Stone Acre Gayfield Square Ltd seeks planning permission to demolish the former garage, workshop and gallery spaces at the north-west corner of Gayfield Square and build residential apartments in their place (Ref. 17/03392/FUL; 17/03393/CON).
The new block would consist of 11 flats: two studios, one 1-bedroom, six 2-bedroom, two 3-bedroom.
It harks back to a previously consented scheme (Ref. 13/03377/FUL) for the site by revisiting:
an ordered vertical design using natural stone detailing. It respects the traditional form, scale and pattern of development in the area, but provides a positive contrasting contemporary approach, thus enhancing the Conservation Area.
Materials used include (comparatively little) buff ashlar sandstone, (comparatively much) buff brick infill, slimline powder coated aluminium glazing, mid-grey ‘equitone cementitious cladding’, framelss glass balustrades, and reuse of an existing rubble wall. (See elevations here.)
Lockable bicycle storage would be accessed from the street. There would be no on-site car parking places.
Auld acquaintance
Spurtle has grown attached to the low-quality and ramshackle buildings currently in place. We like their surprising variety of room sizes, voluminous basements, high ceilings, expanses of bare wall, and abundance of daylight.
We’re also fond of the uses to which these spaces have been put since 2000, and the way they have fostered creative, young, challenging and sometimes eccentric talents right in the heart of so much Georgian architectural sobriety.
Whilst Spurtle’s heather has not been set aflame by this alternative, neither are we frothing at the mouth. In fact, as much as we’ll miss the old oddities, the new development has the potential to improve the neighbourhood.
Those living in adjacent buildings – long accustomed to no onlookers and uninterrupted skies – may well beg to differ.
