new building received mixed press coverage, the return of the opera and ballet companies was welcome. As predicted by the CGCA, the retention and restoration of part of the Floral Hall that the ROH did retain is the most special public part of the development, but sadly the ROH has not yet found themselves able to acknowledge the fact that it was largely due to the CGCA's long fought campaign that any of the Floral Hall was kept at all.
A most welcome new development, shortly to occur in Floral Street and Long Acre, is the construction of new premises for the Royal Ballet School Upper House, that will be moving from Barons Court to Floral Street by 2003. The site, owned by the ROH Trust (a joint company controlled 50% by the Arts Council of England) was sold to NFU Mutual for around £20 million in the spring, who propose to build a large retail unit at ground and basement level and give a long lease (at a considerable rent) to the Ballet School for the upper parts. Despite receiving an acquisition grant of £2.5 million from the Arts Council in 1992, the ROH purchased the property for only £235,000. It is more than sad that the Ballet School has had to find over £15m to come to Covent Garden and will not in the end have the security of a freehold interest. Moreover, its facilities are having to be cramped onto the site due to the large commercial content at street level. The Department for Education and Employment recently awarded a £700,000 grant to help the School relocate. The money the ROH received has presumably gone to cover some of the losses the Board had incurred during the last decade of financial mismanagement.
Westminster City Council have been hot on the tails of Camden with regard to ignoring their Unitary Development Plan; indeed some might say, with even more success. Despite the ink still being wet on the newly strengthened policies to protect community and educational uses, Westminster agreed to the redevelopment of St Martins School of Art educational building (27-29 Long Acre) being redeveloped into 4 floors (21,500 sq ft) of retail and of luxury housing. This 30,000 sq ft development deprives the Westminster part of Covent Garden of it's only adult educational facility and there is not even a sop of an affordable home or community gain to be seen anywhere (except some new york stone paving in Banbury Court). In the past few years Westminster has agreed to the loss of the Health Centre in Odhams Walk (to Monopro for retail use, net capital gain to Monopro £10m+), refused to sell its own property in Drury Lane to a community-led bid including St Clement Danes Primary School (who are desperate for more space), preferring a private office developer, closed the Children's Library in Drury Lane, closed the public toilets in Charing Cross Road and have agreed to private housing development without ever requiring any affordable housing in the area as a quid quo pro. Quite a record, especially in the context of their Unitary Development Plans protestation that the council aims to protect and enhance the living community and vitality of the area.
A massive new retail scheme (21,000 sq ft) was given approval to Scottish Life by Westminster that envisages the conversion of Cubitt's Yard to a retail complex and extension to the Rock Garden night-club. The CGCA argued that the scheme should only get approval on condition that all the tables, chairs and plethora of junk is removed from the arcade under Bedford Chambers so that it could once again be able to be used as a public right of way. Westminster Councillors, on the lazy advise of their officers, ducked the issue and granted consent without requiring the removal of the Rock Garden's tables and chairs that completely obstruct all movement on the corner of James Street.
Other large schemes that will commence during the course of the coming year are the redevelopment of Tavistock Street through to Exeter Street (offices and private flats), Southampton Street through to Exeter Street (offices and restaurants), and Kean Street (private flats whereas before it was the London Library - educational use). This latter scheme will, thankfully, have some space made available to St Clement Danes School - but in the basement!
The development of Holborn Town Hall for offices is likely to commence, as well as the City Literary Institute's premises in Stukeley Street (for private housing) and their new educational premises in Keeley Street. The year saw the opening of three huge new hotels in or just on the boundary of the neighbourhood. In Great Queen Street the Kingsway Hall Hotel (170 beds) opened; on the corner of Southampton Row a 200 bed hotel opened its doors; and in St Martins Lane the 200 room St Martins Hotel opened. Traffic inevitably increased. In the pipeline, three buildings in the Kingsway and Southhampton Row area are due to be converted into hotels with a total of over 1000 beds. The building of Aviation House for offices and a new Sainsbury's supermarket is due to be completed next year and then Newton Street, a residential street that serves St Joseph's Primary School, will experience all the additional traffic that will be servicing the 20,000 sq ft supermarket and 120,000 sq ft office block.
Jim Monahan
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