Finsbury Park Station/City North Development

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  • You'll note from the Clifton House link that the proposed lease runs until 2026. Expect 2026 to be the year that the whole thing is demolished and redeveloped. I'd expect to see a planning application for a substantial tower to appear a few years before that date.

    Somewhat surprised it's taking that long, but perhaps the owners want the City North site to be well bedded in before applying for another tower.
  • I predict not as Brexit impact will have truly hits us by then
  • grennersgrenners Ferme Park Road, N4
    ..........predict yes....
  • I can see a Falling Down situation occurring in Stroud Green before long if Brexit is not reversed.

    I don't want skimmed. I want soya.

    Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry, we don't sell soya.

    Yeah, I'm real sorry too. (pulls out an Uzi)
  • Under the bridges really is awful at the moment, compounded by the infernal drips falling in random places from above.
  • The second mockup image in that article shows the rail symbol as well as the TfL one above what will be the new tube entrance. Does anyone know whether that means the train platforms will also be accessible from that side?
  • Urgh, that was the worst one.

    @minim: Yes. There will be two entrances heading into the station from the new concourse. One will join the exiting main tunnel that has the various stairs leading down to the tube - it will open out at the end of the corridor where you currently turn left to head towards the Seven Sisters exit.

    The other entrance will open into an extension of the tunnel that is right in front of you when you enter via the National Rail entrance - it's currently hidden by a door just before you turn right to go up the stairs to the National Rail corridor. That extension tunnel will have lifts and stairs going up to the National Rail platforms, one of which will also go down to the underground.

    The new concourse: https://www.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/hero_tablet/public/thumbnails/image/2015/02/13/10/finsbury1.jpg

    The new station plan (except that the sticking-outy brown bit on the left won;t be there, as that's the old tunnel that lead to the Wells Terrace entrance)

    https://www.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/hero_tablet/public/thumbnails/image/2015/02/13/10/finsbury4.jpg

    Make sense?
  • edited January 2018
    Thanks for the info, @Arkady. Combined with the higher number of Thameslink trains going to St Pancras and onwards from May this year, my commute might well become a lot less unpleasant...
  • It's going to change a lot of people's commute hugely, even if they don't realise it yet!
  • Oh yeah it's going to be such a big change ! And not to mention the direct link to Gatwick! These will be a couple of interesting years for the area!
  • @arkady so from the new passageway (4) is there going to be access directly onto NR platforms? I can't picture how they will fit in
  • Yeah. By lift, but also by a new set of stairs going up to the mezzanine corridor, much like the existing stairs at the Station Place end. So you'll enter corridor 4 which will stretch out before you with lifts running along it and Station Place in the distance, but immediately on your left you'll have stairs going up to the upper corridor which itself has stairs going up to the NR platforms.

    If you go up onto the mezzanine corridor at the moment you'll notice that the end of it by the spiral stairs is closed off- the new stairs will be behind that hoarding.

    And yes, it's a massive fudge and they should do a London Bridge on it but £££££££££.
  • Oh any stairs access is better than i expected!
  • edited January 2018
    I wonder if the flats are sold? The people that get excited about the arrival of towers usually actually live in nice period properties. Would anyone here choose to live in a tower block given the choice?
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/26/ghost-towers-half-of-new-build-luxury-london-flats-fail-to-sell
  • It's usually cheaper to live in a period property than a modern tower, which answers that part of your question. I'd give my eye teeth for a flat in the City North development. A big part of the problem is that the cost of those new flats is artificially high as they're being pitched as investments for overseas buyers rather than at people who want to buy them to live in. It possible that some tweaking of the rules would simultaneously bring down prices and increase occupancy rates, though doubtless that would make some projects unviable. That might well be a good thing though.
  • @Arkady, like higher council tax for unoccupied properties? I'd support something like that or equivalent.
  • Yeah. Perhaps an escalating tax for each month unoccupied.
  • edited March 2018
    Arkady, it seems you are unusual in your desire to live there.

    Interestingly, if you speak to those who properly know London property - ie whose job has been buying and selling it for decades and by that I don't mean your common or garden estate agent - they point out that domestic buyers just don't want these new-build tower flats.

    The average premium on a new build is 30% on existing stock - but British owner occupiers prefer the existing stock, or at a push will buy new builds that reflect it.

    Developers would need to sell the City North-style flats at a discount to existing homes to really shift them to mainstream British buyers.

    That creates a vicious circle where the new build towers are marketed more to overseas buyers and get packed with all the gyms, pools and bells and whistles that pushes up the cost and the service charge even more - and thus makes them even less attractive to domestic buyers.

    Mind you, if the bottom falls out of the new build market, then you can negotiate some big discounts. I know people who bought flats at Highbury in the Arsenal stadium development and at Hornsey Baths for massive discounts in about 2008 or 2009.

  • Nice to see the second set of southbound stairs open again, and the end of the one-way system. Should we open a book on how long it takes for the new stairwell to start leaking again?
  • They've been open a couple of weeks now. I've been using the other entrance for about a month. If you gave it a try after about 8.30 and there weren't many people about they would usually let you through the big two-way gate.
  • Really!? I use the station every morning and I'm struggling to accept that I haven't noticed that the right-hand stairs have been open for two weeks.
  • Definitely been open for a couple of weeks.

    I struggle to work our geographically where they can go so avoid them.
  • edited June 2018
  • End of next year?
  • edited April 2018
    They reopened on the Saturday two weeks ago.
    They take you a bit further down the Piccadilly line platform - toward the back of westbound trains. I mostly travel late morning and like to avoid museum bound school groups who all get on in the middle.
  • edited November 2018
  • Yeah the linear block has gone up like the clappers.
  • The new entrance will mean that we can avoid the long trek under the railway bridges to get into the station. There were plans to redecorate that area but no action yet.

    I noticed that Work has started in fitting out Clifton house where the Gym was situated - does anyone know what it is going to be?
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