Brentford ES Volume 1 FINAL
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Brentford - Land South of the High Street & Waterfront Environmental Statement 17 Built Heritage 17.1 Introduction 17.1.1 This chapter assesses the impact of the proposed development on built heritage both on and immediately adjacent to the site. The chapter has been prepared by Jeffery W. George and Associates. 17.1.2 Jeffery W. George and Associates have been involved with the potential redevelopment of this site since early 2007, advising on conservation issues and listed buildings, consulting with English Heritage and Hounslow Borough Council. Previous reports were prepared in March, May, June, October and December 2007, September 2009, and November 2011. 17.1.3 These assessments have been updated and consolidated into this chapter. 17.2 Policy Context 17.2.1 With the replacement in March 2012 of Planning Policy Statement 5, Planning for the Historic Environment, the primary consideration of this assessment is now to satisfy the requirements required or implied by the provisions of the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework). This assessment of cultural heritage is intended to be a Statement of Significance in relation to the designated and non-designated heritage assets on and immediately adjacent to the site. 17.2.2 In addition to meeting the detailed guidance in the NPPF, regard has been paid to the relevant heritage/conservation policies as amended and saved from the London Borough of Hounslow’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP) in September 2007 by direction from the Secretary of State. The original UDP was adopted in December 2003, and a Local Development Framework (LDF) is being developed as the UDP is updated and new LDF documents are adopted. The Brentford Area Action Plan (BAAP) was adopted in January 2009. Consideration has been given to policies within these documents that deal with matters concerning impact on heritage assets caused by new development. 17.2.3 With regard to the NPPF, particular regard has been paid to Section 12, “Conserving and enhancing the historic environment,” specifically paragraphs 128, 129, 131, 132, 134 and 135. A number of designated and non-designated heritage assets will be affected to varying degrees by new development on the site and the following definitions have been used from Annex 2: Glossary of the NPPF as a basis for identifying relevant heritage buildings in this assessment: Designated Heritage Asset: A World Heritage Site, Scheduled Monument, Listed Building, Protected Wreck Site, Registered Park and Garden, Registered Battlefield or Conservation Area designated under the relevant legislation. Heritage Asset: A building, monument, site, place, area or landscape identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of its 353 Brentford - Land South of the High Street & Waterfront Environmental Statement heritage interest. Heritage asset includes designated heritage assets and assets identified by the local planning authority (including local listing). Setting of a Heritage Asset: The surroundings in which a heritage asset is experienced. Its extent is not fixed and may change as the asset and its surroundings evolve. Elements of a setting may make a positive or negative contribution to the significance of an asset, may affect the ability to appreciate that significance or may be neutral. Significance (for heritage policy): The value of a heritage asset to this and future generations because of its heritage interest. That interest may be archaeological, architectural, artistic or historic. Significance derives not only from a heritage asset’s physical presence, but also from its setting. 17.3 Methodology Assessment Methodology 17.3.1 The assessment criteria used in determining the importance of the designated and non- designated heritage assets affected by the proposed development follow these recommended by English Heritage. These are as follows: Period; Rarity; Documentation; Group value; Survival and/or condition; Fragility and/or vulnerability; Diversity; and Potential. Significance Criteria Identification of Impacts - Direct Impacts 17.3.2 Direct impacts on the heritage assets may consist of: Direct primary impacts resulting in destruction of standing buildings; Direct secondary impacts resulting in destruction; or 354 Brentford - Land South of the High Street & Waterfront Environmental Statement Direct impacts upon setting reducing the appreciation of the resource e.g. by noise, visual intrusion, dust. These impacts may be attributable to construction and later operation of the proposed development. 17.3.3 Construction impacts include all those impacts which will result in permanent or temporary impacts from construction. Construction works may involve direct primary impacts, including: Demolition and clearance works; or Evacuation works (e.g. for structures/services, cuttings, footings, planting and drainage works). 17.3.4 There may also be secondary direct impacts, such as vibration damage to historic buildings and other structures by piling. Identification of impacts – Indirect Impacts 17.3.5 Indirect impacts may arise from how the proposals facilitate, encourage or inhibit other developments or changes to the environment not within the control of the developer. Indirect effects may include: Indirect impacts by disconnection involving removing a monument, building or site from its original context; Indirect impacts through the loss of an amenity, (e.g. historic buildings or scheduled monuments open to the public); or Noise pollution resulting in the fitting of double glazing to buildings. Consultation 17.3.6 In assessing the impact on above ground heritage assets, a baseline assessment was undertaken to identify the location of Statutorily Listed Historic Buildings, and other features of built heritage, to establish the visual role the existing site plays in their setting. Meetings have been held with English Heritage, Hounslow Borough Council’s Conservation Officer, and the Church Commissioners (in respect of St. Lawrence’s Church). 17.3.7 The Statutory Lists of Buildings of Special Architectural and Historic Interest, relevant maps and plans and other documents were considered in order to identify those elements of the built environment that are of heritage asset importance within the site and immediately adjacent to it. 17.3.8 A combination of desk-top study and fieldwork has identified the visual role of the site in the baseline analysis. The current importance of the site in the setting of above ground heritage assets depends on both proximity and context, and to evaluate how the setting of these assets will change as a result of development, a combination of photographs, visual impact 355 Brentford - Land South of the High Street & Waterfront Environmental Statement views as set out on drawings, and visualisations and plans of the proposed development have been used. Significance Criteria 17.3.9 In order to evaluate the significance of impacts on above ground heritage assets, tables have been prepared based on the relative impacts on the setting of heritage assets by development on the site. These “Impact on Key Settings” tables have been prepared to take account of the existing situation before new development, and after its completion. The significance of effects has been determined based on the importance of a heritage asset, a qualitative judgment on the magnitude of the impact and professional judgment. Sensitivity has been assessed based on the relative importance of the heritage asset, its setting and structural condition/current use. 17.4 Baseline Conditions Site Description 17.4.1 Part of the site lies within the designated Grand Union Canal and Boston Manor Conservation Area. The focus of this part of the Conservation Area is the Canal itself rather than the extremely varied townscape character. The most defining characteristic of the site is the network of narrow roads and passages that link the High Street to the waterside, warehouses and docks to the south. Several of these are now inaccessible or blocked off, and behind the somewhat rundown overall frontage to the High Street, much of the area between here and the waterside conveys an air of decay and dereliction greatly at odds with its vibrant industrial past. The remaining small boat and water-related activities seem fragile but remain an integral part of what English Heritage (EH) has described (in 2000) as “a rare junction of historic canal, rail and river infrastructure”. EH also commented “if much has been lost, much yet remains”, and “its character eludes tight definition but lies somewhere between urban, rural and industrial”. 17.4.2 The role of the designated Grand Union Canal and Boston Manor Conservation Area is a key influence within the site although it actually takes up a relatively small proportion of the total site boundary. It is an unusual shape: consisting of a long and narrow linear area following the Canal itself roughly from the north-west (by the M4 motorway) to the south- east, where the canal joins the Thames. At the northern end the Conservation Area widens out to enclose the whole of Boston Manor Park, which is bisected by the motorway. 17.4.3 Boston Manor itself is a notable early 17th Century mansion, home of the Clitherow family, some of whom are buried in St. Lawrence’s Church. The Conservation Area continues south-eastwards, mostly only as wide as the canal itself, until it meets the High Street in Brentford. 17.4.4 Just north of the High Street there is a common boundary with the Butts Conservation Area. South of the High Street and west of the site, the Conservation Area boundary encloses properties in The Ham. These have no relationship with the site. A small ‘enclave’ of the Conservation Area then takes in a group of properties within the west end of the site: nos. 128-138 High Street and St. Lawrence’s Church. The boundary then follows the southern 356 Brentford - Land South of the High Street & Waterfront Environmental Statement side of the site, again only as wide as the canal itself. There is a further narrow extension northwards, roughly following a branch of the canal and Dock Road as far as the High Street.