110 Walm Lane, Willesden Green London Nw2
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Heritage Impact Assessment for 110 WALM LANE, WILLESDEN GREEN LONDON NW2 For Martin Robeson Planning Practice Cover photo: 110 Walm Lane from south at Walm Lane bridge, Willesden Green Tube Station Notice This document has been prepared for the stated purpose in accordance with the Agreement under which our services were commissioned and should not be used for any other purpose without the prior written consent of Bob Kindred Heritage Consultants Ltd. We accept no responsibility or liability for the consequences of this document being used for a purpose other than for which it was commissioned. © Bob Kindred Heritage Consultants Ltd 2016. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be otherwise reproduced or published in any form or by any means, including photocopying, storage on computer or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder. Bob Kindred Heritage Consultants is a trading name of Bob Kindred Heritage Consultants Ltd. Registered in England & Wales, no. 8051552. November 2016 4 HENLEY ROAD, IPSWICH IP1 3SF Tel: 01473 259441 Mob: 077 13245 485 E: [email protected] Registered in England & Wales. Registered No. 8051552 2 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Bob Kindred Heritage Consultants were commissioned by Martin Robeson Planning Practice on behalf of Redbourne (Queensbury) Ltd to undertake a Heritage Impact Assessment in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework [NPPF], and statutory tests with the Planning (Listed Buildings & Conservation Areas) Act 1990, in support of planning proposals for the replacement of 110 Walm Lane, Willesden with residential-led mixed-use development. 1.2 The site is situated within the Mapesbury Conservation Area and in closely adjacent to the Willesden Green Conservation Area. This contains one Grade 2 listed building, Willesden Green Tube Station, with a bearing on the setting of the development. The listed building and the two conservation areas all constitute designated heritage assets and the NPPF requires a heritage impact assessment to evaluate the impact of the proposals on the setting of these types of heritage asset. Fig. 1 Location Plan 1.3 Walm Lane is a main local route that runs between the busy commercial centre of Willesden Green in the south and Cricklewood in the north. The development site lies immediately to the north of the point at which Walm Lane crosses the railway line and is diagonally opposite Willesden Green Underground Station. 1.4 The rationale behind the design approach to the scheme is set out in the Design and Access Statement by GML Architects & Martin Robeson Planning Practice and the application drawings and the Planning Statement by Martin Robeson Planning Practice and should be read in conjunction with this heritage impact assessment. 1.5 An inspection of the site and its immediate environs to evaluate the setting was undertaken on 24th August 2016. 1.6 The report may be deposited with Greater London Historic Environment Record and a copy sent to the National Monuments Record maintained by Historic England if required. 2. NATIONAL POLICY 2.1 The Heritage Impact Assessment to accompany the proposals is intended to comply with the requirements of the NPPF. It is considered that paragraphs 128, 129, 134, 135 and 137 of the NPPF are particularly germane to this scheme in relation to the character and appearance of the Mapesbury and Willesden Green Conservation Areas; and to the setting of the Grade 2 listed Willesden Green Tube Station. 2.2 Applicants must describe the impact of proposals on the significance of any heritage asset to a level of detail proportionate to the assets’ importance but no more than is sufficient to understand the potential of that impact on the significance. 2.3 Paragraph 132 of the NPPF apportions great weight to a designated asset’s conservation. The more important the asset, the greater the weight should be. The NPPF notes that significance can be harmed or lost through alteration and any harm requires clear and convincing justification. 3. HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE SITE 3.1 The arrival of the Metropolitan Railway in the 19th century and the opening of a new station in 1879 as a temporary terminus of the Metropolitan and St. John's Wood Railway extension from West Hampstead saw rapid urban development in this location. This was a catalyst for transforming the area from agriculture into the present modern residential suburb. (Fig. 2) Fig. 2 Ordnance Survey Six Inch Series map 1881 (pub. 1884) Not to scale Site of 110 Walm Lane arrowed 3.2 Public transport improvements were accompanied by the completion of new commercial developments along the lower part of Walm Lane and High Road. Contemporaneously the construction of St. Andrew's, Church, vicarage and school (the only listed group of building in the area other than the Tube station) were intended to serve the needs of a new middle class population. 3.3. The speed of development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries meant that by around 1910 Willesden Green had largely coalesced with the districts of Brondesbury, Cricklewood, and Kensal Rise. 3.4 The original intention of the Mapesbury estate was to cater for commuters seeking a pleasant edge of countryside lifestyle but within easy reach of central London via the 4 railway stations at Willesden Green and Kilburn. The houses on the estate date mainly from between 1895 to1905 and were built by a dozen firms including Callow & Wright, Charles Cheshir and John Neal and Co. Some dwellings were completed later and date from 1908 to1920 to the designs of C.W.B. Simmonds and G.A.C. Bridge. 3.5 The area suffered severe unemployment during World War I and was subjected to heavy bombing during World War II. This resulted in a period of decline exacerbated by post-war traffic congestion. Some revival of the area has taken place in recent years through the use of targeted heritage regeneration measures resulting in economic uplift and increasing property prices. 3.6 The only noteworthy modern development within the Willesden Green Conservation Area is Erin Court situated immediately to the southeast of Willesden Green Underground Station and this tall block has a prominent return frontage to the railway tracks. 3.7 Erin Court is located at the uphill end of the commercial centre of Walm Lane and dominates the view in the main street from the southwest. (Fig.4) At seven storeys and with facades in off-white self coloured render it is considered not only out of scale with the Victorian commercial buildings to which it abuts and forms a backdrop, but also unsympathetic in the choice of facing materials as all the adjacent buildings and those opposite (with the exception of the listed station) are built of red brick and thus presenting an otherwise homogeneous local character. 3.8 The contrast of scale and materials used at Erin Court makes it an uncomfortable and insensitive addition to the townscape, out of context with its immediate surroundings and the character of the conservation area within it is situated and in relation to the character of the adjacent conservation area. 4. THE DEVELOPMENT SITE AND IMMEDIATE ENVIRONS 4.1 The development site, No.110 Walm Lane is a wide-fronted mainly three-storey building with a front forecourt raised above street level to provide an outdoor seating area. To the south side and rear of the building there are several later unsympathetic extensions and a separately operated area of contract parking bounded by the railway cutting. There are only limited views to the rear along the side of the building from the bridge over the railway and Walm Lane and the site is only otherwise indistinctly visible from the railway bridge in Lyndford Road. 4.2 The building was completed in c.1893 but the original designer is not known and it may have been completed by one of the house builders working locally. It originally served as a part doctor’s surgery and part private house and as such has a dual entrance, reflecting this original mix of domestic and medical uses. Subsequently the property was converted to use as a Constitutional Club, then as a members’ club and in 2001 part of the building was used as the Queensbury Public House. 4.3 As one of the earliest buildings on the northeast side of the railway bridge, the building reflects the scale and use of materials associated with those properties most characteristic of the Mapesbury Conservation Area and although the style of the building can be loosely described as ‘Arts and Crafts’ or ‘Queen Anne Revival’, the many subsequent alterations and changes of uses have diluted the original architectural interest. 4.4 To the north of No. 110 are two apartment buildings: No.112 Walm Lane a recently erected narrow-fronted five-storey red brick apartment building; and Westly Court a larger post-war apartment block originally of three storeys with its principal frontage facing Dartmouth Road, to which a further, slightly recessed timber-clad residential storey has recently been added. 5 4.5 The development site No.110 Walm Lane sits at the southwest extremity of the Mapesbury Conservation Area. 5. DESIGNATED & UNDESIGNATED HERITAGE ASSETS Listed Buildings - Willesden Green Station 5.1 In the near vicinity to the southwest of No.110 Walm Lane is Willesden Green Tube Station listed Grade 2 in November 2006 [List entry: No.1391808 UID: 496402 National Grid Reference: TQ 23430 84864]. This is an Underground station with integral shops rebuilt at street level in 1925, designed by Charles W. Clark the architect for the Metropolitan Railway Company. It has similarities to his designs for other listed stations at Great Portland Street (Grade 2, 1912) and Farringdon (Grade 2, 1925).