On the border of Camberwell SE5, just in SE24, an application has been made to Lambeth Council for two tower blocks rising to 29 and 20 storeys at Hardess Street, above light industrial use and a new pedestrian route. It is next to the railway line between Herne Hill Road and Milkwood/Hinton Roads. This is the potential view from Milkwood Road, looking towards Loughborough Junction!

As the application is part way up the hill towards Herne Hill its presence will be very noticeable over a large swathe of SE5 and in particular from Ruskin Park, where it is only 300m away at the nearest point to a building rising to approximately 100m

Full details of the planning application can be found on the Lambeth planning website. You then need to search for 19/04280/FUL. The application has 137 documents, but the Design and Access statement – running to 19 fairly short documents provides a comprehensive summary. There were nearly 400 comments on the website on 25 th Feb..

The consultation runs until 12th March. In practice Lambeth always takes comments until just prior to committee date. Comments can also be sent to planning@lambeth.gov.uk

View from Ruskin Park

View at Loughborough Junction

Update 23 February: The final date for comments submitted on the website is stated as 28th February, although in practice it will probably remain open longer as the application to redevelop Dulwich Hamlet Football has. If not comments can still be submitted to planning@southwark.gov.uk until the committe date is published

23 January: The much heralded Butterfly Walk redevelopment application is still open for comments at Southwark Planning Department under the reference 19/AP/7057. There are 89 documents and drawings associated with it but the essence of these are contained in the 10 Design and Access documents which would form a good place to start looking.

The application can be found here

You can also view the developers' short flyer here

Elizabeth Borowiecka has written an informative article on the development for the next issue of the Camberwell Quarterly which is due out this month. An advance copy of her article is available here. Elizabeth is a member of the Planning sub-Committee of the Camberwell Society. The committee reviews all planning applications lodged for SE5 and comments where appropriate. They will be formally reviewing the application in due course.

Elizabeth's article raises some questions relating to the development that are worthy of thought.

We said NetworkRail have informed us that they have responded to our badgering and instructed a contractor to clear the rubbish from behind the railings on Champion Park. They say it will be done within 21 days, we are counting! As were others!

In response to our chasing, NetworkRail have emailed today (21 Feb) to say that they had to call off the clearance contractor during the storms due to safety concerns about working among the trees. They say they have re-instructed the contractor to re-start the work. Clock starts again!