The architecture is typical of the cheap low quality dressed up stuff being thrown up everywhere.Right opposite is a development which at least mirrors the Architecture of Northfields Station. Utilising windows and not being obtrusive to the Station.This impression looks dreadful and as mentioned will look just like the other places with balconies only good for keeping laundry and kids toys because the flats are too cramped and devoid of adequate space to live. Because the intention is to keep occupants short term. Local jobs and businesses are not all run from a laptop in a cafe. Affordable workspace is an integral component to a thriving town and community, as important as Parks, playing fields,allotments, day centres, clinics, swimming pools and so on. Already too much has been displaced or lost entirely.Has nothing been learned at all from overdensification without adequate space which spawned such awful social problems all over the UK in the 1960s ? We have lost much of Commerce Road, The small business park on Ealing Road, Reynards Mill and many small locations. That cumulates to a very large number pf proper local jobs many skilled and semi skilled. But what is left is now unaffordable for any sort of viability. So the only option is to move right out and employ elsewhere. Developers and landowners are often deliberately overpricing and running down industrial estates and units to make a better case for residential developments as it's short term fast money. If you take a look at who some of these developers backers are, they are often here today gone tomorrow investors and speculators. Not your Thomas Carniegies or Guinness Trust.But it really comes down to a proper balance and this is being severely tipped over.
Mark Kehoe ● 2983d