London’s Garden Bridge has been officially abandoned but it’s future was looking shaky last year. Peter Bill looks at why everybody hates the Garden Bridge except for nearby landlords. From the archives…
Time to start taking seriously the impact of London’s Garden Bridge on values within the half mile arc of commercial and residential property surrounding the northern landing point at Temple, EC4.
Last week a construction contract for the £180m project was signed. Work begins this summer and should finish in late 2018. “The Garden Bridge will breathe so much life into this part of the north bank,” said Farebrother boss Alistair Subba Row.
King’s College isn’t holding its breath. Offers are expected this week for the university’s holdings close to the bridge. Tony Pidgley’s Berkeley Group took a chance long before the bridge was certain. Today two huge blocks of flats are half built and selling in the £1,700 to £2,000 per sq ft range.
Over the road lies a huge half-cleared site being developed by Mark Wadwha and Tim Robinson of the Vinyl Factory. JLL is already marketing the 147 flats and a 113-bedroom hotel on ground once occupied by the Howard Hotel. Work is due to start next month, apparently.
But Arundel Great Court, which fronts the Strand, stands empty, an office permission not yet taken up. Come on, chaps. It’s been a while. What are your plans? You can breathe out now.
But, dear oh dear, what a fuss there has been getting to this point. Paul Morrell is deputy chair of the Garden Bridge Trust. The former boss of construction consultancy Davis Langdon has spent four years playing the political equivalent of whack-a-mole – thumping down objections to the bridge as they pop up.
Architects hate the 1,200ft span because designer Thomas Heatherwick is not a fully paid-up member of the chosen profession. The political left reviles the use of £120m of private capital to build what should surely be a public space. The political right reviles the spending of £60m of taxpayer cash on what should surely be a 100% private project.
“We can only hope that we have reached the end of a period that has demonstrated how much easier it is to be against things these days than for them,” says Morrell.
Historic footnote: A predecessor of mine at Building, Henry Statham, called Tower Bridge “as choice a specimen of architectural gimcrack on a large scale as one could wish to see”.
Statham, an architect, edited the title between 1884 and 1910. When Tower Bridge opened in 1894, Statham attacked again. “The whole structure is the most monstrous and preposterous architectural sham,” he said.
Expect a wail of criticism from architects in 2018 when the bridge opens and a purr of satisfaction from property owners on both banks as values rise.
Rogue landlords latest
The ancient sport of gouging cash from residential leaseholders by rogue landlords has long been profitable. Padding management charges, insurance premiums bloated with hidden commission, ground rent uplifts grafted on to lease extensions and sky-high legal fees all play their part.
But help is on the way. Go to the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership website, run by former Mail on Sunday property editor Sebastian O’Kelly, the motto of which is “Keeping the wolves from your door”. You’ll see that last week two amendments were added to the Housing and Planning Bill by Conservative peer Lord Young. One makes it easier for leaseholders to contact their neighbours in a block to mobilise against the freeholder. The other stops lawyers dumping massive costs on residents through “administrative fees”, after the property tribunal ruled that they can’t be levied through service charges.
A fancy block in Docklands illustrates the kind of dispute that prompted the moves. The freeholder spent £74,500 on a QC and legal team in a failed attempt to block a recognised residents’ association 18 months ago. All the tenants wanted was the power to see the accounts. Last week it was agreed that an all-party parliamentary group should be formed. Joint chairs will be veteran Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley and Labour’s Jim Fitzpatrick.
Why a resurgence of interest? It has been calculated that 90% of all new homes in London will be in leasehold blocks.
This article was originally published on 26th March 2016
