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"....the drawing should be available to view tomorrow [wednesday 16th feb 2010] evening."
Arky
On the whole I think this looks very impressive. I'd like to see detailed renders of the facades though.
Arky
Hope you're right about the streetscape, it certainly needs doing.
Arky
The archaeological documents in there are worth a look as they include old street maps showing what the area used to be like. There were an awful lot of fields in 1862...
They still haven't put the actual plans up, I shall chase again tomorrow in a more threatening tone.
Incidentally, I have a brief meeting with the CEO of Argent - the company responsible for the Kings Cross redevelopment - on Monday. If anyone has any questions they would like me to ask I'd be happy to. There's a slight SG connection, as the planned student accommodation on the John Jones site is aimed at catering for students at the University of the Arts which will shortly be moving to the KX development.
Arky
plans may be viewed online, but I am hopeful that this will be before
mid-next week at the latest."
Arky
Re the building next to us that has stalled - did it really used to be a cinema? When we moved in it was a bit of a sweatshop as far as we remember - something to do with fashion garments.
On a separate note, I heard recently that the old Sense building on Clifton Terrace is being turned into a 350 seater theatre...
It’s a shame that Godfrey’s don’t want to get involved. What’s their take on it?
There’s some history of the cinema on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Stroud_Green,_London
Best of luck, Arky
A
I think the development looks really good but the yellow car wash will look a bigger eye sore now.
As a long standing customer of Godfrey’s I have picked up my Christmas meat’s from Finsbury park for years now. And I also find it very useful throughout the year because parking restrictions in Highbury Barn. I hope Godfrey stays on the site. I wonder to what the Godfrey’s take on it is .
I also wonder if Godfrey’s would consider opening a shop on the corner for retail, I’m sure it would be a great success and good for the area too. This is a butchers shop that was voted by the public as London’s best local shop.
A bit of our background might be helpful. We are 4th generation butcher family, with the 5th generation starting work next year. We have had premises in Highbury barn since 1905, and had other shops in the borough over the past century.
We moved into Morris Place 15 years ago, and were over the moon with a modern purpose built catering unit within half a mile of our shop, and less than 10 minutes into the City and West End.
We bought the freehold to our site the same time as John Jones Ltd did.
We have been approaching on a very casual basis a few times by John Jones with a view to buying our premises, but we didn't want to sell as we feel our whole family ethos is based on work and great service, not sitting back in Marbella with a cocktail!.
More recently we were asked by Spiritbond if there were any circumstances in which we would vacate our premises, and we agreed on the basis that they found us similar premises within easy reach of our customer base. We even employed our own agent with a view to finding this property. The only option given to us was a move to Hornsey, more than half and hour away. This would have meant making some of our team redundant. Many of our staff currently use the night bus to come to work, but that does not go out as far as Hornsey. So we declined.
Since that time, apart from the invitation to view the plans at John Jones they seem not to want to deal with us anymore. And have decided to build around us.
We have always had a good relationship with John Jones, and were in favour of the redevelopment, especially if it meant we could perhaps have a shop front and the catering unit above. So perhaps if they are out there reading this - Come over and talk to us!
I may have been a bit disparaging about the design but I do like the in-built potential for extending the student blocks across over Godfrey’s in future should a mutually benefitial opportunity arise.
I was also somewhat appeased by the ambition to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ which should hopefully mean a fairly sustainable building (whatever 'sustainable' means!). Still think the design is a bit bland overall. How about something a bit more exciting like the new City North?!
>> How about something a bit more exciting like the new City North?!
With regards to BREEAM, the City North development doesn't reach the 70% mark (threshold for "Excellent") even from the outset. Interesting, because Islington Councils mandatory minimum is also "Excellent".