Greenwich Hospital – the charity that owns Greenwich Market – appears to have backed down in the face of local opposition over two aspects of its controversial regeneration project.
Recognising that the cobbled floor of the market is “much loved”, Greenwich Hospital has revised its planning application to include a promise that they “will carefully raise, refurbish and re-lay all the cobbles in a new configuration interspersed with new granite setts”.
The charity has also offered a concession over the Durnford Street buildings they had planned to demolish. The brickwork and building materials will instead now be salvaged and be donated for use within the World Heritage site.
Martin Sands, Director of Greenwich Hospital, said:
“Having hosted two public exhibitions and undertaken extensive stakeholder and community consultation I am pleased that we are able to respond to these specific community concerns raised about the cobbled market floor and the Durnford Street buildings. The market regeneration is designed to respect the World Heritage Site, retain the character of the Market and encourage retail diversity and independent businesses.”
If you were an opponent of the redevelopment project, do the proposed concessions meet your concerns?
Well, half a result. It’s not a concession, because amenity groups were also opposed to the removal of the cobbles and they would not have got through planning.
How kind of them to save the bricks from Durnford Street! Instead, on what will be a more prominent entrance than before, we lose a stables and gain a trash compactor. Hurrah.