Last chance for Brentford?
This might be a TLDR for some - if so, apologies in advance. Mr DC and I went for a walk in the winter sunshine yesterday afternoon. We looked at the south side of the High Street and felt utter despair; almost everything closed, demolition on the horizon. The gross vandalism of Georgian and Victorian buildings. (Even the less lovely building opposite Morrison’s and the Beehive… history and interest doesn’t have to be 200 years old and pretty. The County Court is a good case in point.)What’s to become of the beautiful NatWest building? It had a fantastic interior, even when overlaid with panelling and plastic. The building that housed the Post Office? Look above street level at the roof line and at the windows. It’s fantastic. Peel away the crummy PO frontage and it’s a gem. Even the building next door to that (Paddy Power at street level) – just slightly pre-war, I’d guess – has a decorative brickwork detail that someone had thought about. It wasn’t just thrown together. Go and have a look; cast your eyes above the ground floor and take it in. Not for the first time, I reflected upon the tricks missed by Hounslow Council, and the developers who will lay waste to swathes of the area’s history and charm, replacing it with serried ranks of cookie-cutter developments of absolutely no architectural merit whatsoever. What a shame.It’s the depressing lack of imagination and complete lack of understanding of what makes a cohesive community that gets to me the most. These new developments simply don’t work. Let me explain.I remember visiting a friend living in Bermondsey a while back. I don’t know if you know the area, but as recently as 20 years ago, Bermondsey was pretty grim. (Ditto Shoreditch – and look what’s happened there - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10571976/In-defence-of-the-Shoreditchification-of-London.html) After dinner, we went for a walk. Around us lay Maltby Street, where thriving businesses have been built out of railway arches, Ropewalk and Druid Street, full of people and life, and Bermondsey Street itself, buzzing with restaurants, bars, galleries and independent shops. We turned a corner – suddenly we were in the piazza of a new development, surrounded by new-build monoliths. Devoid of people, the only lights on were at Gregg’s Table, the ‘concept’ restaurant and brainchild of Gregg Wallace from MasterChef. It was empty. (I believe it’s now closed down.) It was a ghost town – and the contrast could not have been greater. And that’s what’s lined up for the south side of Brentford High Street. If someone – anyone – had employed a little imagination, the old buildings of Brentford would not have been slated for demolition. If someone – anyone – had thought that by refurbishing these buildings and letting them at affordable prices, it would have attracted small businesses and creative industries to the area. They would need to eat lunch and shop, thereby organically creating a demand for services from other small businesses (and some larger ones). Those people might eventually want to live nearer to their work, creating a demand for accommodation. All of this would be paying scads of cash into Hounslow’s coffers, only they’re too damned short-term and greedy to think like that. With thought, sensitivity and far-sightedness, Brentford could rival Chiswick for the title of Hounslow’s cash cow – AND leave current residents in place. But no… much easier sell off one of the last ‘affordable’ parts of riverside London by the pound, pull everything down and build a giant Gregg’s Table, but with even less charm and longevity. Here’s the thing: flats don’t attract people – a vibrant, functional community does. Building hundreds and thousands of flats, to be sold off-plan and offshore, does not benefit Brentford one iota. Does Hounslow Council not care or are they just too stupid to understand? We find ourselves on a cusp here: the falling pound, the Brexit fiasco, a looming lack of construction workers… it all adds up to the sort of situation that gives developers the fear. Is it possible to stop at least some of this madness? Surely they now want out? The hideous and utterly unwanted Morrison’s development, for instance? Could some money be poured into Watermans to turn it into the Little South Bank that it could and should be? Could some forward-thinking, imaginative people be employed to cherish what’s already here, give it a little TLC and make it… sexy? It's not impossible; look what's happened to the Albany Arms. Having said that, it was rescued, by the skin of its teeth, from being turned into... flats. Kudos to Peter, Ash and James for not letting that happen - and we must support them so that it doesn't happen in the future. Destruction takes seconds. When our environment is gone, it's gone. There are no second chances. Come on, Brentfordonians – what do you think? Is there still time?
Tracie Dudley Craig ● 2782d54 Comments ● 2742d