Showing posts with label Latif House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latif House. Show all posts

Sunday 25 June 2017

Another high-rise development proposed for First Way, Wembley


Hot on the heels of plans to build a hotel on the site of Latif House in First Way, Wembley LINK comes a presentation to build flats on the site of Access Self Storage on the same road.

Brent Planning Committee on June 28th will see a presentation from developers aiming to build flats, stotage space and office space  on the site.

There is little information at this stage but the Committee item gives this outline. No decision will be made at the meeting but committee members will be able to ask questions.
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Proposed demolition of existing building and erection of a mixed use scheme of approximately 448 residential units (build to rent), 6,000 sqm storage space and 1,000 sqm office space. The scheme currently has a breakdown of 21studio, 187 -bed 2 person, 41 x 2 -bed 3-person, 151 x 2-bed 4 person and 48 x 3-bed 5 person homes. Heights vary from 8 –22 storeys across five main blocks/buildings above a three storey podium.
I make that a maximum height of 25 storeys taking into account the three storey podium. The hotel proposed for Latif House was 'just' 16 storeys.

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Plans for First Way – where has our love of beauty gone?

The Indian Pavilion and the  Lake

 Guest blog by Philip Grant. I wonder if any recent planning application has contained the word 'beauty'!
 
Martin’s recent blog LINK  about possible plans for another hotel, on the Latif House site in First Way, just to the east of Wembley Stadium, reminded me how beautiful this location has been in the past.
Two hundred years ago it was part of the landscaped grounds of the Wembley Park mansion, which from the 1890’s became pleasure grounds for days out from the crowded streets of London. After the First World War it provided a home for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924, and the Latif House site (in red on the 1924 plan below) was part of the India Pavilion. This was an exotic edifice, in white painted re-inforced concrete  and fibrous plaster on a steel frame, in the 17th century Moghul style.



The India Pavilion was divided into 27 sections, each for a separate Indian state, around a courtyard with a large expanse of water, surrounded by an open colonnade. The pavilion buildings took up three of the 4.9 acres allocated to the country, and the rest was laid out as gardens with palm trees and tropical flowers, and open spaces for visitors to enjoy.  



Each individual state’s “Court” had a display showcasing its particular skills and products, including (by coincidence, given the most recent use of the site) carpets from Bengal and Agra, which had a craftsman showing how these were made. Carvings in wood and ivory, jewellery, textiles and metalwork were all made in the pavilion and available to buy, and its restaurant introduced Indian dishes to the British public.



After the Exhibition ended, most of the building was demolished, although the concrete base it had been built on and some of the steel framework were re-used for commercial premises (see the address on the 1950’s advert!),  becoming the industrial estate we know today. The postcard view of the India Pavilion, at the eastern end of the BEE’s artificial lake, would today have a car park in the foreground, and ugly warehouses behind. Now there are proposals for a 16-storey hotel and 11-storey “apart-hotel”, more tall soulless boxes, rather than family homes, gardens and public green space, where once there was beauty. I’m not asking for a return to the mock-minarets and fantasy buildings of the British Empire Exhibition, but surely the planners and developers can do better than what they are delivering on the former exhibition grounds at Wembley Park!

Monday 29 May 2017

Yes, yet another Wembley hotel this time with industrial site neighbours



Let's face it, First Way, Wembley is not the most prepossessing place for yet another hotel. Flanked by an industrial estate with waste lorries and construction trucks rumbling by and this (below) just down the road, guests would not exactly be in a healthy environment.


However the site of rug outlet Latif House  (below) may eventually become a hotel and 'apart-hotel' according to a pre-application presentation at last week's Brent Planning Committee. A hotel of approximately 16 storeys containing 274 hotel hotel rooms and an 11 storey 'apart hotel' containing 186 apart-hotel rooms is planned.


Planning Officers have a number of reservations about the proposal including the fact that it will reduce the number of residential units scheduled for the area. They are also concerned about the height. This is clearly important as it will set a precedent for an as yet undeveloped part of the Quintain empire on the eastern side of the stadium. The planners point out that the planned height would 'appear incongruous with the wider street scene' and would not (planners speak) 'respectfully appear subservient to the building occupying the visually prominent site at Ketaly House.' They add that the building would need to respect the transition between high density residential development to the west and established low rise industrial development to the east.

Planning officers are clear that there are vital environmental issues to be taken into account including noise insulation due to the  proximity of commercial premises, air quality, construction noise and dust, asbestos, kitchen odour, light pollution and potential for land to be contaminated.

It is interesting to note that the annexe of Latif House was withdrawn from sale at a price of just £30,000 LINK . Given the above I wonder what the value of the site is now?