Friday, 6 June 2014

Deptford Station shop units

Refurbishment of the arches under Deptford Station has now begun; you may have noticed if you have been there in the last couple of weeks - hoardings have gone up around them and excavation has started. 



Planning permission and listed building consent have yet to be granted, but the documents are online should anyone want to browse and comment; the renderings are reproduced below.


I can't say I'm hugely impressed with the proposed design although if you compare it to the previous application, which was subsequently withdrawn, it's a marked improvement.


My main gripe with this is the loss of the arch shape due to the infill at the sides. It's heartening that they've extended the facade glass to the full height of the arch, rather than allowing a mean little rectangular shop front to be fitted into the arch like you see on so many other conversions, but I'd really like to see that applied to the full width too, so that the arch shape is clearly retained.


These are going to be shop units, and if you remember one of the reasons why the former railway carriage cafe could not be relocated to this site, as had previously been proposed by the original Deptford Project developer Cathedral, was that Network Rail did not want a cafe competing with its own potential tenants. Since Network Rail owns most of this land, it was able to put a stop to the relocation.

As for tenants, I presume we are going to see the usual railway station chains. Thankfully there's top notch coffee just a few steps away at the Waiting Room (we might even be able to get them to open an hour earlier...!), and an independent newsagent and a chemist just round the corner if you want to give your money to someone other that Boots or WH Smith.



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's such a shame they won't allow independents in the arches. Definitely sucks the fun out of them developing anything there.

Anonymous said...

Those granite setts took ages to lay! I hope they don't ruin them.

Anonymous said...

Another typically pessimistic post. I wonder when you will find anything you can actually be pleased about.

Deptford Dame said...

Another typically dull comment. I wonder when some of my readers will make the effort to actually articulate an informed opinion?

csl said...

I'm no fan of portentous narcissism but I don't recognize the above description of Dd at all! In fact I think all the writing on the blog is animated by a love of Deptford and joy in living here. That doesn't mean one can't be angry about the powers whose aim is to eliminate or instrumentalize that joy, and I'm sure I'm not alone in considering this blog as a platform for the most passionate investigations and articulations of what's going on in the area.

Deptford Dame said...

@csl your comments are appreciated. I do love living here and few of my posts are 'typically pessimistic' in my opinion. I don't want to wank on about how great Deptford is all the time, that would soon become very tedious and to be honest, such comments are more appropriate kept to 140 characters on Twitter. I do find it interesting to analyse planning applications and form my own opinions; I don't expect everyone to share them, but I am always keen to hear what other people think, how those opinions are formed and what they are based on.