39a - 49a Woodgrange Road- regeneration plans gain planning approval

This post is a summary of the regeneration plans currently out for consultation concerning 39a - 49a Woodgrange Road (between Gregg's and Barry's) - see map and photo for location, and updated as plans come to fruition.

It has been updated following planning committee discussions in March and May 2017. The committee finally approved the proposals at the second meeting. Scroll down for the details. It was updated in October 2018, as demolition work seemed imminent.

In the apparent absence of any other on-line "community forum", this blog can be used as a medium for people to share views on the proposals.  For full details of how this could work, see the footnote at the end of this article.

Most of the shops and buildings
 covered by the proposal

London Iron Works (LWI) is a medium sized east London-based firm of developers who have worked up proposals for the redevelopment of this small stretch of Woodgrange Road. They have nothing to do with the much larger and controversial plans put forward and then abandoned by Obsidian four years ago.

LWI held two consultation evenings on 21 and 22 March at Durning Hall. We attended, as did many others.  Helpful staff from the developers were on hand to answer questions, and as far as we could discern, they were very open and honest about the challenges and opportunities the proposals present.

Location map

Below is a short summary of what we discovered and felt worth sharing with others who were, perhaps, not able to attend.

We have no vested interest, whatsoever, in the outcome of the consultation, although, for the record, were impressed by the proposals. Let that, however, not inhibit those with alternative views from sharing their thoughts, below.

There are currently 12 retail units affected by the proposal.  They, and the accommodation behind, would be demolished.  The accommodation is largely officially vacant, although it is believed there are a number of squatters in situ.

The proposal would be to "revitalise" the shops. There would be no guarantee of tenure for the existing shops in the new development, and in any case they would have to close or move for at least 12 - 15 months around the rebuilding period (see anticipated timescale, below).

Artist's impression, from the south

Rents in the new shops will be considerably higher than those currently paid by the present occupiers.  This is likely to be a significant issue for Barry's, the butcher, for example.

The proposal is to construct around 60 residential units.  The exact mix will be subject to negotiation between developer and the council.  It would, for example, be in the financial interests of the developer to only build one-bedroom flats for sale.
  
The council, however, will wish to see some larger properties (2 and 3 bedrooms) to ensure a good demographic balance of families, singles etc in the development and also to guarantee that there is an appropriate mix of social and owner-occupied properties. The developers accept this, and negotiations between council and developers will determine the final outcome mixture.

Artist's impression, from Earlham Grove:
 flats on far right of drawing representation
 of separate development plan - see text

All, or almost all, units will have balconies, most of which will be south facing.
There will be some recreational space (roof gardens etc) in the development and provision for cycle parking.

There could be some consequential modifications to the local road lay-out and this will doubtless feature in the mix of negotiations between the developer and the council.

As mentioned above, London Iron Works, the developers are an east-end firm specialising in medium size developments, like this one, that aim to fit in with local community needs and are empathetic to the local architecture (so no 19 storey building proposals, here).

They are working with Newham council on other developments in Manor Park - near the railway station and in East Ham, in what was the old Co-op site (the car park next to the Denmark Arms).

Artist's impression, from corner of Hampton Road

Although they aim to be empathetic with Victorian architecture, they are building in and for the 21st century, so will not seek to replicate 1880s buildings.  In trying to be sympathetic, they will pay due regard to the local skyline, and brick work, for example.

Little is known about what is likely to happen to the former "Obsidian lands", although it is inconceivable, with the imminence of Crossrail, there will not be significant development proposals coming along soon.

It does seem likely that there will be a development, built around the same time as this Woodgrange Road one, a little behind it in Earlham Grove. It will be in the land boarded by blue hoardings, between Barry's and the Community Garden.

Artist's impression: front elevation

We understand that London Iron Works was interested in developing this too, but found negotiations around acquisition and planning extremely difficult. Instead, it would appear that the Council-back and owned Red Doors company is likely to do the construction and Swan Housing, who effectively run the council's outsourced housing management function, will operate the development.

We idly ask whether these council "insiders" found negotiating life for the plot as difficult as London Iron Works seemed to. You may smell a rat, we couldn't possibly comment.

It is interesting, however, that although this Earlham Grove development is being advanced by those with great insight into the local authority, its ways and, presumably the local community, they have not found it desirable or necessary to seek the views of the affected public on their proposals, as London Iron Works has.

Artist's impression of a possible floor plan

If you would like to comment to London Iron Works directly about their proposals, the e.mail address is WoodgrangeRoad@yourshout.org. Their freefone number is 0800 458 6976.

Anticipated timescale for Woodgrange Road proposals

Spring 2016 - exhibition and local consultation

Summer 2016 - having taken consultation on board, submit development scheme for planning discussion/consent

December 2016 - planning approval, or rejection.  If consent:

January 2017 - give one year's notice to quit to existing shops and tenants

January 2018 - begin construction work

Jan - March 2019 - completion of project: new owners/tenants move in.

Update - March 2017

Forest Gate North Councillor Rachel Tripp provided an update on progress with this application in her extremely good and detailed branch newsletter of 1 March 2017. It is quoted, verbatim, below.  A decision on the planning application was deferred by the Council in February, because of:

Concerns about parking, but I and other members expressed a number of other concerns based on the design we saw that night, including the design of the building, the density, the lack of family accommodation and the lack of affordable housing on the site.

I am not opposed to new developments, I'm not opposed to sympathetic modern design on a Victorian high street and I think this space on Woodgrange Road is a prime site for something that offers some retail and some residential, but I was glad that this iteration of the application was deferred and hope that the developer will go away and do some more work before it comes back.

Based on this, it would seem that the scheme will be at least three months behind the projected time-table outlined above, even if it is eventually approved in some form.

Update - May 2017

The planning application was approved, in an amended form by the Council on 16 May. The Committee document seems to be unavailable for access on the council website at present.

The proposal offered some new "mock-ups", pictured bellow. These are only illustrative, however, as the developer must seek final approval from the council's planners for the materials and colours of the facades they chose to use.  The green higher floors in the mock-ups below, for example, could be rejected for different colours and/or materials further down the building process.

Developers' CGI mock-ups of how the
 buildings might look, after Newham Council
 approval of the application

NB - the colour and materials in the final
 development will be subject to ratification
 by Newham's planners

Salient features of the approved development would appear to be:

• The development will only be 7 stories high
• There will be 75 flats in the development, with only 3 parking bays and 112 bike rack spaces. The parking bays will not be allocated to individual tenants.
• There will be no "affordable housing" in the development. Instead the developer will sell them all at market value. At Newham Council's request, instead of building any "affordable housing" in the development, the builders would pay the council £1.5m, which it will use to construct "affordable housing" elsewhere (presumably in Newham).
• Although not directly a feature of the development, local shoppers may be pleased to hear that Barry's, the butchers, have found alternative premises nearby.

Update October 2018

Eighteen months on from the original public consultation, referred to above, it looks as though demolition work is about to start on the site. Construction staff began the process of erecting barriers between the properties and the public highway on 8 October 2018.

Barriers being erected between the
buildings facing construction and the public
footpath on 8 October 2018

The work is about nine months behind the schedule envisaged by the original developers. The delay can be explained by the fact that there has been a change in developers during that period and the last tenants of the existing buildings did not vacate the premises until May this year.

The shops completely cleared and tenants
 in the flats above moved on, by June 2018

The new developer/builders are Gateway Housing Association, who also own the cleared and vacant block behind this Woodgrange Road one.  See here, for details of that Earlham Grove development.

The fact that one organisation owns both sites should simplify construction, minimise local inconvenience, avoid squabbles between developers and make life easier of local people during the 15-18 month construction period.

Gateway Housing Association began life as the Bethnal Green Housing Association in 1926 - and still manage their first block!

They grew steadily over the next seventy years, and merged with other east London Housing Associations in the process. They changed their name to Gateway Housing Association in 2008. See here for their website.

Their stock is still predominantly in Tower Hamlets, but they have expanded more into Hackney and Newham over recent years.  They currently manage 3,000 homes, the majority for social rent. They plan to build 500 homes over the next three years.

The 80 flats proposed for the Earlham Grove development and the 75 in this development will constitute about a third of their building plans over the next three years - and so be a substantial invetsment for the Housing Association, who have a very real vested interest in ensuring that their future housing stock is built to a high standard.


Woodgrange Road will be transformed over the next 18 - 24 months, with the promised comletion of Crossrail within a year, these two developments at or near completion and the anticpated go-ahead for 33 flats at the Methodist church, opposite (see here).

138 Earlham Grove

No sooner had demolition work began on 39a - 49a Woodgrange Road than a new set of planning proposals hit the desks of the Planning Department.

They were for a relatively small development in Earlham Grove, between the significant Gateway development (see above), covering nos 140 - 150 and the Community Garden, at 136. Full details can be found from the council's planning site, here.

Savill's propose to build two blocks like this  - one
 behind the other on the site of 138 Earlham Grove.

The proposals for 138 Earlham Grove were submitted by Savills, a long-time property agent and developer. They would like to build two six-storey blocks on what is currently a brownfield site, providing a total of 36 apartments.

They are honest enough to admit that the proposal does not fit the Council's desired criteria, in terms of social mix and sizes of flats, They are at pains to point out, however, that their plan to construct 21 one-bed flats (58% of the total), four two-bed flats (11% of the total) and eleven three-bed flats (31% of the total) comes closer to meeting the council's desired mix than the Woodgrange Road development, for which demolition work has just started.

The rapid activity over recent days in the Woodgrange Road/Earlham Grove area - as CrossRail's even postponed arrival becomes more real - begs three questions:

1. How long before their is a serious planning proposal to redevelop Durning Hall and adjacent buildings, that was central to the much derided Obsidian proposals of five years ago? Such a scheme would dwarf, in scale, existing three, the 200-odd flat, developments already on the drawing board for Woodgrange Road/Earlham Grove.
2. Will the Council bend its knee to plans that seek to build higher than the rapidly developing norm of six-storey blocks in the area, for any new proposal, under the guise that the block/s will be a focal/landmark development for Forest Gate - coming, as it/they would next to the station and perceived heart of the area?
3. How much longer can the Community Gardens survive on their current site?  Developers are moving in closer, and the land - council-owned - is on lease to the Garden for less than a year now, under the terms of the original agreement.  

Watch this space for a public row!

Footnote: using this thread as a discussion forum

At the end of this article is a Comments box. Would-be contributors are invited to post their thoughts and share them with other local people. (This site gets over 250 hits per day, so people may feel it is a good vehicle to act as a discussion forum).

If you wish to contribute, simply fill in the comments box, below.  You have the option of leaving your name and or a pseudonym, or posting anonymously. Your posting e.mail address will be known by the site.  We undertake to share it with nobody, if that is your choice.

At the foot of the comment box there is a check box, by ticking this, you will receive an automatic e.mail  every time somebody responds to the thread of comments, and you will, of course be free to reply to those, as you wish.

We guarantee that there will be no editorial interference with responses on this forum (which was not the case on other local forums at the time of the Obsidian proposals), expect for posts which are: abusive, potentially libellous, or discriminatory on grounds of ethnicity, gender, age, ability, religion etc.

Posts that are totally irrelevant to the subject will be deleted and posts that are excessively verbose will be summarised and then only published with the explicit approval of the original contributor.

The forum will be open to those supporting and opposing the proposals . The developers, are invited to contribute and answer questions etc, should they wish; although we are anxious that this does not simply become a PR medium for them.

If this suggestion works as an effective discussion forum: fantastic.  We may adopt the approach for other topics of local controversy on this site, in the future. If it doesn't work, fine!

Crossrail and Forest Gate

 Crossrail is Europe's largest construction project, currently employing 10,000 people, on over 40 sites, along its route from Reading in the west to Shenfield in the east. It will deliver a major new, heavy-duty, suburban rail service for London and the south-east.

It will connect the City, Canary Wharf, the West End and Heathrow airport to commuter areas to the east and west of the capital.  See maps, for the routes and the table at the end of the blog for the projected journey times to each of the other 39 stations, from Forest Gate.

The complete Crossrail route - source: the company's website

It will, of course, be stopping at Forest Gate, which is one of the reasons for the upsurge in interest in E7 as a des res area, and accounted for the preposterous, and thankfully rejected, Obsidian proposals to build a 19 story block of flats adjacent to the local railway station, a couple of years back.

Forest Gate will be one of the first areas to benefit from the new rolling stock to be introduced to the line - with the Shenfield to Liverpool Street section likely to become fully functional in May 2017, two years ahead of the completion of the whole 100 km project.

What else can local residents expect from this huge transport development?

Property prices will continue to boom, as the completion date approaches, and doubtless there will be further attempts to resurrect plans to build on the projected Obsidian footprint - Earlham Grove and parts of Woodgrange Road - including the almost planning blighted row of shops between Forest Gate station and the hideous Durning Hall sprawl.


Forest Gate Plaza (1) - an artist's impression - source: December Newham News

The new properties, and incomers ,will doubtless accelerate the changing social profile of the area, as young, middle class commuters displace recent, poorer, immigrant communities who found the area attractive because of its relative cheap, and often rather poor, housing stock.

So, gentrification will continue, and with it more upmarket food and shopping options, no doubt.

Environmental changes

The £15bn Crossrail construction costs includes a proposal to make Forest Gate Station disabled-friendly - by offering step-free access to platforms, and will almost certainly spruce up the rather shabby and dull appearance of the platforms and current staircases.

The project is also investing £2.3m in transforming the open space around the station, before the Crossrail becomes fully functional in 2019.

Consultations on what the upgraded station environs should look like will begin later this year (2015). Crossrail's environmental architects and designers have come up with a couple of sketches of what the area could look like - to assist with the consultation process, and these are shown in this blog.

Their current thoughts are to:

• Improve pavement width, outside the station;
• Remove the slip road to Woodgrange Road, from Forest Lane and replace it with a revised, raised, signalled T junction, with improved facilities for pedestrians and cyclists, and create a new public space; and
• Introduce a 20 mph speed limit in the area, to slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety



Forest Gate Plaza (2): source: Newham Council website
 

Service improvements

Passenger levels at Forest Gate have increased enormously over the last few years, as Stratford has expanded and train frequencies have increased.  Six trains an hour is now the norm, for all but very off-peak times.

This level of service will more than double, once the new rolling stock is introduced.

Crossrail trains will be 200 metres long and carry 1,500 passengers, about twice the number catered for on existing London Underground services.

There will be 12 Crossrail trains per hour (every five minutes) in peak periods, and six per hour in off peak times, going through Forest Gate station.  There will, additionally, be four non-Crossrail trains per hour stopping at Forest Gate - presumably the longer distance trains on the main rail network, by whichever company has the franchise, then.

Journey times

Below are the projected travel times to each of the 39 stations on the Crossrail route, from Forest Gate.  All journeys are direct, except the four stations on the south-eastern spur (Custom House, Canary Wharf, Woolwich and Abbey Wood), when a change of train is required at Whitechapel.



Crossrail's north-east spur - source: the company's website

The time of the Whitechapel change would need to be added to each of those four journey times, set out below:

Abbey Wood - 25 mins  (plus Whitechapel change)
Acton - 28 mins
Bond St - 20 mins
Brentwood - 26 mins
Burnham - 54 mins
Canary Wharf - 14 mins (plus Whitechapel change)
Chadwell Heath - 12 mins
Custom House - 17 mins ( plus Whitechapel change)
Ealing Broadway - 31 mins
Farringdon - 15 mins
Gide Park - 19 mins
Goodmayes - 10 mins
Hanwell - 33 mins
Harold Wood - 22 mins
Hayes and Harlington - 40 mins
Heathrow (terminals 1,2,3) - 46 min
Heathrow (terminal 4) - 52 mins
Ilford - 5 mins
Iver - 45 mins
Langley - 47 mins
Liverpool Street - 13 mins
Maidenhead - 62 mins
Manor Park - 2 mins
Maryland - 2 mins
Paddington - 23 mins
Reading - 72 mins
Romford - 15 mins
Seven Kings - 8 mins
Shenfield - 31 mins
Slough - 50- mins
Southall - 37 mins
Stratford - 4 mins
Taplow - 57 mins
Tottenham Court Road - 18 mins
Twyford - 66 mins
West Drayton -  42 mins
West Ealing - 33 mins
Whitechapel - 10 mins
Woolwich - 10 mins (plus Whitechapel change)
For regular progress reports on Crossrail developments , see here. We will provide further updates on significant Forest Gate -related proposals.