Restoring Green Park, Bath

[rogerh]

On Wednesday Bath & North East Somerset Council's planning committee will decide on an application to build a hotel and office block on the site of Green Park House, a post-war redevelopment that replaced the Georgian terrace of Green Park Buildings East.

In his book, Bath: An Architectural Guide, Thom Gorst wrote, “If an opportunity ever arises, either through traffic redirection or the redevelopment of its east side, Green Park should once again be contained by impressive architecture".

That opportunity is now here but it is an opportunity that will be lost if this application is approved. The officer's recommendation is for approval but there is (just) still time to comment.

For more information and links visit http://www.thebath.net/greenpark

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Roger

 

[Jon Maine]

Gosh, that looks a bit imposing and as if it will be out of place, although it may still considered to be an improvement on what is there currently, which from memory were scaffolded and maintained only a few years ago (downright ugly though).

I hope they see some sense but then I do not think much of the development toward the train station either and did hear that serious waves had threatened Baths position as a world heritage site over the way the development was pushed through. But as Gareth pointed out the decision lies with elected officers who may have little experience of planning at all.

Hope they make something else out of it than the current proposal.

 

[rogerh]

I'm pleased to say it was rejected by eleven votes to one. Battle won, if not the war.

Incidentally, the Georgian Group contributed this:

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The Georgian Group is a statutory consultee in the planning system. We
were not consulted on this application, understandably as it does not
directly affect listed Georgian fabric, but it has today been drawn to
our attention and we wish to comment as the proposed new development
affects the setting of the surviving Green Park terrace. In our
judgement every effort should be made to reinstate the lost terrace
and to rebuild the road along the previous alignment. The cue for
design, massing and configuration should be taken not from what is
currently on the site but from the surviving terrace. The two terraces
flanking Green Park were conceived as a pair and together formed a
delicately-realised piece of urban design - as it were, rus in urbe;
the terraces, seen through a verdant filter, approximated to the view
of a country house seen through its landscape. The urban design is not
accidental; it is highly deliberate and coherent and every effort
should be made to rectify the amputation that occurred when the lost
terrace was demolished. That loss was and is a scandal; it would not
now be countenanced. And it must follow that if an opportunity arises
to right the wrong, it should be taken. This does not necessarily mean
reinstating the lost terrace is all its details; there is room for
manoeuvre, in the form of recessed mansards and development at the
rear, to allow the requisite square footage to be achieved. But the
key point is that Bath's greatest asset is its legacy of historic
buildings, and that legacy has as much to do with urban design as
architectural detail. Damaging that legacy in the mid to late
twentieth century was a huge error and whenever the chance of
redemption arises it should be grasped.

Robert Bargery, Secretary, The Georgian Group.

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Roger

 

[Jon Maine]

Good news, for now at least.