Eric Reynolds, the market man in last ditch bid to save Smithfield

An ambitious plan to save historic Smithfield Market from partial demolition by turning it into a modern-day market has been lodged by campaign groups and the man who created Camden Market.

Eric Reynolds, of Urban Space Management, which also created Shoreditch Market, said: “We have worked with the Victorian Society and SAVE Britain’s Heritage to produce a planning application that enables the re-launch of the buildings as a market-based destination for independent food, creative business and cultural enterprise.”

Earlier this year the City of London gave permission to Henderson Global Investors for their £160 million plans to knock down part of the General Market building in Farringdon Street and build a seven-storey office block and shopping complex on the site.

That decision has now been called in by communities secretary Eric Pickles and will be the subject of a public inquiry in February.

Heritage groups – with the notable exception of English Heritage – have condemned the plans. They argue that its unique interior will be destroyed.

Now those heritage groups and Mr Reynolds have submitted their own plans, going “head to head” with Henderson.

Mr Reynolds added: “We will build upon the site’s position at the heart of London, its unrivalled transport connections and Farringdon’s global reputation as a destination for creative business and British food.

“The opportunity cannot be recreated in the atrium of a modern office building. The grand, top- lit Victorian market halls of the General Market building present a unique opportunity to London. Once lost they will be gone for ever.”

The Victorian Society has described the building as “perhaps the most impressive, large-scale and complete complex of market buildings in England”.

A market has operated there for 800 years. The General Market was built in 1881 but has been empty since 1999.

A host of celebrities, including writer Alan Bennett, have also spoken out against the plans and more than 2,600 people have signed a petition against it.

Islington Council has also formally objected to the plans, which are just across its border, on the grounds that the proposals “would substantially harm the General Market and the Smithfield Conservation Area” as well as  the Charterhouse Square Conservation Area and the setting of Charterhouse Street in Islington.

SAVE president Marcus Binney added: “Smithfield doesn’t need yet more offices. Hendersons are already building a huge new office development on the next-door site.”

Victorian Society director Chris Costelloe said: “Smithfield Market has a character like no other part of central London. Preserving this is a matter of national importance.

“Our viable scheme for the site would boost the local economy and give these important buildings a long-term future.”

At July’s planning hearing Geoff Harris, Henderson’s director of property management, argued that it was a “regeneration project”.

He said: “We have been developing this scheme, through consultation with the City and English Heritage, for three years.  “There will be significant restoration of the parts of the building that people see.”

Campaigners submit planning application for rival Smithfield scheme

Architect Burrell Foley Fischer goes head to head with McAslan & Partners

Illustration of Smithfield General Market reopened as a market hub

The Victorian Society and Save Britain’s Heritage have submitted a full planning application for Smithfield Market in an unprecedented bid to pre-empt a planning inquiry.

Architect Burrell Foley Fischer has drawn up detailed plans for the covered market near Farringdon which was designed by Sir Horace Jones in the 19th century.

These have been submitted to the City of London Corporation by the two conservation bodies as part of a change of use application which would pave the way for a “rescue plan” designed by Eric Reynolds of Urban Space Management (USM).

The application is the latest move in a campaign by the Victorian Society and Save against a scheme by John McAslan & Partners to insert six storeys of office and retail behind the Victorian facades.

This won planning in July but was called in by communities secretary Eric Pickles just two months later. The subsequent planning inquiry is due to open on February 11.

Chris Costelloe, director of the Victorian Society, said: “This is exceptional. I’m not aware of the Victorian Society ever having made a planning application, and it’s quite unusual for a party that doesn’t own a site to put in a planning application.”

Burrell Foley Fischer’s Smithfield plans

The public inquiry would hinge on the viability of alternative plans that don’t involve demolition, he said, so it was necessary to demonstrate the viability of the USM scheme.

“This is one of the most important market complexes in the country and is an important part of the City of London yet the current plans would involve substantial demolition,” he added.

He described the application, which could be heard in parallel with the public inquiry, as “extremely realistic”.

“All we need is for the City of London to come to its senses and decide that rather than another office block something much more exciting could be done here. When Crossrail meets Thameslink, Farringdon is going to be the centre of London and it will need a heart. There will be massive demand for retail there.”

Clem Cecil, director of Save, said: “We are saying loud and clear that this heritage is important for London and the nation and can be protected and bring economic benefit.”

John McAslan, whose scheme was drawn up for developer Henderson Global Investors, declined to comment.

Victorian Society & SAVE submit planning application for Smithfield General Market and Annex

The alternative scheme put forward in the planning application submitted by the Victorian Society and SAVE Britain's Heritage for the historic Smithfield General Market involves no demolition.  It is based on a viable and fundable business plan from Urban Space Management, who have successfully brought Camden Market, Greenwich Market, Spitalfields Market and many other markets throughout the country back into vibrant use.

In February 2014 (11th-28th) there will be a  public  inquiry into the future of Smithfield General Market and its stunning Annex building. This will determine whether Henderson Global Investors will be able to demolish most of the site and build two large office blocks.

The Public Inquiry is being fought by the Victorian Society and SAVE Britain's Heritage against the GLA, the City of London and Henderson Global Investors. The Secretary of State called it in for Public Inquiry in September this year.

English Heritage, in a volte face, is supporting the Henderson scheme saying that it does not cause 'substantial harm' to the Smithfield conservation area, although EH opposed the demolition of the General Market in a previous public inquiry.

The Victorian Society/SAVE scheme, drawn up by John Burrell of Burrell, Foley, Fischer, will save the General Market and its unique interiors and handsome top-lit market halls for the nation and create a new bustling hub in the heart of London.

Smithfield General Market was built in the late 19th Century by City Surveyor Sir Horace Jones, architect of Billingsgate and Leadenhall markets and Tower Bridge.  Together with the Smithfield meat and poultry markets, the General Market makes up the grandest procession of market buildings in Europe. It is a public asset, owned by the City of London Corporation, which has let it lie empty for many years.

The Victorian Society’s Director Chris Costelloe said: “Smithfield Market has a character like no other part of central London.  Preserving this is a matter of national importance.  Our viable scheme for the site would boost the local economy and give these important buildings a long term future.  By contrast the Henderson scheme would cause substantial harm to the conservation area.  We are pleased to be standing side by side with SAVE Britain's Heritage in this campaign.”

SAVE Director Clem Cecil said  "We are delighted to be working with the Victorian Society on this planning application that is a crucial aspect of our case for the public inquiry. We are saying loud and clear that this heritage is important for London and the nation and can be protected and bring economic benefit."

Home House to woo London's tech staff with Clerkenwell club

Private members’ club Home House is planning to open a second site in Clerkenwell in the hope of signing up a new group of young Londoners.

The owners of the West End venue are due to complete a deal imminently to take over the Old Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green, making it the latest in a long line of members’ clubs opening in and around the area.

Tech professionals have been signing up to the clubs in droves with the continued rise of Tech City just to the east, where companies including Facebook and Google are based.

With office space in the area sparse and meeting room fees rising, many in the digital sector are looking for more relaxed environments to meet contacts. It would seem that Home House hopes to cash in on the trend.

The current members’ club has been operating from its 18th century townhouse in Portman Square since it was restored in 1998.

In 2004 it was bought by a group of private investors, who took over the neighbouring building to create a more contemporary setting.

A source close to Home House said: “Bosses have always been keen to expand, but it was always a case of trying to find a building suitable to match the current club.”

Despite the recession, members’ clubs have managed to maintain fairly steady levels of membership.

Home House claimed to have avoided a drop in membership and reintroduced a waiting list, with many businessmen and women keen to use the site as an alternative venue for meetings.

The new site in Clerkenwell goes back over 1000 years and was once the largest courthouse in England.

McAslan’s Smithfield revamp called in

John McAslan + Partners’ contentious £160 million Smithfield Market overhaul has been called in by the secretary of state

Communities secretary Eric Pickles will decide the future of the scheme after deeming the redevelopment to concern ‘matters of substantial regional and national controversy.’

The inquiry is expected to focus on the mixed-use scheme’s compliance with the local plan and NPPF policies on good design and conserving the historic environment.

McAslan’s scheme – involving partial demolition of Victorian buildings to create 5,700m² of shops and 21,220m² of office space – won planning from the City of London in July.

Almost a dozen bodies objected to the Henderson Global Investors-backed project, including the Twentieth Century Society, SPAB, Islington Council and SAVE Britain’s Heritage which submitted a petition with the names of almost 2,700 people opposed to the redevelopment.

A previous scheme for the site by KPF, which would have obliterated the existing buildings, was also approved (see AJ 06.05.2006) at planning committee before being famously thrown out by communities secretary Hazel Blears in 2008.

A spokesperson for developer Henderson said: ‘Henderson’s conservation led planning application for the largely disused buildings in West Smithfield is the only realistic, viable and funded scheme which can bring these historic buildings back into use and deliver a proper long term sustainable balance of redevelopment, restoration and retention.

‘This balanced approach has been supported by the City of London, English Heritage, the GLA and CABE as it retains the vast majority of the existing Victorian market buildings and brings them back into viable use.’

Clem Cecil of SAVE said: ‘We’re delighted, it shows the significance of the buildings that the secretary of state has decided to call it in a second time. We are delighted there will be a fair forum for the discussion.’

Cecil claimed the latest twist proved the buildings – which failed to win statutory protection from demolition because they were bombed damaged – should now be listed.

The SAVE director called on the inquiry to consider claims the City of London had overlooked the planning inspector’s 2008 recommendations in approving the McAslan scheme.

She said: ‘The inspector [in 2008] concluded the buildings could be preserved and become a new Spitalfields or Covent Garden and that they should be put on the open market to allow conservation-led scheme to come forward.

She continued: ‘The City of London never put it on the open market. [Therefore] it is unfounded to say this is the only viable scheme because no other scheme has come forward. This is why we need this fair forum.’

Public inquiry should decide on Smithfield future

From Mr Alec Forshaw

Sir, Councillor Tom Sleigh’s letter (August 10) justifying the City of London Corporation planning committee’s recent decision to allow the redevelopment of the former General Market at Smithfield makes dispiriting reading. It illustrates the poor advice that committee members are fed by their officers. Cllr Sleigh states, for example, that 75 per cent of the fabric of the General Market will be kept, but he clearly has not looked very closely at the plans, which completely gut the magnificent interior of Horace Jones’s 1880s market. He states that the City needs more offices, without realising that more than 1m sq ft of offices is already in the pipeline within a few hundred metres of Smithfield, and there are vast amounts of offices consented elsewhere in the City, which no one wants to build because the demand has collapsed (for example, The Pinnacle, 100 Bishopsgate, 60-70 St Mary Axe).

Put bluntly, the City is failing to compete with other more attractive parts of London as a location where people want to work. Office rents in the West End are at least double those in the City. King’s Cross, Waterloo and Silicon Roundabout are providing vigorous competition.

Cllr Sleigh compares the approved Henderson scheme at Smithfield to Spitalfields Market, without realising that the amount of retail and café space proposed at Smithfield is tiny, nothing like enough for it to become a destination. There is a far better alternative scheme for Smithfield, promoted by the entrepreneurs who run Borough, Spitalfields, Greenwich and Camden Lock markets. They would repair the existing historic buildings (scandalously neglected by the Corporation), convert all the space to retail/market/café/ entertainment use, and pay the City Corporation a rent of £700,000 per year. This is exactly the injection of vitality that this part of the City needs, serving existing and new office workers in the area and attracting visitors.

Sadly the City Corporation are too blinkered to know what is good for them, let alone to be trusted with the conservation of historic buildings which are of London-wide if not national interest. Boris Johnson won’t want to ruffle the City’s feathers, and will no doubt rubber-stamp the office redevelopment (as he did recently with the City Corporation’s office scheme at the Fruit and Wool Exchange in Spitalfields). The secretary of state should step in and call the public inquiry that this important decision requires.

Masons fail in Sessions House Licence bid

Clerkenwell’s Masonic Centre tonight failed in its bid for a much-extended alcohol and late-night refreshment licence.  Islington Council’s Licensing Committee decisively rejected its application.

The Masons have sold the Sessions House for £6.5M to a company controlled by a businessman who wishes to run it as an invitation-only private members’ club, with a business in private events and parties, conferences etc, to be known as “Clerkenwell House.”  It would not be a night club and there would be no dancing or instant admission.

Virtually no details of the nature or operation of this proposed Club had emerged prior to the hearing, but a brochure was passed round, not previously seen by anyone, giving the proposed “rules” of the club.

The Masons claimed that the Club would be an upmarket one, reflecting the steadily upward trend of the area, and that there would be little obvious change from the current operation of the Centre, but objectors – present in force – asked what sort of Club, conference or private hire centre would need a 67% increase in alcohol sales hours,  until 6.00am?  How intensive would the use of the building need to be to service the £6.5M purchase price, plus the stated further £4M in repair costs?  How would the rules of the Club be enforced, in particular, against private party-goers attending events in the building?  “Up-market” status was no guarantee of moderate behaviour.

Sadly, there were no answers -  because the application was being made by the Masons, who are moving out, and not by the as-yet undisclosed buyer, who, despite investing heavily in the project, had not so far consulted with anyone locally about his plans, and was not present to answer the many questions local residents had.  Why was this?  The Masons weren’t saying.

Residents stressed that they accepted that the Sessions House – as one of Clerkenwell’s landmark buildings – needed to be safeguarded by having an economic use, but not at the cost of reintroducing problems previously associated with Turnmills, Ghost, Dust and Murphi’s – some of which continue to be caused by other nearby premises.

It is not clear what the Masons will do next.  They can appeal to the Magistrates, but it seems to me that a far better course would be for the new owner to introduce himself to the community, consult widely on his proposals, and then make a new application on which he can answer the resulting questions.