Published: 26 January 2012
by DAN CARRIER

RIVAL suggestions of how to rebuild parts of Camden Town’s canalside have been put forward, just weeks before councillors decide whether to give the green light to the massive redevelopment of Hawley Wharf.

The alternative plan has been devised by Hawley Wharf Working Group (HWWG), which is worried that the proposals being reviewed at the Town Hall lack character and gravitas.

HWWG – made up of residents, architects, businesses and community leaders – has been meeting developers Stanley Sidings and Chelsfield over four years to offer guidance and advice.

The area covered by the development stretches along the canal – where a fire wiped out market stalls in 2008 – and the industrial area behind Hawley Road.

The developers’ plans are for a multi-storey market mall, homes, offices, industrial units and potentially a primary school.

HWWG’s alternative proposals have been designed by architect Paul Whitley, who runs a practice in Old Street.

He claims his designs offer a solution to issues HWWG has with the current planning application – due to be heard by councillors at the end of February.

He said: “This scheme is the result of the discussions we have had over the past four years.”

It includes major changes to the layout of the Hawley Wharf area – including the height of buildings and their look – but without any significant loss of floor space. HWWG says this means it will be economically viable.

The current application shows large arches, which HWWG dislikes and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment has criticised, calling it “car park architecture”.

Mr Whitley’s alternative designs include three-foot wide brick columns and a new park buffering the market from Kentish Town Road Lock.

He said they would enhance the feel of working, shopping and living along the canal, yet maintain the waterside’s tranquillity.

His designs  use a rail viaduct as an architectural feature, with five arches leading into a public square.

He said: “We have architectural history to draw on. Camden Town has characteristics that have mass, gravitas and simplicity.”

The area devastated by fire in 2008 would have a two-storey sunken market, with workshops and homes above.

HWWG says the developers’ plans create “mean and narrow spaces” surrounded by an overbearing shopping mall.  

Mr Whitley said: “We want to create a multi-layered street with workshops that would include space for people to sell the things they make.

That is how Camden Lock used to be.

It creates a relationship between making and selling and not just importing cheap goods, which is what it has become.”

His new designs include a  sunken performance space, art gallery and a  cinema.

There would be a public square with colonnades.

The plans have been drawn up with the backing of other members of HWWG.

Peter Clapp, an architect, and Peter Darley, an expert in the history of Camden Town, want to see the public spaces larger – and their request for a Borough Market-style food area included.

Mr Clapp said: “Current plans for a farmers’ market are outdoors.

If it is to work, it has to be covered.

“The success of Borough Market is because it is under cover.

We’ve told the developers this time and again but it has just been ignored, like so much else.”

The developers were given a presentation on the alternative designs before Christmas.

Developer Sir Stuart Lipton said: “They have drawn up an interesting proposal.

It is disappointing it has not come out before.”

But he would not be changing course, he said.

“We know the viability of our proposals, but do not know the viability of theirs,” he added.

“It is an interesting piece of work but we just do not know the figures behind it.

“What we are being told by Camden is we should move on with our current scheme.

We have taken on some of the ideas of the Hawley Wharf Working Group in our scheme but not all of them.

Their priorities are different.”

See Comment

Lock stocktaking New owners promise ‘a little tweaking’

CAMDEN Lock Markets, the firm that manages the area’s stalls and shops, was sold at the turn of the year to a new company backed by property investor Brockton Capital and retail giant Milligans, writes Dan Carrier.

The two groups have come together to form the Urban Market Company.

They reportedly have spent around £40m to buy the site, which is around an acre in total and runs north of the canal and Camden Lock to where Stables Market starts.

Brockton director David Marks said they intended to look at the site for at least a couple of months and hoped to improve the bars and food side of the business.

He added: “It is not broken but it may improve with a little tweaking.

There have been a lot of success stories come out of Camden Lock over the decades and we want to encourage that.”

The new owners said the markets were bucking the high street trend towards empty shops and lower sales.

They believe Camden Lock could provide a model for new markets across the country.

Brockton Capital owns The Mailbox in
Birmingham – a former Royal Mail centre that has been turned into a high-end shopping mall, which includes a branch of upmarket department store Harvey Nichols.