Kingsdown Conservation Group

Good news! UBHT has withdrawn their applications for 6 Kingsdown Parade and 78 Horfield Rd., in the face of strong local criticism. Thanks to all those who wrote in.

Bad news! They still keep sending in unsuitable applications. The latest is to put four flats in a garden at the bottom of Alfred Hill. We’ll work on a response.

The University has also withdrawn its pre-application for the Maths and Biology buildings, again in the face of strong local criticism. It feels as if we’re playing that familiar game where developers always applyfor more than they could hope to get approved, then come back later saying “Look, we’ve listened and cut a bit off, so now let us build it”.

The Council’s Character Appraisal of the Conservation Area has now been published. It’s good to be able to report that the officers concerned were efficient and supportive, and we think the final document (available on the web-site, or in hard-copy from the Council) is excellent. The Conservation Area has now been extended by the addition of the triangle formed by Alfred Hill, Horfield Rd, and the line joining the two below the terrace of Victorian Houses in Horfield Rd. We have now put a leaflet through all the doors to welcome them to the area.

There were a lot of other committee discussions about planning applications – Lakota club and old coroner’s court demolition, the Full Moon, the Premier Inn sign, the King Charles pub, Westmoreland House. If you want to know more, ask one of the Committee (contact details over on the right) or use the contact form to get in touch.

Our Police Beat Manager Martin Durbin has sent us the following short update on the recent PACT meeting held at St Matthews church. (NB PACT stands for Partners and Community Together):

Twenty two residents turned up, two local councillors (Dr Wright /Mr Woodman) a chief inspector, Dermot MEEHAN who is the Beat Team insp, two sergeants, one of whom was Mark ALDERTON (B/T sergeant) numerous beat managers,and PCSO’s.

1. General parking problems in the Cotham area.
2. Students, noise rubbish,parking problems.
3. Cotham school, problems with students leaving around 3pm.
4. Ashley House Bail hostel, problems with residents in the area, the hostel itself.

Martin’s contact details are under ‘Useful Contacts’ over on the right.

Our notes this time focuse on Planning applications, as there are a lot of significant ones at present.

The gardens of 26-27 Somerset Street the applicant’s appeal against the City’s refusal to permit development of a block of 8 studio flats has been dismissed.

UBHT has applied to undertake a major residential development at 6 Kingsdown Parade - No. 08/01771/F, see details on the City Council’s website. Development is clearly acceptable but the Committee say that the proposals over develop the site and the architectural detail of the facades is unsympathetic to the character of the Conservation Area. Your views matter, and you can respond online.

The King Charles - King’s Square Avenue – No. 08/01241/F – response period is closed. The Committee has objected to this application to demolish most of the pub and to replace it with an unsympathetic block of studio flats. There are excellent examples of sympathetically regenerated buildings nearby.

The Joker on the Green. The Planning Committee has refused the application to retain this sculpture. The applicant says that she intends to appeal.

University
You may remember the KCG objected to the University’s proposals for Phase 1 of the development of its Masterplan, last year. As a result of advice from the Planning Department the University revised its plans. Go to Senate House before the 30th April to view the exhibition of the revised proposals and give your views. The Committee believe that the revised proposals are better than the first plan but don’t go far enough to meet our objections. The main points are
(i)The redesigned Biological Sciences Building on St. Michaels’ Hill is still too high. The Masterplan describes three blocks each of four floors. The proposal is to build a 5-floor lower and middle block and a 6-floor upper block at the Tyndall Avenue end.

(ii)The Maths block is one floor lower and its roof is reduced. There is no mock up photograph to show the effect of the block on the strategic view of the Physics Tower from Kingsdown Parade where it stops the view. Views into and out of Kingsdown are under threat from development.

147a St. Michaels’ Hill – No. 08/01241/F – closing date of public response – 30 April.
There is a new application to convert most of the building to residential use. The Committee do not object to the whole of application but only to certain aspects (i) to the extent of the extent of the loss of employment space (ii) to the continued use of the forecourt for parking, and (iii) to the installation of a bin store on the forecourt.

KCG looks for new members to serve on the committee. If you would like to attend a committee meeting to see what we do, please leave a message on the website.

Next Meeting of the committee – is on Tuesday the 20th May. Please email the secretary at secretary@kingsdown.org.uk about any matter of concern on the subject of Kingsdown.

Planning applications
The appeal against the refusal to permit the conversion of the ground floor of the launderette at 1-3 Cotham Road South to residential use was refused some time ago.

07/04779/F - a further application to demolish the Lakota Club in Stokes Croft and to construct a block of flats. KCG opposes the demolition of the Club. It does not oppose the conversion of the building and the neighbouring former Coroner’s Court into residential use. It believes that the conversion could be more sympathetic and requires more work

08/01241/F - an application to build six single bedroom flats at the former King Charles public house in Kings Square Avenue. KCG does not object to the change of use. The construction of two more floors on top of the existing three floors we consider to be is unacceptable.
These planning applications can be seen on the City Council’s planning website http://tinyurl.com/2znru4 where you can file your comments.

AGM
The minutes of the AGM, which was held at the Ark in Cotham Road South on 10th March are now on the website

UBHT
KCG has recently met with UBHT, their contractors, and council traffic officers, to discuss hospital developments. The Council will shortly be consulting on traffic arrangements for Marlborough Hill. They hope to retain the present traffic flows, but with improvements to increase safety and discourage illegal downhill traffic.

When the Heart Institute is completed next February Cottage Place will reopen to pedestrians (and fire engines) The landscaping includes reinstatement of the woodland path and the steps up to Horfield Road. UBHT plans to extend Alfred Parade through planned new buildings to connect with Terrell Street, creating a one-way system for hospital deliveries, without the need for goods vehicles to reverse onto Marlborough Hill.

UBHT has instructed its architects to apply for planning permission to develop four sites – (i) four 4-storey town houses on Kingsdown Parade on the old ambulance maintenance site near the chip shop. (ii) a block of flats on Horfield Road, on the boarded up garden site. (iii) Four houses in the gardens of Rose Cottage at Somerset Street West End. KCG believes these proposals overdevelop these sites. (iv) Four houses in the garden of Somerset House in Alfred Hill. The hospital do not yet seem to have made any significant changes in the light of numerous comments from KCG and local residents, so we may have to oppose the formal applications.

KCG looks for new members to serve on the committee. If you would like to attend a committee meeting to see what we do, please leave a message on the website.

Next Meeting of the committee – is on Tuesday 22nd April. Please email the secretary at secretary@kingsdown.org.uk about any matter of concern on the subject of Kingsdown.

7.30 p.m. Monday the 10th March 2008 at the Ark, Cotham Road South.

The meeting approved the agenda and appointed Tony Kerr as chair for the evening. 40 residents attended. Apologies were received for their absence from David and Penny Mellor, Carolyn Harman and Paul and Lorna Robinson.

Minutes of the 2007 general meeting were approved.

The report of the past year
The report summarised last year’s business and was circulated at the meeting and it can also be found on the Kingsdown Conservation Group’s website. The report was adopted. Next year will be very active because the University and the Hospital will continue to pursue their development plans. Peter Ferne was thanked for his continued help in running the website. The Committee thanked the 20 residents who responded to Andy King’s questionnaire about UBHT’s redevelopment proposals for its surplus land. It is vital, whenever the Committee meets third parties that it can demonstrate that it has significant local support.

The treasurer’s report
The treasurer’s report
Pauline Allen presented the Group’s accounts for the year, which showed a reserve of £6,593 split between the general fund of £3,928 and £2,665 in the “Spring Hill Restoration Fund”. During the year there was a surplus of £222.75 of income over expenditure. KCG had contributed £340 towards the fees of Richard Pedlar, who prepared a conservation architect’s report to support KCG’s objections to the proposal to build eight four-floor houses on the Somerset Street display gardens. The developer subsequently withdrew the planning application. The meeting thanked David Mellor for his professional assistance that he gave free of charge

The meeting resolved to spend £160 to restore a traditional box lantern on the cast iron lamp post at the bottom of Spring Hill. In response to members’ questions, the Committee confirmed that it planned to replace the fallen tree in the garden at the corner of St. Matthews Road. The meeting thanked Stephen and Jean Macfarlane for grinding out the stump of the old tree. The Committee will investigate whether a working lamp can be installed in the lamp holder above the Kingsdown Parade entrance to Montague Green. Since our report last year, a tree on the north side of Kingsdown Parade and the trees around Prior’s Hill Flats have been replaced. The report was adopted. The meeting thanked Pauline for her work. The Committee welcomes any ideas to invest the reserves to enhance Kingsdown.

Please check to ensure that you pay £5 and not the former £3 subscription.

Membership
Bridget Parker presented the Membership report. Seven newly arrived residents joined KCG last year. Please encourage more residents to join KCG. The more members we have, the more we are listened to. Membership forms can be downloaded from the website or paper copies obtained from Malcolm and Bridget Parker at 43 Kingsdown Parade. The meeting thanked Bridget and Malcolm for their work. They agreed to continue as membership secretaries.

The 2008/09 committee
The Committee appealed for new members. Charles Grant volunteered to rejoin the Committee and the current members agreed to stand again. Next year’s committee was elected unanimously. It will be: Pauline Allen (treasurer), John Frenkel (minutes), Charles Grant, Tony Kerr, Nick Kidwell, Andy King, Jeremy Newick (Conservation Advisory Panel representative), Helen Phillips (secretary), Ottilie Shorcott, Nigel Tasker and Mary Wright. Committee Members’ contact details appear on the website.
The committee emphasise that any member who wishes to come to a committee meeting is most welcome. If you think that you would like to become a Committee member, invite yourself as an observer to a Committee Meeting. The Group needs more committee members to share the work.
Tell us your views on local developments and what we should be doing. Please contact the secretary at secretary@kingsdown.org.uk, or use the ‘contact us’ link on the website.

After the formal meeting, Mary Wright spoke about “The greatest aesthete of them all”. She gave a tour d’horizon of the life of the Bristol architect, E W Godwin. In his personal life he was a friend to James Whistler and Oscar Wilde and the father of Ellen Terry’s two children. His architectural practice brought him international recognition. All aspects of design interested him. He designed fabrics, tiles, wallpaper and furniture. In his corporate life he reformed the Bristol Society of Architects.

Mary spoke forcibly about our City’s neglect of Godwin. In his lifetime, he won the City Council’s architectural competition to build new Law Courts but the City gave the contract to its own surveyor. There was a national scandal. Godwin moved to London. Today, Godwin’s pioneering Carriage Works in Stokes Croft stands ruined and neglected by its owners and the City Council. In contrast, Northampton has restored Godwin’s town hall and renamed its Council chamber, “The Godwin Room”. Godwin’s furniture is displayed at the V & A and has appeared in international furniture exhibitions. In 1947, Godwin’s daughter made a bequest of 14 pieces of his furniture to Bristol City Museum. The Museum has exhibited the furniture once, in 1976 after which, it has remained in store. The Museum has no current plans to display it.

If you share Mary’s anger at the City’s treatment of the Godwin bequest please write to press for Godwin’s furniture to be permanently exhibited. Kate Brindley is the Director of Museums – Kate.Brindley@Bristol.gov.uk or Bristol Museums and Art Gallery, Queen’s Road, BS8 1RL. Councillor Rosalie Walker is the Cabinet Member for Health and Leisure – Rosalie.Walker@Bristol.gov.uk or The Council House College Green BS1 5TR.

Planning applications
The planning applications to
• build a four floor residential block on the corner of Ashley Road and Picton Street had been dismissed.
• build a garage in the front garden to 83 Kingsdown Parade is dismissed.
• convert the upper floors of 77/79 Stokes Croft (DFS Heating) into flats is withdrawn.

University
The University has revised its plans for the controversial new Biological Science Department and the Maths Department buildings at the top of St. Michael’s Hill. It has told KCG that following the public response to its plans and discussion with the Bristol Design Forum it will put forward revised proposals. Probably, in April, there will be a further public consultation about the revised designs with better documentation than there was at the public exhibition, last November.

KCG met the University’s acting Bursar and the University’s retained landscape architect to discuss the landscaping of the land in the public realm that surrounds the University. This is part of the development proposals included in the University’s development Masterplan. The Committee had previously sent to the University some thoughts about the improvement of Royal Fort Road and the car parking area to the north of Royal Fort House.

We said that we liked the feeling of enclosure in Royal Fort Road. The high Brandon rubble wall that surrounds the lower side of the former Children’s Hospital site should be repaired or rebuilt. The feeling of enclosure should be preserved when the University makes a new passageway to extend University Walk through to Tydall Avenue. We said that the area on the north of Royal Fort House was originally the forecourt before the entrance of the best classical house in Bristol. The new landscaping should reflect the formality of the classical architecture of the House. We were delighted that there was general agreement about the approach to landscaping. We plan another meeting when we can walk around the areas to be landscaped together.

Trees
In January, KCG members planted six cherries and a Scots Pine in the grass surrounding Priors Hill Flats.

AGM
Please turn out for the AGM at the Ark in Cotham Road South at 7.30 p.m. on Monday 10th March. KCG looks for new members to serve on the committee.

After the AGM Mary Wright will speak on “AW Godwin – the ultimate aesthete.” AW Goodwin was a C 19th Bristol architect – he designed both the Carriageworks and the graffitied gothic shop in Stokes Croft. He was also a prolific furniture designer. The City Museum’s collection has been exhibited in New York but not in Bristol. At the 2006 AGM Mary gave a very popular and well received talk on Stokes Croft’s history.

Next Meeting of the committee – is on Monday the 31st March. Please email the secretary at secretary@kingsdown.org.uk

United Bristol Healthcare Trust – plans for around 19 new buildings in Kingsdown. UBHT showed us their plans for land that is surplus to the hospital’s needs, which they will sell with planning permission. They propose to build:

• Four 4-storey town houses on Kingsdown Parade on the old ambulance maintenance site between the chip shop and Marlborough Hill, with mews houses behind. We think that 4 floor houses would be too tall; 3 floors would be better. To enhance the Parade, the new houses should step down to meet their 2 storey neighbours.

• On Horfield Road, on the boarded up garden site - a block of flats 3 storeys tall. the large mass of a block of flats is unacceptable. They would overdevelop the site. They would be out of scale with the 2 storey houses on each side of them and would create an unfriendly canyon with the BMH on the other side of the road. Any development must respect its architectural context.

• At Somerset Street West End - 4 houses in place of Rose Cottage. We feel this is an overdevelopment.

• At the bottom of Alfred Hill - houses behind Somerset House. This would involve cutting an arch through the house to gain access to the back garden. This would cause irretrievable damage to the structure of a Grade II listed building. New houses in this small garden would be too close to the existing house and overdevelop the site. KCG says that this proposal is unacceptable.

The proposals are currently on display in Alfred Harris. Please study them and let us know your views.

Bristol University – Phase 1 development. In the December summary we explained why KCG opposed the mass and design of the office block that the University proposed to build on the St. Michael’s Hill, Children’s Hospital site. Our response was reported in the Evening Post. Two of our committee were interviewed on BBC Bristol, Breakfast Live. The University has new proposals. We expect the public to be involved in a further consultation at the end of March. KCG is keenly interested in the University’s development because it affects all of us. We have asked for better documents and displays next time. We want to see the colour and design of the new buildings, how they will respond to the context of the Conservation Area and their effect on the strategic views into and out of Kingsdown. The Evening Post reported that the University has the “sail” tall building on Tyndall Avenue because it had become too expensive and growing more expensive. KCG welcomed that decision.

Next Meeting of the committee – is on Tuesday 19th February. Please email the secretary at secretary@kingsdown.org.uk about any matter of concern on the subject of Kingsdown.

Kingsdown Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Statement

On 29th November the City Council’s Planning Department held a public meeting at the Ark in Cotham Road South to discuss the content of the Kingsdown Conservation Area Appraisal and Management statement. Please download the draft statement from the City Council’s website because it is important that we have the best statement that is possible. Send any suggestions or comments to City Centre Projects & Urban Design Team Brunel House St George’s Road Bristol BS1 5UY - E-mail: conservation@bristol.gov.uk
Kingsdown Conservation Group

Bristol University – Phase 1 development
Did you visit the Senate House in Tyndall Park to look at the display of the University’s proposal new Biological Sciences Department to be built above the old Children’s Hospital to the corner of Tyndall Avenue? KCG supports the University’s ambition to build high quality buildings and to improve the quarter that it shares with the City. However, we were shocked by the proposal is to build a 5 storey building - equal to a 6 story building when the roof to house the services is included. At the old Children’s Hospital end, the new building would stand on a basement plinth to give it the height of a 7 storey building. The University wants to build a 7 floor Maths Department, plus a projecting atrium roof, new behind the St. Michael’s Hill building.

The draft Kingsdown Appraisal statement says that “The preservation of Kingsdown’s views is vital in protecting the area’s character and special interest. New developments within the City Centre, the Hospital, and University pose a significant threat to Kingsdown’s views.” How right it is. Look at the photographs in Alfred Harris’s window to see how the buildings would affect Kingsdown’s view of the Wills Physics Tower.

Earlier this year the City Council adopted the University’s Masterplan as its formal planning policy. The Masterplan said that the new building would have a “strong vertical composition to respond to the context of neighbouring architecture.” It would be built from materials that “show an understanding and respect of the local vernacular and be sympathetic to their surroundings.” The Masterplan illustrated a building of 4 floors built in 3 blocks that step down the hill. The proposed building looks like any commercial office block anywhere complete with external blinds or louvres. The buildings are more than twice the size of those illustrated in the Masterplan. In the words of the Masterplan, the University’s new building will “mend the street”. What we would get would be another brutalist building to join St. Michael’s Hospital and the Social Sciences Library – which the University proposes to demolish. Why, we ask, have a Masterplan and ignore it?

Kingsdown Conservation Group has sent its views to the University and to the Planning Department. Please to the same.

Next Meeting of the committee – is on Tuesday the 23rd January 2008.

If anyone has a matter of concern about Kingsdown to raise, please email secretary@kingsdown.org.uk