Barnsbury Estate

• RESIDENTIAL densities are not set in stone, but Newlon Housing Association’s plans for their post-war “new” Barnsbury Estate, on which residents are currently being asked to vote, take one’s breath away, (The future of Barnsbury Estate is in the balance, February 26).

They will almost triple its density, requiring it totally to be rebuilt. The footprint of buildings on the site will double, leading to a reduction of nearly two acres in open space – paved and green – compared with the present, including the loss of numerous trees.

Although there have been encroachments already on this open space, including the notorious Phelps Lodge flats built on a grass lawn between Messiter House and Copenhagen Street by Newlon itself about 12 years ago, the green space and trees are one of the attractions of the estate most often mentioned by residents during consultations on this new project so far.

Although Newlon attempt to reassure them that somehow landscaping will be “improved”, they should be under no illusion that the present open, quiet, green, character will be maintained with the proposed new layout, accommodating perhaps an extra 1,800 to 2,000 people with open space reduced by 20 per cent. It will be a harder darker environment.

The pre-war brick blocks of the smaller “old” Barnsbury Estate on Penton Street are to be refurbished as part of the same package, and their residents have everything to gain, while the residents of the “new” estate running down to Caledonian Road have, it seems to me, everything to lose.

So should they both be voting on the same package? Half the new units will be sold off. Housing associations should surely be able to look after and manage their housing without periodical resort to exploitative projects of this kind.

JAMES DUNNETT
James Dunnett Architects, N1