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Home , Finsbury, Finsbury Park (area)

The Park

Town Centre A Proposal town centre

or development ?

open space or more impinging on common land? Mosque The Rowan’s site The A503 () Looking Finsbury Park Bus Station Finsbury Park Railway Station Finsbury Park Tennis Courts in winter west the rest of the document—full of planning  The Rowan’s site policy context—the bottom half of page 36 is THE SOUTHERN end of Finsbury Park, blank. So is page 37. Together they give the (adjacent to the main entrance) has been Falling short! impression of redaction, of items not yet fit for curiously labelled in the SPD. public consumption. At the ‘Consultation’ at Comment on Rowan’s proposed FinFuture on 15/08/2013, there was a model It is described, not simply or neutrally as a on view on a table, with Rowan’s at its heart. strip of land between the road and the park, development, in the guise of a currently in private ownership, nor even as ‘Town Centre’ for Finsbury Park This is all we have to go on: a development site. Instead, we are told it sponsored by council is a Key Development site. The only thing ‘key’ about it, is that it is a key to unlock a THE principle of tri-Borough co- treasure chest of profits for the developer. Any operation for planning over one of reasons of public policy to further develop ’s most neglected corners is as this particular site, need to be balanced with excellent as it is overdue. reasons to open up the whole corner. It’s an important area: a big transport hub The proposed apartment block would, on and within its ambit, the principal entrance one side, have splendid views over our park to one of London’s major public parks, by the “Figure 3.18 artist impression of potential future development of Station east area” and on the other side, a walk of less than A503 – a busy arterial road. It needs careful Page 36 of the Supplementary Planning Document Draft for Consultation (July 2013) one minute to public transport. Relatively thought and treatment as a whole. few locations of the same distance from The flats are obviously the most significant The aim of a Finsbury Park Town Square would be more valuable. element of the Town Square proposal that is good, noble and appropriate. The apartments would likely be the most does little more than promote one property- expensive in the area. However, the biggest element in the current owner’s desire to develop their land. scheme is a big block of flats wanted by one However, at least we know the owner is land owner—something that the planners  The current buildings open to change and amenable to a radical of have gone to some lengths to disguise. IN MY opinion, the current buildings are not re-use of their existing property. Despite the attractive but do have some historical value. In In their 63-page Supplementary Planning drawbacks of the planner-developer’s current 1963 the Beatles played their first London gig Document (SPD) the most we learn about proposal, we may yet see significant public there. Such a history is worth sacrificing only this is an artist impression on page 36. Unlike benefit come from the situation. for significant public benefit (below).

2013 August ~ [email protected] 3 Access alley drawn as avenue des Champs-Élysées Park made visible! UNREALISTIC viewpoint moving the goal posts: the (retail) corridor—so much vaunted—shown as a wide avenue from this height above the distant and elevated perspective populated by tiny people making it appear yet wider—planners declined to confi rm width ground level—and through makes apartment blocks seem smaller the ‘permeable’ cut- through—the tops of Seven story blocs the tallest trees are overlooking park – have visible. N.B. At the peak extra stories been added in of summer, trees in full order to concede later? leaf can just be seen. In practice, the ‘park view’ would be far more restricted (see text). Bicycle park: gone ! Retained: the triangle of ugly buildings that separates the big transport hub from Road: now a lane ! the main road and this heavily-used road continues to frustrate and bus route, becomes a the aim of a real fantastical lane, narrower town square than the pavement, with one and a half cars visible Silver bullet Giant canopy: gone ! Bus station: gone ! public house the artist ‘impression’ manages to disappear perhaps even more surprising than the absent porch in this extraordinary rendition, the the big steel porch outside the railway station by the bus station, is the disappearance of the entire spit-and-sawdust Silver Bullet pub is entrance, built in recent years at great expense bus station. Is this an artist’s hallucination ?! hard to distinguish from central Paris

4 comments on the Rowan proposals for a ‘Town Centre’ at Finsbury Park  The artist’s hallucination alongside (c) with one and a half cars The part that the planners are pleased to and (d) no buses (!) Indeed, the entire bus call ‘permeable’ is shown as a boulevard that BEGINNING with its elevated viewpoint, station has mysteriously vanished. The giant continues into the park. The impression given the artist’s sketch accompanying the steel awning (below) along the length of the is that this is generously wide; however the prospectus (opposite) is unrepresentative. artist ‘impression’ The perspective is a appears significantly birds-eye view above 45° oblique view, looking wider than the gap the station, about five north, showing Stroud shown on the model storey’s high, just high Green road frontage. and that size was not enough to permit a N.B. bus station quantified. view of the tree tops of Finsbury Park. The boulevard is The unrealistically shown running into high viewpoint also an avenue that goes serves the developer’s straight into the park. wish to disguise the The bicycle store has dominating height of disappeared. the blocks from the The (fantastic) more typical ground scene is shown in level viewpoint of sunlight which is fair. pedestrians, who would Only slightly less stand much closer to the representative, the buildings. scene is shown at the The depiction of height of summer with Stroud Green road is all trees in leaf. It is unrealistic and is perhaps the most deceptive railway station has disappeared. Do planners significantly less representative, that the scene aspect of the sketch. really want to remove this item, installed at no is near the middle of the day, where the fall of The normally busy and often jammed-up little cost? I say: stop the piecemeal fiddling long shadows is least. The impression left is of Stroud Green road is shown as (a) the width and come up with an overall solution that an artist straining to make the development of a track (b) narrower than the footpath looks, swims and quacks like a Town Square! look the least ugly and intrusive as possible.

2013 August ~ [email protected] 5 Broad-brush artist’s sketches, corridor purpose, at the same time, flagging it – as substitutes for serious as a major concession in keeping with public Bus routes using Stop G consultations – have been used objectives. Station Place: before, once at the infamous 2006 The private objective is to provide two, ‘consultation’. valuable retail frontages along the alley way, 236 That ended up in the High Court. increasing further the land value.

106  Narrow-minded  Finsbury Park Town Centre? 19 THE MAIN selling point of the PLANNERS seem happy to dress the private planners and promoters, has been developer’s plans with the real need to 4 the break between the buildings improve the area and appear to go to lengths allowing view and access. The to link the private interests to public goals. principle, of having a view and access to the park from  Consultation the station is excellent, but the presentation has been misleading. ALARM bells are triggered by the timing of The average position at the bus the consultation. It is held during the summer station is some distance away from when many residents are away on holiday. the corridor entrance. Therefore, This period (and Christmas) is notorious the view of the park down the as the time when councils hold consultations The ugly triangle of buildings is kept, but corridor is along a narrow angle for their least attractive proposals, because the façade facing the station is now tarted up and in any event, viewable from only a small the least number of people will be available. in the artist’s hallucination, with colourful proportion of the area of the bus station. This A campaigner once said that as a rule, accoutrements. One would hardly guess that, is deceptive. consultations held in this period are real remaining in the council’s sketch, and lying From most of the bus station area, that stinkers. Tabulations will be performed on behind the Parisian awnings and colourful view would be (a) oblique and (b) of retail the basis of uninformed and unavailable umbrellas, is one of the area’s toughest, frontages. It is in the developer’s interests comment. It appears that no named people meanest pubs, the Silver Bullet, that has more to retain as much building area as possible are responsible. The SPD is long on jargon in common with spit-and-sawdust than the and to cede as little width as possible for the and planning regs; and short on content. It artist’s cheerful dressing we are shown.

6 comments on the Rowan proposals for a ‘Town Centre’ at Finsbury Park  Partiality?  Security? ASPECTS of the documents appear THIS is more so when the declared goal is a tendentious, if not biased. The town centre and area-wide regeneration. On July SPD describes the Rowan’s page 50 of the SPD, we are told of the range of complex [as] a key destination for activities that should take place. visitors in the area (which is at At 5.13, under table heading odds with its demolition). Accord Strategic Objective, we have Again, Rowan’s is described as Development; under key in the same way their planning

A503 consultant might. Rowan’s happen Activity, we have: Secure redevelopment of to own land that separates our the Rowan’s Complex; and under park from the road. The planner’s Actions: To work with the site owners to an aerial view, identification with the developer co-ordinate plans for the site’s redevelopment, showing the park, goes further: including securing the new links to park. Rowan’s site, railway 3.6.4. However, the major By the use of the term ‘secure’, there opportunity site in this area is the is already an assumption that further station and canopy, bus Rowan’s complex on Stroud Green development of the Rowan’s site is some station and triangular bloc Road in Haringey. kind of valuable prize of benefit to the public. This begs the question, However, as with much modern development, is a pity the planners feel the need to use opportunity for who? The so- the proposed construction is an attractive jargon here and one suspects they take refuge called major opportunity site is certainly a building … in the wrong place. Far more in it in order to hide meaning. The informal site of opportunity for major capital gain for significant is that this development would ‘consultation’ has been light on specifics. Rowan’s, but planners paid by public funds preclude a superior solution to most of the There is vagueness about details. We are given ought to be promoting primarily public and declared objects of a Town Centre. artist’s sketches from angles that present community interest, not private.  Nibbling away at public parks Rowan’s development in the least bad light. It When planners identify so closely with the is clear that the planners favour this particular development goal of single developer it could SADLY, preservation and enhancement of development and that this ‘consultation’ on give the appearance of impropriety. public parks seems to have slipped down the draft just goes through the motions. the agenda for Planners. Councils that once

2013 August ~ [email protected] 7 General view of canopy and created them, now seem to see them as a cost busy bus station, Rowans (in and are indifferent to their fate. Maintenance middle distance) and the is cut and in small but steady ways, the park is reduced. There is a ratchet effect that militates triangular bloc. Bus on right against them and few speak up for parks, least waiting to cross to station of all local councils representing developer interests. At least 4 (four) bus routes use this terminus. Buses exiting There is confusion over where the the station on this side of the boundary of Metropolitan Open Land lies. It is marked with care and attention to detail railway station, all turn right all along Stroud Green Road. It is clearly into Stroud Green road A503 – Seven Sisters Road marked in the SPD as bowing into the park, but the Planner/promoters now said this was incorrect. This is also worrying. General view – opposite of Whether or not the proposed building above – from the bicycle park impinges on MOL, it would represent a further entrance with Stroud Green nibbling away at the spirit of public parks. The Road in foreground. General proposed luxury apartments would overlook view of canopy and busy bus the park and that would of course, be one of station; the triangular bloc is their selling points. The higher they were, the now on left more they would quite literally, over-shadow our park.

 Height and mass THE HEIGHT depicted for the western-most bloc at 7 (seven) stories is cynical. Either, one or two extra stories have been added in All non-aerial photos in this order to take them off later as concession (in document taken on Saturday typical developer fashion) or if seven stories afternoon (2013–08–17)

8 comments on the Rowan proposals for a ‘Town Centre’ at Finsbury Park Part of the spirit of parks is that their Bus station’s big canopy Main railway line borders need to be treated sensitively. Around most of our Finsbury Park is a good margin comprising either road or railway line. The Cycle Park jumble of buildings on the southern-most side are an exception to this – an anomaly that the developer seeks to exploit. Stroud Green Road Rowans hall  Planning: out of control ? THIS appears to be another example of poorly A view thought-through regeneration around a Tube station. We have seen this at Pub: the 12 Pins: westwards at Wards Corner, with the ill-judged proposal c. 45° to the ground above the Seven Sisters Tube station. Lidl’s supermarket There, one company (Grainger) has become practically a client of a planning department where the council unwisely signed up to a A503 Finsbury Park contract that embodies 1990s ‘re-generation’ concepts. If council planning officials stopped making big mistakes, real progress could be were actually built, they would be used as a  Curtilage made. precedent to build yet higher buildings in the MORE housing is needed in London, but surely This proposal too, meets developer needs area that would cast even longer shadows. not just anywhere at any cost to other public rather than broader local community needs. The four and five story blocks appear to policy goals. The apartment blocks along the have penthouse floors on top (of lower than long eastern side of our park (in Hackney However, there is a great opportunity here Borough) are not only attractive buildings full-floor height), inset within what appears to make amends for some previous planning and have a view over the park but, in contrast to be roof-gardens. These are just visible in failures by adopting a wholly community to the Rowan’s proposal, are at a reasonable focused approach and that will genuinely meet the artist ‘impression’. Clearly none of this is distance by virtue of being beyond the wide the goal of a town centre. intended to be ‘key’ worker accommodation. margin of Seven Sisters Road (the A503).

2013 August ~ [email protected] 9 up would have a solution that was genuinely 45° oblique view to south ‘permeable’ and that was unobstructed. The cost of the land could be shared between three boroughs, perhaps from other sources too, and it need not happen in the short term. A similar, long-term strategy could be adopted towards the unattractive triangular patch of land opposite the bus station (see: Triangulation). If there was a real will of the three Boroughs to co-operate to come up with a scheme in the public interest, then the area could be transformed and radically improved.

 Conclusion WE HAVE seen a previous scheme in the area that favoured a single development, in this unco-ordinated fashion. Consent for the skyscraper twin towers is now regarded as a mistake and the current narrow proposals threaten to make a further mistake.  A lack of ambition so far  A real town square Unless and until the councils can come up THIS is little more than one developer’s THE GOAL for a developer quick-win is at with a long term approach that puts the public interests contrived to fit to public goals. It odds with the long-term community interests. first, I suggest that there be no further token lacks ambition and doesn’t come close to Except for cost, it would be desirable from piecemeal efforts. meeting the real needs of the area. What is many view-points if there were many fewer offered by the developer would preclude a buildings on the southern-most corner of our What is needed is an overall plan that, more ambitious scheme that would truly fulfil park. The building on the corner, housing The in the long-term, links the main elements the worthy goals of a Finsbury Park Town Twelve Pins pub, is not unattractive and may in an integrated fashion, rather than a bitty Centre – and the public interest. be worth keeping. A clean-out and squaring approach that happens to fit in with a single private property owner’s current plans.

10 comments on the Rowan proposals for a ‘Town Centre’ at Finsbury Park 45° oblique view to east

Triangulation If the creation of Right top bus station; triangular a town square were truly the object, then bloc on right the biggest single thing that could be done to promote it, would be to acquire the triangular middle the triangular bloc bloc marked above in yellow. If converted to open bottom bloc frontage on A503 space, it could form the basis of a plaza or piazza. It would (Seven Sisters Road) better link this major transport hub with Seven Sisters road and the shops behind and open up many possibilities. With a pedestrian and cycle flyover, it could link with our park.

2013 August ~ [email protected] 11 A harder option but better in the long term?

What is proposed is a half-baked measure provision of a gateway into the Park, replacing agree on an appropriate gateway to the park that is just not up to the challenge. The heavy the existing entrance from Stroud Green Road from Stroud Green Road. use of jargon clothes a scheme that puts beside the railway embankment and improved These are modest goals given the ambitions developer interests ahead of public interest. visibility and access between Finsbury Park and for a town centre. The cut through is no more At 4.2.16, Haringey Council’s emerging the station. than an excuse for a big property development Site Allocations Document will set out the At 5.1.3, the SPD seeks to improve and the planners go along with it. appropriate uses for the Rowan Site. The entrances to the Park and for Islington For Haringey Council, the site is perhaps Council’s aspirations for the site include the Haringey and Rowan’s to work together to

12 comments on the Rowan proposals for a ‘Town Centre’ at Finsbury Park important to the other two 45° oblique view north boroughs. This one- developer proposal falls short. With enough will and a commitment to the real goals, the potential however is enormous. view towards Rowan’s from The wrong the busy bus station at ground decisions will last for level – compare with the artist’s decades; the exaggeration. This photo in August right one could transform the 2013 shows the canopy still present! area. A wide structure for more important that the other two. The walking or cycling, flying big transport hub of View from top of over Stroud Green Road debouches at the southernmost tip of entire bank near railway could link a new town square line, looking Borough, the part nearest to central London, with our Park and link to the south, of Rowan’s which is Finsbury Park itself. improvements already made hall. Cycle park It is the Gateway to Haringey but, lying at at top right; at the station, including the Finsbury Park the far end of one of London’s bigger parks, giant steel canopy. railway station the area as a town centre is perhaps more beyond

2013 August ~ [email protected] 13