Author Archives: Prabhat Vaze

Climate Strategy Room in Swiss Cottage

This Borough-wide consultation follows on from a series of local “Strategy Rooms” the Council held last year. One was held in association with the Belsize Society. BelSoc Member Chris Langdon was one of those who took part. Here are his personal impressions:

Should supermarkets be rated for their green policies, or would it be a good idea for private landlords to be obliged to charge “warm rent” (rent plus heating bills) to incentivise landlords to make energy efficiency measures?  These are among the question that we participants were asked at a 90-minute “Strategy Room” convened by Camden at Swiss Cottage Community Centre on November 23. 

The “Strategy Room” is a fancy title for a public consultation. It was facilitated by Nesta, a charity which describes itself as “UK’s innovation agency for social good.”  Eight people from all over Camden, three of whom are from Belsize Park, braved the wet and windy weather. Similar events were also held during the month in Kentish Town and Kilburn. One in Somers Town was dedicated to the views of young people.

At the Swiss Cottage Strategy Room, residents raised the problems of doing retrofit. There was a spontaneous and lively discussion about heat pumps, whether they are noisy, and the vexed problems getting planning permission in a Conservation Area like Belsize Park.   This wasn’t part of the consultation process, which was tightly scripted and briskly moderated. We all were given mini iPads to watch four “films from the future” with actors, and to answer scripted questions.

Participants expressed some concern that the conversation was so tightly proscribed that the issues that really concern residents on climate change weren’t being fully heard. We were assured that all comments were noted on two laptops and will be fed into the consultation process leading into the cross-Camden consultation in April.

On balance, my wife and I thought it was worth taking part. We enjoyed meeting a lively and articulate group of residents and we could have gone on longer. We were all pleasantly surprised that the more we talked together the more we reached agreement.

Retrofit update

Belsize Society members will have a chance to discuss how Council retrofit policies are evolving at a meeting to be co-hosted with Retrofit Kentish Town (RKT) in March.   This is a new collaboration. RKT has been active for 18 months. A number of BelSoc members have taken part in their meetings and found them useful and informative.

Locally, the Camden Climate Fund (CCF) is being re-launched. Grants of up to 50% costs are to be available for heat pumps, solar panels and solar thermal (for hot water). To help people apply Camden is offering free pre-application advice. 

On the question of retrofitting and balancing heritage constraints, Camden has been training its staff on how updated guidelines from Historic England and the recent National Planning Policy Framework 2024 can be interpreted a little more flexibly in favour of retrofit. 

The joint meeting with RTK will give Camden a chance to explain to us what is changing and to listen to residents’ views and answer questions. It is likely to be at Kentish Town Library.  The details are still being agreed.   An email will be sent to members as soon as they are finalised.

Join us for carol singing on Saturday

Belsize Society will once again be hoping to increase the festive cheer of the neighbourhood by organizing community Carol singing in Belsize Terrace (Belsize Village, outside the pharmacy) at 4.30 pm on Saturday 21 December.

We shall be led by Mathew Watts and we are inviting the Primrose Hill Community Choir to come along to sing with and to us as well. Songsheets with the words will be available. Do come and bring your friends and family: everyone, and especially children, very welcome.

Belsize Society Newsletter November 2024

Welcome to the November BelSoc Newsletter.

It was great to see many of you at events over the summer. The summer party was in a lovely setting and we’re grateful to the hosts. Averil Nottage introduced us to the three architects that shaped the Belsize area in a historic walk on a dry and sometimes sunny October Sunday. We report on these two events.

This Newsletter contains an invitation to Belsize residents. You’re being asked to contribute to Camden Council’s Sustainability Team’s Strategy Room. You have to apply and be selected to sit on a “citizen’s jury”, judging the policy options available and helping Camden as they design their climate action plans. Following on from that, we also have a piece about retrofitting, covering insulation and heat pumps.

We have a review of Peter Darley’s new book that explores the Chalk Farm Railway Lands, a maze of railway lines, canals, depots, tunnels and bridges. Averil’s review also lists the seven wonders of this area.

Regal developers recently took on the development of the 100 Avenue Road site. The Newsletter includes a report of their consultation as they plan next steps.

We were pleased to host, with the Friends of the Belsize Library, a wonderful talk by Lester Hillman covering numerous weather events over the centuries. The Friends have also let us know about their events over the winter and we cover the Gathering Leaves Hong Kong Book Library, which operates from the Belsize Library.

We hope that you can join us to sing carols in Belsize Village and enjoy the Newsletter.

OUR LOCAL RAILWAY HERITAGE

Local historian Averil Nottage writes:

Peter Darley has just published the Chalk Farm Railway Lands: a guided tour from 1830 to 2030 about a significant aspect of our local heritage.  You couldn’t wish for a better guide.  Peter’s knowledge and long-standing enthusiasm for his subject shines through.  

In 1830 it was proposed to build the London to Birmingham Railway through the fields alongside the planned Adelaide Road.  It was the first inter-city railway to London and brought goods from England’s industrial heartlands.  Robert Stephenson, as the Chief Engineer, faced many challenges, including digging the Primrose Hill tunnel through stiff clay and creating an underground Winding Engine House to pull engines by rope up the incline from Euston.

The company’s London goods depot was between Chalk Farm and the Regent’s Canal where Camden Station opened.  The depot housed the goods yard, locomotive sheds, warehouses, and stables.  The Roundhouse was built in 1847 to cope with large numbers of goods engines.  From 1851 trains transported goods directly to and from London Docks making the Roundhouse redundant, and it became a store.  At its peak, 800 horses transported goods from the station by road.  Horses continued to be used until the 1950s.  The last steam trains were in 1962 and, around then, commercial traffic on the canal ceased.  

Boat trips started on the canal in 1951 and the towpaths opened in 1972.  The first market stalls opened in 1973 and by the 1980s Camden Lock had a fully-fledged market.  The Camden Goods Station closed around 1980.  From 1966 the Roundhouse became an iconic rock venue, closing in 1983 before reopening in 1996 as a centre for the performing arts.

Peter ends the book by describing his dream that by 2030 the seven wonders of the Chalk Farm Railway Lands will all be publicly accessible. These are:

  • the Stationary Winding Engine Vaults, only accessible under Network Rail supervision
  • Primrose Hill Tunnel East Portal, now only partly visible
  • the Roundhouse, open for events but with the hub and undercroft not usually open
  • the Stables complex, largely accessible in the Stables Market
  • vaults, horse tunnels and catacombs, parts are incorporated into the market, but much is inaccessible
  • the Interchange Warehouse, now offices with no access to the historically significant basement and canal basin 
  • Hampstead Road Locks and the Regent’s Canal Information Centre which are publicly accessible.

The book costs £25 and can be obtained by from Peter, emailing BelSoc at membership@belsize.org.uk for more details.  

Belsize Library hosts Hong Kong Books Library

Gathering Leaves Hong Kong is a Hong Kong Books Library located in the Belsize Community Library since 2022. The mission is to preserve Hong Kong Language and culture, and to connect Hongkongers to the local community.

Gathering Leaves have collected 1000 books, they are books written by Hongkongers or books about Hong Kong. The HK Books Library is open every Saturday from 3 to 7pm. Other than regular Saturday sessions that welcome everyone, it also hosts a regular Qi Kung class on Monday afternoons, all free for the community.

The group have been hosting a variety of events to celebrate HK culture ranging from poetry readings, book talks, movie screenings, music and live performances. Their webpage is https://www.glhk.org.

Update from Belsize Community Library

BELSIZE COMMUNITY LIBRARY AND BELSIZE SOCIETY: JOINT EVENT

Organised by the Friends of the Belsize Community Library with BelSoc support, Lester Hillman’s talk “… A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall” described weather events over the last centuries. His presentation opened with the 1975 evening in Belsize/Hampstead when up to 200 millimetres of rain fell in an hour representing one third of a whole year’s rainfall. Memories of that evening were shared, with both the presenter and audience members remembering the 14 August evening. 

Rain was combined with hailstones, immense in size. Lester told us about the Wyldes Farm – the grade II* farmhouse still a feature of North End – that became inundated as run-off flowed through the house down to Golders Green. Its power crushed parked cars. There were numerous flooded areas in and around Belsize Park. 

The talk also highlighted that rainfall was localised other parts of London did not have unusual rainfall. In fact, almost all the rainfall was in a very small area centred on Whitestone Pond. Distant from the formal measurement stations, it was only because the Hampstead Scientific Society had placed a weather station and observatory near the pond, operating since 1905, that data would be collected about this event.

How freakish was this? The rest of the talk then did contextualise the event. We were introduced to the 1091 tornado that flatted 600 houses on St Mary Le Bow mentioned in the Chronicles; and to more recent storms including one that flattened a tree in 2011 in Aspen Grove. Rarity confirmed, the talk concluded, we left the library into a calm evening.

Upcoming Belsize Library Talks

The Friends of the Belsize Library have organised an exciting set of speakers over the winter. Talks will be at Belsize Community Library, Antrim Road, NW3 4XN, starting at 7.30pm. Suggested donation £5

Thursday 21st November, 7.30pm: The Extraordinary Life of Elizabeth Blackwell. An illustrated talk by Pamela Holmes on the famous 18th century  botanical illustrator who eloped from Scotland to London and later rescued  her husband from the notorious Marshalsea debtors prison.

Thursday 12th December, 7.30pm: Working With Music and Paint. An illustrated talk with live piano music by musician and painter Ruth Waterman.

Thursday 16th January, 7.30pm: Survivors of the Holocaust. A talk by Dr Bea Lewkowicz. As we approach the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. Dr Bea Lewkowicz chairs a discussion with survivors about their experiences during and after the war.

Thursday 20th February, 7.30pm: Belsize House and other Local Country Estates. An illustrated talk by local historian Averil Nottage.

Retrofitting a flat

An air source heat pump is big, about twice the size of an air conditioner, and is mounted externally, which might mean that it will require planning permission in our conservation area.  Heated water is distributed through radiators or underfloor. It doesn’t provide cooling, ventilation or domestic hot water.

If you live in a house or a ground floor flat you can probably position one on the rear wall or in the garden.  If you live in an upper floor flat it is unlikely that you will be able to fit one.

You might find an air source heat pump combi of interest.They are more expensive, and at the moment don’t qualify for a government grant (but hopefully that will change).  They are quite large and heavy to install.  However, they do have the advantage that they are fitted internally, so don’t require planning permission.  Heated air is distributed through duct work and grilles in the floor or ceiling.

Pichler and Viessmann combis both provide heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water all in one unit.Insulation is the top priority in retrofit.  Ideally 10 cms of wood fibre should be fitted to the external walls, probably internally, with as much as possible in the ceiling and floor.  Any draughts should be stopped.  The next priority is double glazing.  Both of these should be carried out before a heat pump is installed.  One or two electric heaters can be added if needed.

There is some support offered to residents. Camden lists the energy efficiency grants available at https://www.camden.gov.uk/energy-efficiency-grants.

Stay in touch on retrofit@belsize.org.uk.

100 Avenue Road Development Forum: Update from New Developer

Alan Selwyn, BelSoc Planning, writes:

This online meeting was organised by Camden with the 100 Avenue Road developers to present revisions to the permitted scheme and answer questions on the proposals. 

After 10 years, only the foundations and basement have been built, with the site now sold to Regal who wish to redesign elements of the scheme. This requires new consent, and they are consulting between now and the end of the year, hoping to start work in early 2025 with a 3 year build time.

They will not change the existing permitted envelope but have managed to squeeze in an additional 52 units by minimising the service ducts and other modifications. There will be 166 units in the tower – now 26 storeys – and 70 in the adjoining lower building – now 8 storeys. The lower building, in addition to affordable housing units, will contain shops and a community space, which will be refined in consultation with The Winch.

The existing two buildings were to be faced in concrete with large amounts of glass. This is no longer considered acceptable in terms of energy requirements so the outside will now be clad in brick with smaller windows and curved corner balconies. This may help reduce the visual intrusion this tower presents though it will not reduce the huge scale.

There were other environmental discussions around the effects on wind, shadowing, glare from the windows, micro-climate and improvements to the landscaping.

Affordable housing will increase from 30% to 35%, now said to be “true affordable”. There are two main types included in this scheme: ‘social affordable rent’ for those on Housing Benefit and ‘intermediate rent’ designed to be achievable for those in salaried work.  A Housing Association will manage these. Camden prefers this to shared ownership schemes for various reasons explained. The way the 35% is calculated has also improved to give better-quality homes by calculating floor space and habitable room area rather than simply number of units (which tends to favour small flats such as studios). 35% also meets the GLA London Plan requirement and Mayor of London Plan. 

It does seem as though the new provision is an improvement on the original scheme in this respect.

Of the remaining 65%, the original scheme focussed more on private rentals, whereas this scheme now targets private sales. The developers said this would favour a more stable population, with more family sized units (though they cannot control buy to lets or overseas sales). 

Access was discussed, during the building work and after, for deliveries, bin collection and so on. We have concerns about vehicle access, which is primarily from Eton Road (and presumably the rather narrow Winchester Road from Swiss Cottage). Small deliveries and disabled parking are planned to be in the basement via the ramp under Hampstead Theatre. Larger deliveries (to the shops), waste collection and any other utilities will be from ground level between the theatre and the tower. Both will create a hazard for pedestrians. More work is needed.

Other than blue badge spaces in the basement there will be no residents’ parking on site and the council will not issue residents’ parking permits, as this will be a ’car-free’ development. 

I was impressed by the level of detail discussed in the 2 hour meeting and attention to answering residents’ questions, also by the commitment by the Council to achieve the best results from the proposed revisions.

More details will be published in the next couple of months with further consultation. Members are encouraged to take part.

BelSoc Carol Singing 2024

The Society’s carol singing will take place in Belsize Village on Saturday 21 December, 4.30pm.  Please join us for the event, to enjoy the sing-along and a mince pie or two. Donations will be colle

cted for a local charity. (The Marie Curie Hospice – which we have supported in the past – is currently closed for major works.)

As in previous years, Matthew Watts will lead our singing and we’re again hoping that the Primrose Hill Community Choir members might join us. Members may like to note that the Concert for the Homeless (which Matthew is involved with) is on 24 November, 7pm. Tickets are £25 with proceeds to Crisis and St Mary’s Primrose Hill.