[Originally written as an email update to members] If you've been keeping an eye on the website, you'll be aware of the staggering amount of change happening around us. If you haven't, then please take the time to follow the links in this email to read more detail. While the primary focus of the Civic … Continue reading September Digest – A ‘perfect storm’ warning?
Category: Architecture
Planning Reform – Councillors are revolting!
Yes, you read that correctly. Following on from our post on the CPRE's take on the 'Planning for the Future' white paper, we're encouraged to read in the press today that 'a survey across Tory heartlands has revealed party representatives are baulking at ministers’ plans to sharply increase housing targets in electoral strongholds like Hampshire … Continue reading Planning Reform – Councillors are revolting!
Havant – Tired but lovely
The full set of photographs from an early morning walk around the town centre this week is now on the website after an earlier trail on Facebook. To view the set, click the image below.
Shoebox living – A warning for Havant?
A Sunday Times article on September 6 highlighted the issue of 'shoebox living', illustrated by a plan of six 'flats' in Southampton in a conversion from a former gas showroom. Retail unit converted to tiny flats in Shirley, Southampton. Developers are exploiting planning laws to convert empty banks, takeaways and barbers into tiny flats, causing … Continue reading Shoebox living – A warning for Havant?
North Street Arcade and its nitrate bill
You may have noticed the changes taking place during lock-down at the front of the North Street Arcade site. During the lockdown, the ill-starred Grastar Restaurant unit has been divided into two separate retail units while the former Dominos site has also been refurbished as a retail unit. The new flank walls suggest that the … Continue reading North Street Arcade and its nitrate bill
Behind the boards at the Wessex site
There's more concrete pumping going on this morning as the foundations take shape quickly now, burying for good the eyesore which was the Wessex Construction yard. We still think it rather a sad that more effort wasn't put into investigation of the industrial archaeology of the old town gas works now long gone, briefly visible … Continue reading Behind the boards at the Wessex site
Latest update on the Colt site
As you may have seen in today's Portsmouth News, Southampton based Drew Smith Homes have been awarded funding by Homes England to construct 95 homes on the former Colt site in New Lane, half of which will be offered as 'affordable homes'. It's difficult to make much sense of the illustration included on the press … Continue reading Latest update on the Colt site
The “Railway Cottages”, Langstone Road.
Following the disastrous fire last December, a planning application has recently been submitted for their rebuilding. The site is more formally known as 59 & 61 Langstone Road. The term "Railway Cottages" is something of a misnomer, as the cottages were late 18th century and thus predated the Hayling Billy line by 70+ years. It … Continue reading The “Railway Cottages”, Langstone Road.
A subterranean surprise at the Wessex site
Demolition at the Wessex site had been proceeding at a steady rate until the machinery struck thin air, exposing a large chamber about three metres deep on the site of the large workshop building on the New Lane side. The surprise find has been tentatively identified as the site of a coke oven, a Victorian … Continue reading A subterranean surprise at the Wessex site