The Planning Issues

Our aim is to try to reflect as closely as possible what the community tells us they want for Archway, so please Contact us.

Rebuilding or Regeneration

Who Should Develop the Site

Type and Scale of Redevelopment

Buildings and Open Space

Dominant Type of Accommodation

Types of Retail Units and Space

Other Types of Retail Unit (non-food)

Leisure and Community facilities

Public Transport

Road Layouts and the Roundabout

Strategic changes to improve the wider area

Strategic changes to improve the wider area

Some of the options outlined here conflict with the intentions for the Archway area set out in the Greater London Authority’s London Plan, especially the goal of creating additional housing and putting it in areas with good transport links. There is also a desire to boost the fortunes of the Archway area. However, as the pros and cons of the various options illustrates, these two aims are not naturally compatible.

It may be possible to achieve all these objectives by considering the wider area.

Development options	Pros	Cons
Housing
Ten minutes’ walk south down Junction Road, shortly before Tufnell Park tube station, is Station Road. At the end of Station Road is a quiet, shabby low-level industrial park alongside the Barking line railway. On the other (northern) side of the railway is an attractive new residential development. This could be mirrored on the Station Road side. There are already plans for new accommodation in the area, with the University of North London about to build a large residential block to house students on its existing site overlooking the playing field.	This could be a good site for new housing. The transport links are as good as Archway and could be improved (see following transport section). A medium-size supermarket would probably be welcome here, as Tufnell Park is short of shops. (The recently opened Sainsbury’s Local on Fortess Road is not particularly good and is also too far away - it serves north Kentish Town.)	Alternative locations would have to be found for the businesses on the industrial estate (BT and a few others). There are not many such convenient and central locations but there may be a location west of the Junction Road over the railway for example.
Public Transport
Reopening Junction Road station. London is short of East-West routes interchanging with those radiating from the city centre. Station Road is so named because there was a station there on the overland Gospel Oak to Barking branch of the Silverlink North London Line. The purpose of the station was to enable passengers whose journeys originated as far East as Barking or as far West as Richmond to change onto the Northern Line (tube) at Tufnell Park, without having to go via central London. The two stations were a couple of minutes walk apart - very similar to the present interchange arrangements in West Hampstead.	This would be very convenient for any new housing built on the current industrial estate. It would be very useful for residents of Tufnell Park, including the students. If the bus stand currently at Archway were relocated to the site of the former Esso petrol station this would provide a natural interchange between bus, tube and rail. Station Road is currently an eerie place with almost no traffic or pedestrians using it. Would bring life to the area.	There would be some increased traffic noise along Station Road for residents of flats in Ward Road (though the flats are some distance from Station Road, with garages between); and potentially for residents in Foxham Road, whose gardens back onto Station Road. The stations would be a short walk apart. An escalator link might be possible but would be extremely expensive.
At present the overland trains are every half hour and have only a couple of carriages. Trains could be longer and more frequent. They could be linked through to the Willesden-Clapham Junction services.	This uses existing railway lines and routes and would require minimal investment, yet would open up unused transport capacity for use by this area of relatively low existing density. The overland trains are often faster than the tubes for the distance covered.
Olympic/International Metro
The opportunity exists for a fast high-capacity metro over existing tracks to link the main proposed Olympic sites, all five London airports, and Stratford International station for Eurostar: From the triangle junction on Thameslink around Cricklewood bus garage there are existing links:- Westwards (presently goods only) to the lines to Heathrow and Olympic site at Eton Wick, North to Luton Parkway for the airport, South to St Pancras (International) and Gatwick, East via Upper Holloway to Tottenham; thence north to Stanstead and south to Stratford (Olympic and International), London City Airport and the Woolwich Ferry. Thameslink also serves Wimbledon and the DLR from Stratford serves the Greenwich site.	This offers a far wider benefit to visitors to the Olympics than carrying them from Stratford into Kings Cross. It will leave in place a valuable inner urban orbital network avoiding the congested Central Zone 1, taking people from where they live or work to international travel connections or to the enduring Olympic facilities. Capital costs are relatively slight and community severance by new lines avoided because all of the trackbed already exists.
Regeneration through art/culture
The Archway site is of a size that rarely comes up for total redevelopment in a major city. An architectural competition would attract architectural teams of international standard with bids of ambitious and visionary ideas. Archway could follow the example of Southwark, where Tate Modern has attracted visitors which then attract investors in businesses.	This would take Archway from a rather unremarkable area into a different league and would focus media attention on the area. A cultural agenda could be used as a hook to raise the ambitions of the wider Archway area. There are some large underused buildings in the area that could be used for exhibitions and as performance space.	Not a quick fix - these grand plans for a whole area take years to come to fruition and require considerable investment of time and commitment at council/city level. Sometimes these projects do not work. The converted Baltic Flour Mill in Newcastle upon Tyne is slightly too small to become quite enough of a draw in its own right. (However, the opening of the Sage Music Centre as a neighbour may now correct that problem.)
Green/open space
Apart from the odd tree and the triangle at the crossing at the top of the Holloway Road, there is very little visible green space in the main shopping area. The main focus is on roads. There is a large area of pleasant grassland with mature trees in the middle of the Girdlestone Estate, just behind the main site. There is also green space to the north of the island (Archway Park for example). Using a combination of vistas from the shopping area to areas of green, plus clear pedestrian circulation routes, it would be possible to make a ‘green walk’ connecting the Archway area to Hampstead Heath, with connections to Waterlow Park, Highgate Cemetery and the park at the top of Bickerton Road, on the slopes of the covered reservoir. Meanwhile, any new or revamped open space in the heart of Archway could incorporate trees and other greenery.	An emphasis on greenery rather than roads and concrete would make the area more pleasant to use. The large areas of green space mentioned already exist, they just need to be made more visible and accessible. If the area is nicer people who currently go elsewhere would be inclined to use it, generating more custom for local shops, cafes and services. An image of an area being green and leafy affects its overall perceived attractiveness and desirability.	This would be harder to achieve in a development needing to maximise profit. Areas of planting in places with a lot of pedestrian traffic can demand continuous maintenance if they are not to deteriorate into tubs full of litter, bare earth and dead plants. Even the centre of Girdlestone Estate is not as attractive as it might be, in large part because of problems with litter.

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