Riverside plans published
Details have been added to the Teddington Riverside website that give an idea of the size and shape of the housing development that could be built when Teddington Studios and Haymarket leave Teddington.
It now seems certain that as well as the Studios moving, Haymarket will also relocate to elsewhere in the borough – currently talks are underway with Richmond College to create a new headquarters in an education and enterprise” deal.
Haymarket’s current aim is to move to a new office location in the next three years and the proposal could see the media company working closely with Richmond upon Thames College and forming part of a redevelopment of this education centre, which Richmond Council is funding with £10 million.
Plan showing existing building scale (red) alongside current development concept (white)
The initial plan for housing on the site is to include a mixture of 250 apartments and townhouses – arranged largely within three main buildings which will open up views to the river from Broom Road. The apartment buildings will be lower than the tallest building currently on the site and new dwellings would be accompanied by underground on-site parking to alleviate parking on surrounding streets.
The current private site has 140 metres of river front which is unavailable to the general public, the development would open up access to this section of the river and plans to retain the history of the site are also stated – with the retention of blue plaques and heritage information boards along a riverside walk.
Views available from Broom Road area
Scheme objectives are also listed alongside the plans that include reducing the overall building mass and creating a residential development that is more in keeping with the character of the surrounding area.
Also there are pledges to provide affordable housing and improvement of local services: “Once the scheme is fixed, its viability will be assessed to determine the level of affordable housing that can be provided either on site, on an alternative site or by way of a financial contribution. The scheme will also have to make contributions to improving local services.”
[Update 18/07/2013] A press release from the Riverside team following local community feedback the first exhibition can be found here.
Haymarket will now consider the comments received from the local community before working up detailed plans. Further exhibitions will be held later in the year so that more detailed plans can be shared with the local community. In the meantime, Haymarket would still welcome comments and the emerging concept plans can be found at www.teddington-riverside.co.uk.
[Update 16/08/2013] Better view of the proposed buildings (without existing):
You have to be joking about “building mass and creating a residential development that is more in keeping with the character of the surrounding area Just look at the proposals!
This development seems like a very bad idea. Apart from visual impact 1) building on a floodplain including underground is deeply problematic 2) lack of school places for another 250 households – already not enough primary school places and looming crisis for secondary school places from 2014 due to expansions of primaries over last few years and no site yet found for Turing House School 3) traffic issues on a narrow one lane road and 4) loss of custom for local restaurants and shops provided particularly by Teddington Studios.
I’m amazed that nobody seems to object to the loss of one of Teddington’s few links with history, and a significant local employer. Twickenham Studios was saved – how come people seem to accept that we’re going to lose our much more significant studios? I sometimes feel there’s an unspoken desire to make Teddington as boring as possible.
Splendid example of meaningless jargon here.
Looking between the main blocks for a possible glimpse of the river will offer us ‘Transparency and Connectivity’…
Awful shame for the local community. Lets not forget the trade a TV studio crew and audience bring to the High Street ( upwards of 300 people on a “Show Day”) and the loss of 650 Haymarket employees. Totally agree with the comment made about increased traffic in a very narrow road, which is also heavily used by schoolchildren on bicycles during term time.Teddington has had a studio for around 100 years and this history will soon be wiped away. London now has a shortage of Studio space to make TV shows so the council decides to give planning to demolish one of the best studios in the country, and build more flats.
Please keep me updated with the Teddington Riverside Development as I would be very interested in purchasing a house there