I have given up waiting for the developer to drop me in copies of the artists impressions of the development and as comments on the demolition application have to be sent to the council by Friday I went down to the Town Council offices where they are on display and photographed them.Two of each one with flash and one without, both could be better but I have done my best.
I have also been sent an artists impression from another source and of a different view, below.
Also the picture it was based on, below, so that you can see the view from the harbour wall that is obscured by the development.
None of them come anywhere near expressing the building material that changes colour depending on the angle you view it from, click on the link for the pictures of the sample boards http://www.thanetonline.com/slipways/id5.htmI have cropped some of the pictures of the boards and put them on the web to try and give some idea of the actual colours involved http://www.thanetonline.com/slipways/id7.htm
It looks bloody awful. Blake 7 springs to mind.
ReplyDeleteThat side wall will look nice when the rust gets set in and the graffiti artists draw big ECR flags on it.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure it's not some kind of hideous joke? Maybe it's an exhibit that's escaped from the Turner Centre!
ReplyDeleteAre the ships going? What a tragedy. Can you tell me why the slip is closing. Slips like that are quite rare now and ships need them.
ReplyDeleteDavid Redfern
I'm keeping an open mind for now. It's also the contents of the building that will make it a success or a failure, and as yet we know very little. Did someone mention "family entertainment" in an earlier post?
ReplyDeleteDavid click on the link for my other posts about this http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/search/label/Ramsgate%20slipways%20development you should find all the information you want there, if not let me know.
ReplyDeleteData Hoover the plans are pretty detailed F/TH/10/0737 on http://www.ukplanning.com/thanet or http://www.thanetonline.com/slipways for a quick view, so you can see pretty much what it will contain, I should like to see the family they envisage.
A general thought to the rest of the commentators it does look as though it has potential to win an architectural prize and may even produce a new school of architecture, the brutal nautical perhaps.
I would say that with these new developments that are out of character and keeping with our town, this one a £2m development Pleasurama a £20m development, some sort of website explaining what we are going to get would be no bad thing.
Without very careful and time consuming examination of the council’s website, or happening to notice one small curled up A4 notice in small print on a lamppost some way from the site, this one would have crept under the radar.
Yes there were the artist’s impressions in the Custom House, but I don’t really think anyone was taking this a serious proposition.
Some of the comments here have made me question why the developer is choosing to develop this site at all.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of an investment whilst it may pay off, it seems to me that there are many risks to take into account and some of these really are considerable unknowns.
The planning issues are the obvious ones, along with making sure that what is contructed is rentable or saleable to a sufficient number of tenants or buyers in a given timeframe. This is the gamble, as we all know that cafe and restauarants are seasonal or part time operations and are facing increasing compettion locally with decreasing customers.
Also when compared to the vacant nearby properties which are for sale the construction costs of the new development will be very high indeed.
If I was an developer I would think long and hard about my choices, especially building alongside a noisy slipway yard.
Much of this proposal just doesn't make sound economic or business sense in its current form, or its INTENDED use.
The developer presumably is not stupid. This makes me ponder IF things didn't work out and the restaurants and cafe's remained unwanted burdens, what would the developer do then?
Could they be 'converted' and 'expanded' to some other profitable use?
Luxury harbourside houses and flats perhaps?
Do the planning regs and current application processes take this possibility into account?
If they don't then it will all be VERY convienient.
This is not an attractive building. It looks out of place in its Harbour setting. I doubt if there is a need for a another restaurant in this area. It is difficult to see how the building would make money. Unless of course it suddenly became luxury flats. Which is what I suspect the developer has in mind, in connivance with TDC.
ReplyDeleteThey could of course fill it with slot machines, bingo stalls, rides etc and call it Merrie England. Or they could turn it into a workshop and repair ships there. In which case they would also need to build a slipway.
Then again, maybe the plot is more subtle than that. Perhaps their intention is to collect the insurance on the building when one of Michael's floods sweeps it into the sea. That would be my preferred outcome.
On another topic, I often wonder why TDC has never considered building a large swimming pool on the front. They have a little used a car park in the area that would make a suitable site. TDC could call it The Marina.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Michael.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, the flats aside, the proposed build simply offers 2 bars and 2 restaurants. Quite a modest proposal for such a prime location. Especially given the fact that the harbour is already crammed with bars and restaurants. If they are to be upmarket, which the location suggests they would be, then I wouldn't class it as a family venue from a cost point of view.
Secondly, replacing a working slipway with a "feature boat" tells you everything you need to know about the council's plans for the harbour.
yes data hoover fill it in build flats for the rich
ReplyDeleteyes data hoover fill it in build flats for the rich
ReplyDeletesurly they dare not?????
ReplyDeleteI have an idea. Why don't we get rid of TDC and have a "feature Council". It could be a window display in the harbour. Perhaps coin operated with mannequins that move…
ReplyDeleteThanet Coucil already features coin operated mannequins!
ReplyDelete