What We Have Lost in our Community |
Standing in the middle of our delightful town we have a ghastly block of 1970’s buildings forever reminding us that we failed as guardians of our heritage. Two thousand five hundred years ago the city of Athens required that its citizens swear an oath – part of which ran …“We will leave this town not less but greater, better and more beautiful than it was left to us” This seems to me to be a definition of civic responsibility, which has lost none of its value over the years. We have lost many of the gems of our town such as the sunken cottages, the Fish in Mill Street, Churchill’s, Poets Corner, The Railway Pub – I could go on but I would bring tears to your eyes. It would be excusable if these buildings had been replaced by stunning 21st Century architecture, which we could be proud to hand on to the next generation. Sadly this is not the case. On the whole we have been treated to a seam-less robe of mediocrity that five decades of post war development has imposed on our surroundings. We have a long tradition of vernacular building and domestic architecture. Once, not so long ago houses spoke, like their owners, with our own local accent, built with local materials, echoing our landscape. Now our buildings follow the boring uniformity of computer generated housing lined up behind concrete curbs with street names, which are just a mockery, flowerless meadows and treeless woods, the meaningless poetry of the estate agent. Why can’t we realise that buildings are what paint the picture of our urban surroundings and there is a responsibility to paint a picture future generations will wish to enjoy and nurture? It was argued, in connection with the formerly proposed Tesco development at Stag Lane that will now be an overcrowded housing estate, that Berkhamsted has no town centre. This claim in my view is a misunderstanding of what is meant by the term Town Centre. Berkhamsted has grown up along communications routes. Initially the settlement was by the river, offering irrigation to farmers – later came the straw plait industry, the watercress beds and of course the mills. In the early 18th Century our valley hosted the Turnpike with a journey to London offered in “only a day”. Canal mania hit Berkhamsted in the 1790’s. We, of course, were home to the Father of our canal system here in Berkhamsted the Duke of Bridgewater whose home was here at Ashridge. The Iron road followed the canal very quickly and we are more reliant on our road system than the railways. All of which follow our valley contours, which are of course linear. It is not unusual to have an ancient linear market high street such as ours. There is a prescriptive market charter for a triangular area from St. Peters west door to the Traffic lights. This is, and has been the commercial heart of our town since the Tenth Century. Remember originally all the houses around St. Peters Church and Back Lane were market stalls. Therefore to argue that Berkhamsted has no historic town centre when it clearly has, is to argue that it has no heart as well – and we all know that isn’t true. I would wish to work alongside the history of our town and pay homage to the original prescriptive market charter. This means upgrading our understanding of the charter to today’s needs. We need to think about how we would like to see our town develop in the light of modern retail park development. These are not trivial matters. We can’t turn the clock back. We must look at the impact this increased housing will have on our history and what I am going to insist on calling our town centre. At present shoppers at Waitrose, our current large super market, are able to combine a shopping trip with a visit to other High Street stores. And they will because Waitrose does not offer the shop within shop services (pharmacy, photography, dry cleaning, opticians) that the very large supermarkets do. So what could this extra demand mean for our town? Berkhamsted is minor in the retail hierarchy, which is in line with the maintenance and enhancement of the historic core of our market town. We have a high degree of accessibility to other higher tier shopping locations. Government Planning guidance notes recommend that smaller market towns should not expect to perform functions out of scale with the size of the town. We are not old Amersham or old Beaconsfield and given the wanton destruction of the old high street in the 1970’s we could never even reclaim that ethos. So let us at least retain and build on what we have left of our historic town. As many of you know, I have a vision of a Town Square in the Town Centre. There is nothing worth preserving in the ghastly 1970’s block that houses the old Waitrose and the Tesco Metro. These are areas that make no contribution in fact they create a lack of confidence about the future of our town. There is a vast expanse of space behind these buildings, which is owned by the County Council. This space cleared would offer really exciting possibilities for an enhanced heart for Berkhamsted. I will do my best to describe my concept, but if I don’t manage it too well – it is on my web site. My ideas are not firm plans – they are ideas intended to motivate and inspire you, to act as a catalyst for more ideas. I would like to persuade you that we do not wish to loose our ethos as a market town and would like to show you how this ethos could be updated to suit our 21st Century community requirements. Think of this ethos and these ideas as a starting point for a project, which could benefit the town and citizens to a very considerable extent, a concept available for improvement and development. We cannot just leave it and see what commercial developers come up with. Working on this, or a similar project could well be the best way to ensure that this potential development is community rather than developer led. What we need to understand is that we have the opportunity to improve the area which could become an exciting visual and social area. In the past we have all had to fight a rear guard action against developer’s proposals. Inappropriate development that neither enhances our townscape nor is a benefit to our community. My thinking is first of all environmental and then commercial. It is environmental in the sense that we can create a civic place for the enjoyment of all, around which activity-led regeneration can take place. What do I mean by activity-led regeneration? Berkhamsted is an ideal venue for weekend antique markets. The existing Saturday food market, farmers markets, French markets, open-air summer evening concerts, open-air art exhibitions, a meeting place for the community. These activities increase footfall and enhance retail confidence – this is what I mean by activity-led regeneration, it would give us everything that a market charter could wish for. What About Car Parking? If you have a chance to look at my website you will see that my concept already has 150 parking spaces within the actual development I have suggested. It is possible to create more in the following way. I suggest that we widen Greene Field Road and cantilever it over the River Bulbourne, splay the entrance out as it reaches Lower Kings Road and create a roundabout. This will make it easy to access the Borough owned car park on the Lower Kings Road side of Waitrose. The Borough Council could give the land to a company like NPC or Euro parks on a very long lease on condition they build a multi-level car park, which I believe would give us a further 300 spaces at least. A total of over 450 spaces – over double what we have at present. This would not only create good parking for town centre shopping but also alleviate the severe parking problems this town experiences. This doesn’t have to be an eye sore – there are wonderful looking car parks that look rather like a larger version of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim, with all sorts of greenery grown up them. My reasons for saying the old Waitrose site, is a good site is that it faces on to the main road and the sun, which is an important consideration for public space. Secondly this location allows the adjoining sites facing onto the proposed square to have the benefit of a High Street frontage. The Town Square is to be viewed as an external room, predominantly south facing with a sunny aspect, which opens into the High Street. This could feel like a gateway to Berkhamsted. As I have said before it is an ideal venue for various markets, promotional activities, evening concerts, and generally a place to be, with a boulevard atmosphere created by leisure retail shops around the perimeter of the square. There is an opportunity for public art and sculpture, but most exciting the possibility of well designed buildings that would be art in themselves. Having done an outline feasibility of my proposals – The lower levels, below the Town Square could accommodate a food hall / supermarket with easy access to 150 car parking spaces on site and a further 300, as I have discussed just over the road. The accommodation at ground level around the Square is where the leisure retail, weekend markets and general boulevard activity can take place. The accommodation above this can be a mixture of offices, single person dwellings and live / work units. The space is flexible with uses that could be extended to take in other appropriate activities. This is an outline description of the proposals, which I hope you will look at in detail on my web site. If we do not use the impetus of the Stag Lane development to regenerate the pleasure of our town centre, it will never take place – we will be facing urban blight and there will be no way out. The Inspector for the local plan enquiry recommended that this area should be redeveloped, but we need someone with nerve and vision to get on with it. Above all we want to retain a town with a heart. If we allow the heart to be run down, the vitality and viability of our town will be severely damaged. Those of us in a position to speak out, if we remain silent, are to blame. |