Union Street PwC office rebuild

This story infuriates me http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/9108

I admit the 19th century warehouse is barely visible (except from Redcross Way, not that that makes it alright) but the 80's office block they're going to demolish is at least vaguely sympathetic to the area. (streetview)
It's got some nice arches anyway, whereas the proposed building is just a load of stupid rectangles.

If they want brand new offices why don't they move into one of the myriad new towers appearing all over the bloody place instead of smashing up decent serviceable buildings, ffs.
To justify tearing down the 150-year-old warehouse the man from the planning company said "They'd have to spend a lot of money on it to make it usable". Poor impoverished PriceWaterhouseCoopers can't afford to keep it, they have to destroy it and sell the bricks to make ends meet. Let's have a whip round for them.

This is a truly devastating result

The turn out for the committee meeting from local residents was extremely high, with many speaking out during and at the end of the meeting - begging for the decsion to be rejected or atleast differed.

It was clear the planning department was on the side of the developer
the case officers report was full of mistakes and highlighted by one of the committee members
CAAGs notes on the development were not taken into consideration - even though they are facilitated by Southwark to help advise on heritage matters.
the architect/developer had not consulted with any of the local residents and deemed it not necessary

by knocking down a building that had stood since the early 19thC, there maybe a possible 66 extra jobs - though this is never guaranteed, or even guaranteed to go to local people.

It is clear southwark have no interest in preserving the heritage of the area - the heritage that brings so many to this wonderful part of London

What is the life span of these buildings??
PwC current building has lasted 30 years
the warehouse has stood for 200 years

This is lazy design, heritage needs to be worked with - it will never be a new slick office building
but this is not what the borough is about.
if we all thought like this we would not have Maidstone Buildings / Trinity Church Sq etc....


Please watch and share this video of the shambles that was the committee meeting:

https://youtu.be/5aI0YF9ZHVQ

You like that dreary piece of dockland's vernacular that the new building will replace? It's about as sympathetic as a prison. Shame about the warehouse, but realistically what use is there for a warehouse, which has no architectural or historical special merits in this location? A vast loft apartment? Would you prefer that?

boatenberg wrote:

This is a truly devastating result..... What is the life span of these buildings??
PwC current building has lasted 30 years
the warehouse has stood for 200 years

Calling it devastating is somewhat overstating things. No office building pre about the mid 1990s is properly fit for purpose today. That's a function of changes in needs and technology. That's why so many are being demolished or converted to residential.

What use a warehouse, buried behind railways lines, shops and offices is I'm not sure, other than as a peculiar relic to a bygone age. It's no use as a ware house. The only use as offices would necessarily involve demolishing everything inside it and leaving a fundamentally dishonest shell filled with modern offices. Trust me here that if it would have proven a better idea to convert it into the only viable use; uber luxury warehouse loft apartments, then that is exactly what a bunch of bean counters, like PWC, would have done.

Things move on. I, for one, am happy to move on with them.

boroughbloke wrote:

You like that dreary piece of dockland's vernacular that the new building will replace? It's about as sympathetic as a prison.

Given the proximity to the old Marshalsea and Kings Bench prison sites, that would make it very sympathetic. And stylistically it is vaguely in keeping with the workhouse / warehouse history of the area, the character of which is what makes it generally attractive to people. I would say.

You can't stop progress but you can complain about it. Hopefully they'll sort out that old fashioned market near London Bridge and put a proper Westfield shopping centre there soon

PeteStaples wrote:

Hopefully they'll sort out that old fashioned market near London Bridge and put a proper Westfield shopping centre there soon

If the market ceased to be useful or relevant then why not? However, I suspect it is Westfield that will be gone before this happens. I doubt that sort of retail is going to last in the face of the online assault. You'll note how retail units are rapidly being filled with everything you can't buy online. Hence the abundance of Starbucks , Costas, nail bars, barbers, Prets etc. By the time this wave is complete it will be hard to fill a shopping centre the size of a Westfield with such things.

boroughbloke wrote:

You like that dreary piece of dockland's vernacular that the new building will replace? It's about as sympathetic as a prison. Shame about the warehouse, but realistically what use is there for a warehouse, which has no architectural or historical special merits in this location? A vast loft apartment? Would you prefer that?

Haha OK then "borough"bloke.

With my maintenance hat on though, those old quaint looking places are usually a nightmare to maintain and it generally costs fortunes to do so.

The hops warehouse is a piece of Borough history
without this the Hop Exchange would not exist.

There are many views of this warehouse and it is of vast significant size with many windows making the building totally usable.
It was used - until only a few weeks ago when works were moved out very quickly -t to help with planning.

I am not against development - but development that works with the history, conservation of the area.
Not only are you loosing a piece of history - the tale of how this area became the thriving place it is but the loss to why people actually come here in the first place.
Yes the 1980s building isnt pretty - lets see something better.
lets continue to have the view of Chapel yard - the loss of these court yards and alley ways - the fabric of the borough is huge - why are local people denied this?

what is the life expectancy of this new building? is it comparative to the 200years the hops ware house has already stood?

the star bucks method of business is aggressive and pushes out small local businesses, then sells its lease on to non competators - do we really need more tourist tat? more tescos, sainsburys, costa blah blah?
or something better

the borough deserves it
the people deserve it

the council needs to listen
not blindly vote on something without asking questions or reading the notes

if heritage is continued to be removed what will you have left?
a place that looks like anywhere else
how boring