As we showed back in April, the council are continuing to invest in the services of Fabrik, despite the failure of the two Levelling Up Fund bids totalling over £30M on which the two organisations collaborated. However, taking a positive view, times have moved on since April and HBC’s new executive team have assembled a greatly refreshed Regeneration Team, with new resources including experienced hires from Portsmouth City Council with familiarity with the Havant borough’s particular strengths and weaknesses .
Farnham-based Fabrik has also restructured, re-inventing itself as a 100% employee owned trust. We hope that introduces renewed focus on the deliverability of its designs, though the fact that the banner ‘New website coming soon’ continues to adorn the home page on its website doesn’t inspire confidence.
This post shows a couple of recently spotted previews of what might eventually become plans to deconstruct part of the existing Meridian Centre, essentially putting back what many longer term residents will remember as the West Street Arcade.
In a post from April on the New London Architecture website, which architect RM_A presents the proposal thus:
“Innovative ideas to address challenges faced by a local shopping centre by harnessing the benefits of re-use and re-purposing over demolition. Severing the existing frame recreates a historic throughfare, revealing a structure where new uses could flourish. Social value underpins a sustainable design for the whole community, inspiring ‘ownership’.”
Which roughly translates as:
“We propose to demolish part of the Meridian Centre and put back the West Street arcade to link West Street to Market Parade.”
There’s more.
“‘A day in the life’ [which sounds worryingly like another Fabrik document] shows its potential for inclusivity and accessibility to encourage this, a lifeline for social connections and a catalyst to reinvigorate wider regeneration and local economy.”
Without paying to peep through the website’s paywall, sadly that’s all we can bring you right now. With luck, we’ll soon be getting a new update from the Regeneration team. Until then, here’s a reminder of what was there before a previous architect, Wren, had a go at it.
Havant Civic Society 