Peninsula Barracks - Trust Annual Report 1995
Those of you who have attempted to catch ill-set jelly in large-mesh string bags must surely have sympathy for anyone attempting to encapsulate the salient points of progress, reversal and progress-again during the past year in the history of the development of Peninsula Barracks!
The Trust formed a specific project team, representing the different types of expertise required, in order to study the problems of developing such a large site of such great importance to the City. When appropriate the team passes comments to the City Council for their consideration, and also has periodic discussions with the developer's team.
We have seen disappear over the last year the prospect of student accommodation in the Mons Block area of the Upper Barracks, and also a museum complex at the south east corner of the site near the Garrison Church. We have seen approval given for social housing in the Mons Block and a 2-screen cinema in the Garrison Church. On the Upper Barracks parade ground we have seen the Jacobsen-inspired parterre scheme come and go; we have seen the Lovejoy-inspired "London square with railings" scheme come and go, and we have seen the present large pond and two-rill (long, narrow waterways) scheme, largely inspired by the architect Huw Thomas. The overall scheme given final planning approval on 26 July is very satisfactory, apart from relatively curable problems such as the selection of tree species on the Upper Barracks parade ground, the Beaumond potential for becoming a children's helter skelter, and the lack of adequate privacy for prying public eyes outside some residential ground floor windows.
However, the Trust still remains concerned that adequate provision has not been made for the monitoring of the landscape scheme during construction, and for the management of the whole site once construction is complete and the residential buildings are occupied. It is in these two areas that the Trust intends to be most vigilant in the future when construction eventually starts.