‘Visionary’ film quarter anything but!
FORUM: Architect Tom Young takes a hard look at the proposals for development of a key site in Camden
Thursday, 28th November 2024 — By Tom Young
Bird’s eye view of the Regis Road area in Kentish Town
SINCE 2017 Camden has sought to concentrate growth in six areas of the borough, one of which is Kentish Town Regis Road.
Once again Regis Road is the subject of public consultation, the third one this year.
It’s all about the Kentish Town Planning Framework and the Yoo Capital-led plan to build the Camden Film Quarter.
The new consultation seeks our thoughts about a masterplan for new development across the whole Regis Road growth area.
Over the years Camden Council has sought to convince Kentish Towners they are getting something visionary or special. But, the site arrangement set out in the latest consultation could not be more prosaic.
What’s going on?
Well, Yoo and Camden don’t have much room for manoeuvre because they are stuck with the following awkward facts on the ground; the giant UPS depot, Regis Road, (for which there’s no alternative) and the shortage of land (Yoo and its partner control half of the masterplan area).
What Yoo can realistically offer us is a lot of housing built as large blocks alongside the North London viaduct and some industrial space next to the UPS depot site.
It’s time to remove the rose-tinted spectacles and take stock of the fact we will get a standard London development even with the brand-defining TV and film studios.
There’s a lot of similar stuff all over our city. The template isn’t King’s Cross as they’d have you believe: it’s Blackhorse Lane, North Acton, Camden Goods Yard etc.
It is all very ordinary but claims to be visionary and vibrant and award-winning.
The signature of this new pattern of brownfield site development is a new clump of tall buildings rearing incongruously out of a background of low-rise housing.
We’ve all seen it.
The property giant LandSec sums things up in their 2023 pamphlet More growth, more homes, more jobs.
They want planning authorities to streamline the production of clumps of housing stumps on brownfield sites.
They go straight for the political jugular: “Development on brownfield land is increasingly relied upon to drive investment and growth”.
Hey politicians, this is how you do it!
Apropos jobs, Camden says the masterplan will deliver 1,500 “new jobs”.
Given the huge increase in floor area that’s planned, one would expect far more.
In 2015 council consultants estimated there were 980 jobs in the existing industrial estate. Add the Holmes Road depot jobs and the total existing jobs was around 1,200.
Camden’s promise of 1,500 instead of 1,200 is not much “employment led growth”! It’s really a very poor offer.
Then there’s the talk about an inclusive economy and incorporating “affordable workspace”.
The existing estate had plenty of both. Camden’s consultant’s analysis of the industrial estate 10 years ago showed it also provided both low skilled and highly skilled work. Why demolish the estate then?
The underlying problem is the paucity of thinking about the growth we want.
Partnership with Yoo Capital saved Camden because, despite more than 12 years of work on the local planning framework, they had so few ideas of their own.
It’s typical that beyond the headline numbers for homes and jobs, the public case for the Regis Road redevelopment made by the authorities and their business partners is largely about “non materialistic” goods, for example, good urban design, “active frontages”, “a richly layered and characterful place”.
Important to note, even the bland promise of pedestrian and cycle prioritisation will be compromised by all the vehicle movements Regis Road and the Kentish Town Road junction must continue to carry.
After 12 years we don’t have an economic development plan for ordinary people: we just have a business model for a large property company; premium flats and premium workspace.
