Alan Stanton
Regeneration or Degeneration?
14 June 2011. A panorama "stitched" from three photos showing the stalls which were then in the forecourt of Bruce Grove Station in High Road Tottenham.
Both the station building (at the rear on the right) and the adjoining shops and building facades benefited from external "heritage" funding to preserve some of Tottenham's historic buildings. This also had the aim of regenerating businesses in the central section of the High Road.
Stalls into Shacks
Unfortunately, Haringey's Planning and Regeneration Department allowed the erection of temporary market stalls in front of the arches of Bruce Grove Station, owned by Network Rail. It seems that "temporary" then become indefinite.
Following conservation of the station building several years ago, the area where the stalls were erected was a publicly accessible courtyard with trees and seating. Behind the courtyard were retail units in the railway arches.
The jumble of stalls completely defeated the intention of the restoration. The station building itself was partly obscured. We lost the courtyard to a mess of ugly, plastic covered shacks. These also undermined the work done to restore and upgrade the nearby building facades. Work which cost many millions and was paid for from both public and private funds.
I'm not suggesting that the original restoration of Bruce Grove Station was ideal. Far from it. An opportunity for a more imaginative scheme was squandered. The conservation was more like constipation with no attempt made or permitted for the sort of modern, 'green', and stylish updating of railway stations - including commercially successful arch units we now see around London and other cities.
The courtyard might have become public space. Instead the pavement remains narrow and cluttered. At the rear of the station in Moorefield Road, a small corner continued to be used as an informal pissoir. (It featured in an Urban Design book as an example of what not to do.*) Former councillor Ray Dodds told me he'd suggested a platform-level office which could attract a minicab business and encourage better use of the station. He told me this was rejected.
By 2011 we had the worst option.
I sometimes wondered if Haringey Planning and Regeneration Department was proud of this degeneration? I was told by that a senior planning officer justified the stalls on the basis that it was "economic activity". Would they apply the same test to a posher part of Haringey? Or is it only in Tottenham that anything goes?
_________________________________________________
§ Aerial photo showing where these photos were taken.
§ * Where We Live; a Guidebook to Urban Design by Deer Park Alpha. Published by the Solent Centre for Architecture+Design and South East England Development Agency - SEEDA).
Regeneration or Degeneration?
14 June 2011. A panorama "stitched" from three photos showing the stalls which were then in the forecourt of Bruce Grove Station in High Road Tottenham.
Both the station building (at the rear on the right) and the adjoining shops and building facades benefited from external "heritage" funding to preserve some of Tottenham's historic buildings. This also had the aim of regenerating businesses in the central section of the High Road.
Stalls into Shacks
Unfortunately, Haringey's Planning and Regeneration Department allowed the erection of temporary market stalls in front of the arches of Bruce Grove Station, owned by Network Rail. It seems that "temporary" then become indefinite.
Following conservation of the station building several years ago, the area where the stalls were erected was a publicly accessible courtyard with trees and seating. Behind the courtyard were retail units in the railway arches.
The jumble of stalls completely defeated the intention of the restoration. The station building itself was partly obscured. We lost the courtyard to a mess of ugly, plastic covered shacks. These also undermined the work done to restore and upgrade the nearby building facades. Work which cost many millions and was paid for from both public and private funds.
I'm not suggesting that the original restoration of Bruce Grove Station was ideal. Far from it. An opportunity for a more imaginative scheme was squandered. The conservation was more like constipation with no attempt made or permitted for the sort of modern, 'green', and stylish updating of railway stations - including commercially successful arch units we now see around London and other cities.
The courtyard might have become public space. Instead the pavement remains narrow and cluttered. At the rear of the station in Moorefield Road, a small corner continued to be used as an informal pissoir. (It featured in an Urban Design book as an example of what not to do.*) Former councillor Ray Dodds told me he'd suggested a platform-level office which could attract a minicab business and encourage better use of the station. He told me this was rejected.
By 2011 we had the worst option.
I sometimes wondered if Haringey Planning and Regeneration Department was proud of this degeneration? I was told by that a senior planning officer justified the stalls on the basis that it was "economic activity". Would they apply the same test to a posher part of Haringey? Or is it only in Tottenham that anything goes?
_________________________________________________
§ Aerial photo showing where these photos were taken.
§ * Where We Live; a Guidebook to Urban Design by Deer Park Alpha. Published by the Solent Centre for Architecture+Design and South East England Development Agency - SEEDA).