Off-Plan Hutches
Woolwich Road, SE10
Tell me - are these not the most horrid little rabbit hutches you ever saw? A few short months ago this was a petrol station - at the end of Woolwich Road, next door but one to East Greenwich Library.
Now what I can only describe as (slightly) overgrown shoeboxes are being shoved up at a rate of knots. They are being sold as "off-plan" apartments - clearly "investments" for prospective landlords to make a killing on. Each one is long and thin and crammed-in next to its neighbours.
I can only assume it will be so dark inside it will need the lights on all the time, and each unit looks so small they might just as well have built a pile of those "container houses" on the site. Now admittedly they're not as small as they first look - each one is three scaff-bars across - but believe me - they're still tiny.
There are probably people out there that think I am totally anti-development. This is absolutely not true. I don't object to apartment blocks per se. No, really I don't. I don't even object to apartment blocks on the site of old petrol stations - after all that Jet garage was hardly a vision of loveliness (albeit ocasionally useful.) But these flats - clearly being designed as rental accommodation - are mean in virtually every respect. Surely somebody could have designed something a bit better than this? Someone's got to live in these.
If, for some inexplicable reason, you're interested, folks, hold onto your hats. A one-bedroom flat will set you back £ 230,000 and one of the two three-bedroom "duplexes" will cost a staggering £ 447,000. If you want a live-work 'space,' factor-in a whopping £ 450,000.
The Phantom weeps.
http://www.propertyliaisons.co.uk/
Tell me - are these not the most horrid little rabbit hutches you ever saw? A few short months ago this was a petrol station - at the end of Woolwich Road, next door but one to East Greenwich Library.
Now what I can only describe as (slightly) overgrown shoeboxes are being shoved up at a rate of knots. They are being sold as "off-plan" apartments - clearly "investments" for prospective landlords to make a killing on. Each one is long and thin and crammed-in next to its neighbours.
I can only assume it will be so dark inside it will need the lights on all the time, and each unit looks so small they might just as well have built a pile of those "container houses" on the site. Now admittedly they're not as small as they first look - each one is three scaff-bars across - but believe me - they're still tiny.
There are probably people out there that think I am totally anti-development. This is absolutely not true. I don't object to apartment blocks per se. No, really I don't. I don't even object to apartment blocks on the site of old petrol stations - after all that Jet garage was hardly a vision of loveliness (albeit ocasionally useful.) But these flats - clearly being designed as rental accommodation - are mean in virtually every respect. Surely somebody could have designed something a bit better than this? Someone's got to live in these.
If, for some inexplicable reason, you're interested, folks, hold onto your hats. A one-bedroom flat will set you back £ 230,000 and one of the two three-bedroom "duplexes" will cost a staggering £ 447,000. If you want a live-work 'space,' factor-in a whopping £ 450,000.
The Phantom weeps.
http://www.propertyliaisons.co.uk/
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
18:01
13 Comments:
As a VERY close neighbour to these Rabbit hutches I can only think that the Rabbits concerned must have very low expectations of space. I suppose we should be grateful that no one has used the words 'affordable housing' regarding them yet.
Have you also heard the one that Lewis's Coach Company might be going and more 'flats' being built? God, help us. I know that London is going to make a profit from the Olympics (eventually....) but can we try to get some cash back to the people who have paid up front for the games instead of lining the pockets of the property developers?
Perhaps while we're on that strip of road, someone can explain what on earth is going on with that 'Blue building'. The main living area is exposed to the front of Woolwich Road and there are, as far as I can tell, no curtains or blinds. I have yet to see anyone bold enough to sit in their living room or turn the lights on. It looks like a big load of wasted, unloved, badly-planned space.
What's going on?
Hideous, isn't it - and for those of us who watched it go up, not just in the exterior. I had to chuckle at an article by some architect in Meridian who was talking about the developments in East Greenwich and tactfully referred to it as "the less well-regarded Blue Building."
What gets me is the finish. That blue bit of board behind the name - the two bits don't actually quite marry-up.And those bits of wire that are supposed to cover the bodges underneath are bodges themselves.
And (I know this is turning into one of those terrible "and another thing" posts) can anyone tell me why they got planning permission for a nursery in the ground floor when there's already a well-established one not thirty second's walk away? I notice that no one's taken them up on it.
I suspect that those strange glass rooms (described, by the way, as "winter gardens," by the estate agents) will just be used for drying washing...
By the comments posted about this article I can tell that "planing" is a touchy subject in Greenwich. Having dealt with the planning department myself and the headaches that caused me I now despair at the lack of foresight and co-ordination, lack of infrastructure all these develoments seem to have in-common.I see Inc has taken over at the develoments next to the Cutty Sark pub in what should have been a community centre,this is happening all over Greenwich in several of the large high density housing schemes. Our world heritage site is now plagued with a view of a shoddy Tower block on Norman Road that must be 20 plus storeys. Two of our markets are up for development and I am begining to feel that we are living in one big building site/money making machine! Sorry to go on , I feel much better now thanks. Oh and Phantom I think the new nursery will be needed for all the new Rabbit Hutches because if there is one thing rabbits are good at they breed like...........
No - I can't believe you could fit a baby in one of them...
Applying for planning permission for small persoanl extensions etc is an arduous and random process. yet they seem very happy to allow a whole plethora of bland tower block developments elsewhere.
My partner works in housing (the council - but not Greenwich) and he informs me that all of these live work units and indeed The Blue Building nursery are merely incorporated to achieve government targets. Each development must include an element of commercial space as well as living accomodation so that they can get planning permission. The developers have absolutely no intention of actually housing a nursery on the site as is well shown by The Blue Buildings lack of fitting out. Also, have you seen any of the live work units actually running a business from the 'work' bit over a Millenium Village?
It is, apparently, a big con!
So it's all a swizz. We have to look at those empty grimy windows forever - until they are joined by the new batch that will adorn that uninspiring, grisly "heart" for East Greenwich - more empty shops for London Tumbleweed ("London Lite" and "The London Paper") to blow around in the deserted alleys that go to yet more depressing high-density housing.
As if we didn't already have enough dead shops along Woolwich and Trafalgar Roads. And yet, I am told, the rents are sky-high and people can't afford to start new businesses in them.
Aarrgh!
Hey I live in the Blue Building! Thanks for the personal attack Phantom ha ha! Each to their own I guess!
By the way, the the "winter garden" (it's basically an enclosed balcony) is not the main living area, just an enclosed balcony which actually turns into another room which you don't usually get in a 2 bed flat.
Re the nursery, I spoke to the developers about it the other day, apparently there was not enough demand for it (surprisingly!), so now it will become a comunity centre.
Community Centre is good. Any timescale?
Not sure to be honest, he just said they were in discussions.
A community centre? Hmmmmm...I don't like to put the dampners on this idea but I can't really see LBG funding a brand new community centre when we have the one down Armitage Road on the estate. Also, don't forget the new 'Heart of East Greenwich' will have community facilities.
I hate to predict the future but I see a 'corner shop' or fast food outlet taking up residence in the fullness of time after the developers have the change of planning consent to an A3 usage. It is a well trodden path, unfortunately.
No demand? Teddies has a two year waiting list despite the fact that it's a fortune compared to other nurseries. I smell a lie.
MJM
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