Gorilla on the Lipstick NO.1
Silver Hill Renaissance? - TrustNews March 2006
The original planning brief for Broadway Friarsgate area of Winchester City was adopted by the full council in 2003. It is an excellent guide to the redevelopment of this muddled and generally ugly part of the city.
The new proposals by Thornfield Properties, in some critical aspects, appears to ignore some of the ground rules set down in this brief.
To get an idea of the scale of development the proposal is about as long as the Cathedral. The Cathedral is unusual in that it sits in a bowl and is viewed from surrounding high ground. For this reason, such a high development so close to the cathedral could be disastrous.
Imagine a six storey building roughly where the Wykhem Arms sits (this is equidistant from the proposal) and about 12 foot lower then the cathedral parapet. The original 2003 brief describes the recommended heights of the buildings clearly and simply by using the Woolstaplers Hall as the benchmark.
While it says heights should vary, the High Street end should generally be limited to four storeys. Block A in the Thornfield Proposal shows a building of no less then six storeys.
The Broadway end, says the 2003 brief, should be limited to generally three storeys "to reflect the scale of the majority of buildings in this area and will allow the Woolstaplers Hall to dominate". The Thornfield proposal shows another six storey building, block B, albeit slightly smaller than block A. Either the brief has to be rewritten or Woolstaplers Hall has to be built higher to conform with the new proposal to ensure its dominance as stated in the brief. Here is a doctored photograph, tongue in cheek, correcting this anomaly.
Winchester has diversity and variety that makes it the beautiful city that it is. Everyone has different views on architecture. However the elevations I have seen of the proposed scheme have none of the character found in Winchester street scenes. The test is this: if you showed this scheme, in isolation, to someone who had never seen it before and asked them which town, in this country, would it belong, my guess is they would never dream it was Winchester.
If any members should agree with my views it is imperative they make this known to our chairman, Pat Edwards.