Newmarket Road Urban Art slash Graffiti is about to be delolished.

Just noticed that the old GK brewery building on Newmarket Road is being demolished.
(Between the new hotel and the shut bells pub)
So wave good bye to the allowed graffiti along this bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfdGQtwsEls

The loss of the graffiti is unfortunate, but whatever gets built there can't possibly be as ugly as the existing buildings!

3 WANpoints to anyone who can guess what they are building there.

Only three because it is blindingly, painfully obvious.

That wasn't a planning question by the way, more a local history one. :p

A velodrome? (Hoping...)

Does this look like a Velodrome? ;)

http://idox.cambridge.gov.uk/online-applications/files/4BD8F73C2F92B63...

Dunno.

"Document Unavailable
Sorry but this document is currently unavailable.

This document is awaiting review to make sure personal details are removed before releasing online. If you are still unable to view this document by the end of the following working day, please email applicationsupport@cambridge.gov.uk with the application reference number and document name and we will resolve this as quickly as possible."

Bollocks. It worked earlier.

Here's a photo of half the building as seen from Newmarket Road. The other half you can't see is even prettier.

http://idox.cambridge.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do...

Try this too, go to "documents"

I just hope that nobody who likes to open their windows from time to time moves in - can't imagine the air quality is outstanding good along there!

WAN -- for all your warehouse-demolition news ...

Oh brilliant, more shit flats.

The shit flats will actually improve the look of Newmarket Road. It's such a craphole, even a Travelodge helped. I actually think that if they want to build lots of anonymous box flats they should just do it all down there to get it out of the way.

The point is that they'll be built wherever there's space regardless of local opinion.

More or less true BB, unless they are glaringly wrong for the site.

The City Council allocated a number of sites for housing within the city in their local plan in 2006. The City Council had to build a target number of new dwellings after targets from the regional government. These targets ensured that the city was to grow in population by nearly 30%, so the City Council really struggled to find spaces for them all - hence the massive development to the South, and all these new dense sites for boxy flats around the city. There are still massive sites to the Northwest and North of Newmarket Road to come.

I'm in two minds about this. On one hand the city was rapidly growing because of the high tech industry and there was not enough housing to meet demand so house prices were spiralling out of control. On the other I think that the government targets were excessive and this ensured that there was far too much development in too short a time, and the development was often inappropiate because it was rushed through. And as we discussed the other day, hardly any of this new housing helped local people, it went into a small rich elite landlords as "investments" because of lack of regulations.

This one is one of the sites that were allocated in the plan, so they WOULD HAVE most probably be built at some point, no matter what local people said. The Council will probably just say that people should have objected at local plan stage.

The planning laws have now changed under the Tories and their localism bill so they are less about housing targets. The City are writing a new local plan at the moment, it has far less allocation sites than the last one - except for the sites that still stand from the last plan.

Frontage (with the graffiti) now covered in scaffolding, the end is very neigh.

This was the state of Reworks on Friday viewed from Harvest Way:

https://twitter.com/badtimingnights/status/385689708250271744/photo/1
https://twitter.com/badtimingnights/status/386122161024294912/photo/1

Further along Harvest Way towards the Travelodge:

https://twitter.com/badtimingnights/status/385690246803107840/photo/1

Thanks for the background, Silent Rob! But I am confused (hacked off) that the City Council does what the central government tells it to, and not what their electorate want. And the Ridgeons site went from 35 dph to 75 dph between the "consultation" and the draft plan.

30 affordable units...Hmm, wonder what that means to your average council tenant or the guy living in a shop doorway?

The Premier Inn Hotel (nr2) is almost ready to grow upwards, on the site of the old cubiod building. Saw the foundations yesterday.

Building now covered with multi-coloured netting.

Not much building left from the back ...

Reworks -- back of wall along Newmarket Road still standing:
http://t.co/h5b1rK46Qz

Harvest Way:
http://t.co/UwIbffGUTq

This was all gone on Monday morning. By Monday evening they had broken up a lot of the concrete base too.

Seems odd being about to see right the way through. It's a bit like having a big haircut.

..or losing a tooth.

Yes. It's odd to realise how small and narrow that site is when it's just a patch of ground. Suddently I've gone from seeing a 60s? building at the end of my street to having one from the 12th century (the Abbey Church/St Andrew the Less).

They're digging up the concrete floor right now.

I like the machine that they have to break up the concrete floor. It's basically a big vibrating stick on the end of a digger. THAT must be a really boring job.

I like the stealth lol in this thread.