Development of John Jones Site / Sketch House

NorthNineteen

Anyone heard any rumours who is going into the new retail unit on the corner by Sainsburys? It's going to be a fairly decent size, ~50% bigger than Exeter St I reckon.<br>

JoeV

I thought there would be retail units along Lennox Road as well.

Arkady

Nope, just on the corner.  Along Lennox road the ground floor is taken up by communal student facilities, and a lobby on the corner of Lennox/Clifton.

Arkady

N19 - you're good at this sort of thing.  It's obvious that the original plans (P100197) were amended, as they show all of the ground floor of the Arts Building as being used for framing - whereas in the end the corner ended up as the Essex Bakery with an arts space behind it.  I also see mention of a reconfiguration of the student exits.  but I can't find any iof the associated drawings.  Any ideas?

Sutent

I really hope we get an Oliver Bonas. We really need one on SGR Otherwise a Pizza express would be great, as we are getting a new cinema we could take advantage of EE Wednesday with buy one get one free pizza/cinema ticket

NorthNineteen

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;">Details of the retail unit:</span></font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;">http://planning.islington.gov.uk/NorthgatePublicDocs/00325513.pdf</span></font><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;">To me, this looks about the size for a Morrisons Local....</span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><span style="line-height: normal;">Also, there's reference to a 'Student Shopfront' - not sure what this means.</span></font></div>

NorthNineteen

@stutent I'm assuming that's sarcasm!

Perflexed

@<;a href="http://www.stroudgreen.org/profile/1847/NorthNineteen">NorthNineteen</a><div><br></div><div>I think you can, with confidence, assume correctly, as I think the the long standing officially recognised, non ironic term of reference is 'Oliver Fucking Bonas'. </div><div><br></div><div>People hate them so very,very much and yet, so far, or at least as far as anybody can tell, nobody knows what it is exactly they sell. </div>

gardener-joe

...

Arkady

SO, I know that I'm more interested than most in this project.  But is anyone else rather pleased with the quality of the brickwork that's going up on the Lennox road side?  I'd feared that they would go rather cheap and cheerful on the student accommodation, but it's looking rather nice - rather similar to old London stock bricks.  It's going up like the clappers, too.

ADGS

I noticed the road out front of JJ was sealed off with police tape circa 1830 tonight. Obviously I'm hoping it's the whole development being shut down for arboricide, but I realise that's unlikely - anyone know the story?

Arkady

According to Twitter, someone who 'didn't appear to be very serious' was threatening to throw themselves off a building on Wells Terrace.

Arkady

I grabbed a few photos of the various developments going up in Finsbury Park, taken from the 5th floor of John Jones last Friday afternoon. It was raining quite a lot.<div><br></div><div>Towards the City North Site:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0564.jpg"><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The student accommodation and raised square:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0577.jpg"><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0569.jpg"><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0568.jpg"><br></div><div><br></div><div>The Network Rail Site:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0580.jpg"><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0579.jpg"><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0578.jpg"><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The Station:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/IMAG0581.jpg"><br></div>

minim

Thanks for the photos. I had no idea the Network Rail site was so large. Guess it won't be that long until another big development is planned there. Looks like there's space for a large garden in that student development. It better be nice, at the price they're charging. I really don't see how students can get by nowadays with £9k a year fees and such high accommodation costs, but they're obviously confident they'll rent them all out.

Arkady

I don't know his they afford the accommodation, but the fees don't get paid back until they are earning 21k.

JoeV

Arkady -- what's under the 'raised square'? Just wondering why a proper open space couldn't be accommodated with trees. 

Arkady

@JoeV - the car park and unloading area, including access to Godfrey's. <div><br></div><div>So the ground floor looks like this:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/John Jones/GroundFloorPlan.jpg"><br></div><div><br></div><div>And then there is a square built on top of it like this:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/John Jones/FirstFloorPlan.jpg"><br></div><div><br></div><div>Very clever use of space.  It means that you don't have lots of vehicles loading and unloading on the street, blocking the road (it's a shame that Sainsbury's doesn't have rear access too).  </div><div><br></div><div>There's a similar thing at the new developments around St Pancras Square in King's Cross.  The six new buildings around the square all have a shared basement with a single entrance on St Pancras Rd:</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://twopancrassquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/shared-basement.png"><br></div><div><br></div><div>This sort of square doesn't preclude trees. The concrete deck includes massive sunken planters. So at John Jones...</div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae221/Redarkady/John Jones/Courtyard.jpg"><br></div><div><br></div>

NorthNineteen

I only caught a glimse on the bus but looks like the new retail units between the Sainsburys and World's End are being market at A3 use which basically means 'Restaurant, Cafe and Snack Bar'.<br><br>It's interesting as the original planning application was for A1 which is basically shops.  There is a lot of interchangability between A1-A4 use classes but suggests that a restaurant is target now and I also can't see an official change of use online.<br>

Arkady

I think the change of use for the bakery came rather after the fact.

miss annie

So, Starbucks, McDonalds, Pret what else do we think? Always amazes me that there isn't a McDonalds here.

Arkady

Please none of the above.

NorthNineteen

Or a restaurant; anything from Pizza Express to Honest Burger to a new independent Vietnamesse deli come Vinyl record store.<br>

Sutent

@N19. The Peri Peri chicken place is refurbished and open again.

kreuzkav

Hopefully any premises will adopt the following rules:<div><br></div><div>No beards, no board games (exception made to those over 40 playing chess), no craft beers (draft guinness, budvar and other decent pilsner's allowed).  No laptops or tablets allowed (especially by lone users of the premises).  </div><div><br></div><div>Books encouraged but lone drinkers not allowed to use the pretext of a reading a book to sit too close to couples as the couple might be on a first date. </div><div><br></div><div>The music policy should be pre-1990.  New York drone music encouraged.  </div><div><br></div><div>No big screen allowed to show sports unless it's tennis or curling.  Independent films are encouraged but only on special nights.  There has to be a poster in the window for at least two weeks announcing the latest Michael Haneke film</div><div><br></div><div>Food is limited to peanuts and crisps.  The term Gastro is not allowed.  </div><div><br></div><div>Also people are not allowed to shout too much in the pub.  Laughter must be genuine.</div>

Arkady

No customers

Arkady

A branch of Waterstones please. More realistically, a cute little <a href="http://www.watermarkbooks.com//">Watermark </a>books like they have in King's Cross Station.

krappyrubsnif

Kreuzkav, not so much The Moon Under Water as The Moon Drowned at Birth

Arkady

I'm with him on no big screens though. A plague.

kreuzkav

KRS 'The Moon Drowned at Birth' is a good name for the pub. <div><br></div><div>Arky, Big Screens would be allowed one night a week for quality films, tennis and curling. </div>

kreuzkav

We might even show a double bill of Dylan films : 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid' followed by 'The Last Waltz'.