Central

By Alex Grant Former Chair of the Planning Board Council About me

•Greenwich Labour councillor 1998-2014

•Chair of Greenwich Council’s Planning Board 2006- 2010

•Worked in private sector for Indigo Public Affairs n 2012-13, working on public consultation and strategy for large-scale developments in

•Now a writer, lecturer and researcher. I’m writing a book about contemporary development in London, due to be published later in 2016, and blog about politics, history and architecture at www.alexgrant.me

Woolwich Central •960 homes and an 80,000 sq ft Tesco store - one of London’s biggest •Granted consent in January 2007, but construction was delayed by recession and the store didn’t open until autumn 2012. Most of the new homes still not built •Greenwich Council (the local authority which covers Woolwich) claimed the development would "support the vitality and viability of the borough's strategic centre and be a catalyst for further regeneration of greater Woolwich". •Winner of magazine’s Carbuncle Cup 2014 My official council portrait in 2006 (when I was first involved in the planning process for Woolwich central) and a photo of me in 2014 once the development was awarded the Carbuncle Cup – what a difference eight years makes! How did the development come about? • Belief that a big new Supermarket was sorely needed to help Woolwich’s regeneration • Immediate, pressing need to modernise Greenwich Council’s office accommodation and create a Contact centre • Woolwich’s chequered history also plays its part: the council felt that ‘shock therapy’ was the only way to regenerate the town • Opportunistic- there was no indication in any masterplan that Woolwich New Road was the appropriate place for large-scale retail until 2005 – just two years before Woolwich Central obtained planning permission

Woolwich: a brief history

Woolwich is not just a suburb: it has been a town in its own right for centuries. There is evidence of an iron-age settlement, and a Roman fort. Woolwich had a ferry across the Thames since the early fourteenth century. But it was only a small village until the late middle ages. A Royal Dockyard from 1512. Many of ’s finest ships of the C16 and C17, including the Great Harry and Sovereign of the Seas, were built there

The Arsenal and the Royal Artillery: the spur to Woolwich’s growth • The Regiment of Artillery was formed in the Arsenal in 1716. The Royal artillery moved from the Arsenal to new barracks on the Common between 1776 and 1802 and the Royal Military Academy moved to another new building also on the Common in 1808. • The Arsenal rapidly grew to become a place where munitions were built, not where soldiers were trained • Although Woolwich’s Royal Dockyard closes in 1869, the had already overtaken it in terms of jobs and importance 1741: John Rocque’s map shows Woolwich is still a small village along the Thames By 1869, expansion of the Arsenal meant Woolwich had grown hugely and its population had reached 70,000 19th century: New Woolwich institutions were mutual, not commercial. It was an important birthplace of the Co- operative and Labour Movements • The Royal Arsenal Co- Operative Society (RACS).

• The Woolwich Equitable Building Society

• In 1903 Woolwich became the first place in Britain to have both a Labour Mp and a Labour council. It has had both a Labour MP, and a Labour council, almost continuously ever since The Royal Arsenal • From its origins in the seventeenth century, the Royal Arsenal grew to be the largest factory in the world at the time of WW1 – employing 80,000 people and covering 1,200 acres By 1906, Woolwich was a confident, grand town with a confident, grand Town Hall to match The Royal Arsenal attracted thousands of people to the town centre every day – many of them coming from north of the river by the Woolwich ferry

Woolwich had a linear High Street (Powis Street) lined with department stores – because of its economic decline in the late twentieth century it never got an indoor shopping mall Ian Nairn on Woolwich in the 1960s:

“[Woolwich is] a commercial gold mine [which] has come down from the Midland cities and in the process lost its Midland drabness and taken on alertness and savoir faire". 1960s onwards: economic decline

• The Royal Arsenal, which had gradually declined since WW1, began to shut down from the 1960s onwards • Loss of other major manufacturing employers, e.g. Siemens • Woolwich’s department stores – Cuffs and Garretts – both close down in the 1970s • Labour council was increasingly insular and unimaginative until the mid-1990s • Woolwich of little strategic importance or interest to the GLC or central government

Much of historic Woolwich demolished in the 1960s and 1970s – including the Regency House where General Gordon was born 1980s and 1990s: isolation and stagnation • Woolwich excluded from London Docklands development area: little new development in the 1980s and 90s • RACS merges with London Co-op and shuts down its Woolwich department stores • A non-policy of unmanaged decline • Major employers pull out – the University of Greenwich, magazine publisher Miller Freeman, and Woolwich Building Society all quit in the 1900s. Even the Royal Artillery almost pulls out as well • Further collapse of remaining manufacturing in 1990s: in 1994 the Arsenal ward (which covered the residential streets uphill from the Arsenal itself) had a male unemployment rate of 62%, the highest rate of any ward in mainland Britain. • Arsenal shuts completely in 1994

2000s: Woolwich’s shaky recovery

• Royal Arsenal redeveloped from late 1990s onwards – though increasingly as Housing, not Mixed-Use • DLR opens in 2008 • Crossrail station secured after a long struggle. Due to open in 2018. Woolwich will be just 40 minutes from Heathrow, 20 minutes from West End • London Plan envisages Woolwich being a “Metropolitan Centre” on a par with , and Stratford by 2031 – a very ambitious target indeed • Woolwich’s stigma still applies - Marks and Spencer closed in 2014. Shrinking retail base and hardly any upmarket openings. Little evening economy. • Marketing very poor • Some new institutions fail – Firepower Museum never attracts enough visitors and is due to close in 2017

Woolwich in context Woolwich’s recovery was not aided by the riots of 2011 or the killing of drummer Lee Rigby in 2013 Immediate hinterland of Woolwich Central a mix of failed council housing (some awaiting demolition) and ungentrified early Victorian housing The Woolwich Central site: formerly a Cavalry Barracks, visible in the bottom left hand-corner of this 1961 aerial view Site previously occupied by Peggy Middleton House, Crown Building and Post Office – all demolished in 2008-2011 to make way for Tesco Peggy Middleton House was like an igloo in winter and a greenhouse in summer. It was costly to maintain and a nightmare to work in, and its demolition in 2010 was not mourned. Home to the council’s housing and planning departments! Woolwich Central: a central site or a peripheral one? Site can also be seen as very much “edge of centre” In a no-mans’ land Mid-way between the Royal Artillery barracks and the Royal Arsenal Surrounded by other development sites. Not the largest site but arguably the most prominent Collado Collins – the site’s original masterplanners – saw the site as part of a “Woolwich Ramblas” all the way from Woolwich Common to the river

Developers make a virtue of the development’s height – “Above All” Deal offered to Greenwich Council was very attractive – new council offices built at no cost to the council, and new homes and supermarket would help council meet its demanding housing and development targets. New Council Offices (the Woolwich Centre) built on Wellington Street in 2010 to replace the unloved Peggy Middleton House. Seen as a success; the new library there is now the busiest in London In return, Spenhill (Tesco’s development arm) built a Tesco store and flats above on Peggy Middleton House site The original plan envisaged a very tall building of 26+ storeys at northern end of site, where Post Office had stood. Council ignored CABE advice and approved tower in outline only. But otherwise there was no opposition from CABE or the GLA, and detailed consent was granted with little difficulty Hardly any political or community opposition. Other communities protest against new Tesco openings, but not Woolwich! 2008: the downturn strikes •Economic challenges meant a “fundamental review” of the scheme started a year after planning permission was granted in January 2007. •No work started on site until 2009, and many changes made to the original planning permission between 2007 and 2010. •Collado Collins dropped as Masterplanners – Sheppard Robson now the sole architects The 26-stoery tower was dropped, possibly for ever. As a result, Tesco itself dominates Problem #1: In place of the tower, the Post Office site has been given “temporary” landscaping, far inferior to General Gordon Square alongside With hindsight – and foresight - the demolition of the Post office building was a huge blunder Problem #2: Many of the small retail units at front of building remain unlet

Problem #3: Tesco signage far too dominant. Building was never designed to be seen from a distance Problem #4: although there has been new paving around site, lack of attention to detail means too much clutter, inactive frontages and a lack of legibility Problem #5: Cost – cutting meant the “green wall” of creepers above the Car Park entrance was dropped So the Woolwich New Road frontage has a lot less greenery, and fewer trees, than the plans had promised... Problem #6: The car park was moved to ground floor level to reduce excavation costs. Sadly this meant that a lot of plant had to be moved to street level as well...... Resulting in huge blank facades of Trespa, not the costlier cladding that was first envisaged. Only a handful of doors face the street...... and these are for affordable housing units only, facing on to the noisy Woolwich New Road. Private housing flats have their own separate entrance on Love lane, a quieter alley around the back – the idea of mixed tenure blocks was dropped. Astonishingly, this was all built across the road from a Pugin Church (St Peter’s) of 1842-43.... Developers argued that none of these changes really mattered:

"It is easy to become focused on small scale changes, rather than recall the bigger picture issues arising from this significant mixed-use proposal." (letter from the developer to Greenwich Council, 2009 Problem #7: Tesco does not look any better than Crown Building did from a distance. Let’s hope the nineteenth- century houses to the right don't suffer the same fate as the Post Office Problem #8: Facades can be dull and lifeless when sun isn’t shining, despite the excitement of abseiling window cleaners Problem #9: Bulk of the car park means the only pedestrian route through site has to go up and down fifty steps ...which arguably makes the site less penetrable than before, not more Problem #10: Further phases will be even higher and denser. Views of the Town Hall clock tower from Woolwich Common will be lost. Problem #11: Before the Woolwich Tesco even opened, such large stores were already falling out of fashion. Tesco has abandoned similar stores elsewhere , and the aisles of Woolwich’s Tesco are eerily quiet The development in context • How did the development conform to the council’s strategic plan for Woolwich? • How well does it integrate into the town? • What has been happening on adjacent sites? Just to the north of Tesco, General Gordon Square was revamped by Gustafson Porter in 2011 and can look great...... Particularly if viewed from a distance But is let down by a “Big Screen” that blocks views to and from , poor signage and a lack of maintenance Woolwich’s DLR station still has temporary buildings and the damage it inflicted on townscape is plain to see. The recession put the “above-station development” on hold for years New developmen t to replace riot damage is of poor quality In the “civic core” 100 metres from Tesco the listed former Police Station and Magistrates' Court are being converted to residential uses. Nearby the Old Town Hall, Town Hall annexe, swimming baths and Polytechnic buildings are poorly-maintained, underused or empty. There is little sign of the promised conservation area, or a proper plan for their future. The notion of a “cultural quarter” here seems to have been abandoned While the 1950s Regal Cinema next door to the Town Hall may not have been a great building, there were exciting plans to turn it into an arts centre...... but sadly it is now demolished, and the proposed block of flats to take its place does not inspire or excite With M&S closed and changed to a 99p store, Woolwich needs to look beyond retail for a sustainable future. Ambitions for Woolwich to be a “Metropolitan Centre” by 2031 are pie in the sky Some historic buildings on Hare Street, that were rotting until recently, have been restored but await new retail uses. Restoration of the Co-op – as flats - has come in the knick of time One tiny new Eritrean restaurant – Blue Nile – is a tripadvisor hit and has arguably done more to put Woolwich on the map than Tesco ever did Likewise with the “Woolwich Equitable”, a new pub in the defunct Building Society’s old banking hall. The hipsters are arriving! Final phase of the Royal Arsenal will be incredibly high density – more than 1,000 habitable rooms per hectare. The price to pay for a Crossrail station! More towers planned are now being built along Plumstead Road above the Crossrail station, to be followed by a redevelopment of the Covered market and a new hotel above the DLR station. But will their quality be up to scratch? And with the Firepower museum closing, will Woolwich be more than just a dormitory with good rail links? Plumstead Road – the dual carriageway that separates the Royal Arsenal from the town centre – causes as much severance as ever Woolwich still faces stigma. The town at the end of the line in Zone 4 that dares not speak its name and wants to really be Greenwich instead The Planning context The council’s 2008 Local Development Framework “Issues and Options” Report said:

Woolwich is the Borough’s largest centre for shopping, civic and community services, and office employment .... Retail studies show that Woolwich remains vulnerable to competition and needs to improve its retail offer and market share to recover leakage to surrounding centres” The council also had a commitment to high-quality design in Town Centres: Woolwich will be transformed into ‘a vibrant, successful town centre with new retail, office, hotel, culture and housing development.’ (Greenwich Core Strategy, 2012)

Policy STC4 :’To promote a high standard of design in town centre buildings and public and civic spaces, and to preserve and enhance historic buildings, and other important heritage features.’ (Greenwich UDP, 2006) But this map of Greenwich’s development sites from the early 2000s did not identify the Woolwich Central/ Peggy Middleton site at all The early 2000s: a flurry of plans and strategies for Woolwich. But little mention made of the Peggy Middleton site, let alone the desirability of a large supermarket there •2003 the GLA and Greenwich Council commissioned consultants East and architects Sergison Bates to produce a Woolwich Strategy and Framework Plan. The plan’s “2020 vision” envisaged the Peggy Middleton site as being “occupied by "garden apartments, two and three bed flats and studio units. Stacked vertically, with communal workshops and gardens, office space, and a cafe at the bottom“. No mention of a Tesco here

•The first draft of the council’s Unitary Development Plan (the council's planning blueprint; UDP for short), published in 2004 , cited the Peggy Middleton House site as suitable for "a mix of residential, retail and/or business/employment uses“. •Again, no mention made of a supermarket A “Woolwich Town Centre Development Framework”, published by EDAW in November 2004, designated the Peggy Middleton House site as “Employment use” - not retail. Technically this “Framework” was in force until 2012. The first draft UDP of 2004 said nothing about the site at all – only the northern end was designated as “fringe retail”. Much emphasis placed on strengthening Powis Street as the town’s retail core Only in the final UDP, adopted in July 2006, was the Peggy Middleton site (site mu35) designated as ripe for redevelopment, and then only as “a mix of residential, retail and/or business/employment uses.” Again, no mention of a large supermarket. The UDP said retention of locally-listed Victorian Post office “is encouraged”. Plans were changed retrospectively to accommodate the Tesco development after it was given permission, not before. In 2008 the “Woolwich Town Centre Strategic Development Location” map expanded the area where “strategic development” was appropriate to include the Tesco site – previously outside the blue line Latest plan – the Woolwich Town Centre Masterplan Supplementary Planning Document of 2012 (part of the new Local Development Framework) finally acknowledges that a large supermarket has been given planning permission on the Peggy Middleton site. It admitted that Tesco may have a negative impact on other retailers: “Although Woolwich currently lacks a large modern convenience superstore, this will be addressed by the new Tesco scheme on Love Lane. Once this scheme opens Woolwich will need to consolidate its convenience and comparison goods offer and go through a settling down period. The introduction of this store may result in the closure of some of the smaller and poorer performing convenience stores in the centre” Even this latest Woolwich Town Centre Masterplan shows the Tesco site OUTSIDE the “Core Retail area” Conclusions 1: Strategic Plans can be worthless. Prior to 2006 there was no policy favouring the redevelopment of Peggy Middleton House for retail use. The strategic plan suddenly changed simply because Tesco made the council an offer it could not refuse . The real impetus was the urgent need for new council offices – not a new supermarket 2. Woolwich's brutal decline since the 1960s had blinded the council and GLA to many of the town’s intrinsic qualities, and meant that “regeneration” was needed at any price. The Post Office – one of the best buildings facing General Gordon Square – should not have been demolished. Lazy assumption that any old tower would do – “Build it High and Built it Quick”, said one councillor 3 The “Town Centres first” principle for large retail developments may be counter-productive. Very little thought was given to how such a large supermarket could be accommodated on a sloping, narrow Town Centre site, and whether this was a good idea for the site – or the Town – in the first place. The development made the site less penetrable, not more 4 The devil is ALWAYS in the detail, particularly in ambitious schemes which are vulnerable to cost-cutting. Seemingly “minor” changes to housing tenure, car park levels, cladding and landscaping had a devastating impact. But they were all waved through without any protest. The Design may have been acceptable before the changes – but not after 5 Proper design review needs to happen right at the start, certainly not only after planning permission was granted. I became Chair of Planning Board six months before the scheme came to us for decision – too late to push for any big changes. Too little scrutiny was given to the planning application either by the council or by the community – Woolwich does not have the “Busybodies” common in other London suburbs. Greenwich has no design review panel of its own. Design Review by CABE, after planning consent, was very much an exercise in damage limitation. Further reading

Woolwich Central: http://www.woolwichcentral.com/the-development/architects- vision/

Consultation on latest plans for Woolwich Central: http://www.woolwichcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Woolwich-Phase- 4-Final-Consultation-Boards-2.pdf

Building Design http://www.bdonline.co.uk/Story.aspx?storyCode=5070709

Alex Grant’s Blog: http://alexgrant.me/2014/06/25/and-who-is-to-blame-for-this- carbuncle-er-me-actually/

The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/03/woolwich-central- tesco-carbuncle-cup