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Tag Archives: Planning
My old snapshot from 1991 shows how the London skyline has changed utterly – and how it has stayed the same
Sorting through some old photos in my cellar a few months ago I came across a snapshot of the London skyline I took, as a callow 17-year-old, in the autumn of 1991. Out of curiosity, in late 2014 I went back … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Architecture, Conservation, History, London, Planning, Post-Modernism, Tall Buildings
1 Comment
The supporters of new roads across the Thames are stuck in the past. Without rail links they’d be a disaster for east London
The new road link would, the experts say, create a “corridor of opportunity”. It would “relieve congestion”, “improve accessibility” and “be of inestimable benefit to the capital”. It will, one supporter argues, “take longer-distance traffic off the existing main roads… … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Boris Johnson, Bridges, Environment, Gallions Reach, Greenwich, Labour, Planning, Politics, Railway, Silvertown Crossing, Thames, Transport
3 Comments
A Garden Bridge? No thank you, Joanna Lumley: London is ‘Bosky’ enough already
What’s not to like about the proposed Garden Bridge across the Thames? It’s designed by Thomas Heatherwick, a walk-on-water design superstar who came up with the Olympic Cauldron as well as the new Routemaster bus. It would, we are told, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Architecture, Boris Johnson, Garden Bridge, History, Joanna Lumley, London, Planning, Waterloo
1 Comment
Labour can take pride in its school rebuilding programme. Even if this one was finished nine years behind schedule
Last Monday (November 3rd) I was at the grand opening of the John Roan School in Blackheath (the school lies in the ward I represented as a councillor until May 2014, and I used to be a governor there). Despite the big … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Architecture, Conservatives, Education, Greenwich, History, John Roan School, Planning, Politics
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What happens when politicians and developers meet behind closed doors – and why Unite’s wrong to call the meetings off
What happens when politicians and property developers meet behind closed doors? According to Vince Passfield, Unite’s deputy regional secretary for London, multi-national investors seek to “stitch up deals that would hit council tenants and leaseholders in the capital”. As a result Unite … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Architecture, Greenwich, Housing, Labour, Planning, Politics, Unite, Woolwich
2 Comments
The approval of Mount Pleasant’s “affordable” flats at £2,800 a month shows the rot of our planning system
Mount Pleasant matters. Formerly a prison, it’s one of the few large, undeveloped brownfield sites left in central London. Few object to redeveloping the unpleasant wasteland behind the Royal Mail’s sorting office, where Second World War bomb sites are still … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Architecture, Boris Johnson, Conservatives, Mount Pleasant, Planning, Royal Mail
8 Comments
The new University faculty is the best thing built in Greenwich for decades. Critics should be careful what they wish for
There’s a paradox about development in Greenwich (the town, not the borough) in the last 15 years. Schemes that commanded near-universal support when they were first proposed (the glass bubble around the Cutty Sark, which makes it look like its … Continue reading