The Brooks - Trust Annual Report 1988
Last year we reported that we were unable to support any of the three schemes selected by Winchester City Council following its architectural competition for a shopping centre and 350-space car park on this site, on what has been recently the Central Car Park.
Of the three schemes the City finally chose the one submitted by Ladbrokes. This was the subject of a public exhibition, and the Trust was given a presentation after which we submitted various detailed comments. Whilst we still remain convinced that a shopping centre and car park on this massive scale is inappropriate for Winchester, the Trust concluded that, of the three, the Ladbroke scheme was architecturally the best and to this extent therefore agreed with Winchester City Council's choice. Given that the development is inevitable we have pressed for certain design improvements before details are approved by the Planning Authority. The Architects were apparently willing to meet the Planners and ourselves to discuss these points but the Developers remain uncooperative.
An archaeological dig took place on the site which terminated on 31st July. This was higly successful in archaeological terms and aroused a great deal of public interest. When the dig came to an end less than half the development site had been investigated. Undoubtedly a great deal of valuable material remained and this will now be lost irretrievably as the site is excavated. This is a tragedy, since despite what appear to have been good intentions on the part of both Winchester City Council and the Developer, neither the time allowed nor the money provided has proved sufficient.
The Trust is concerned that the same should not happen on the Peninsula Barracks site.