SECOND LONDON CHEST HOSPITAL PETITION

Proposed residential blocks

We, the undersigned, object to PA/16/03342 and 03343 because the three proposed residential blocks would dominate rather than defer to the Grade II-listed 1855 main building, and their height, scale and bulk would also fail to preserve the northern and southern elements of the parkland setting, which makes a positive contribution to the significance of the listed 1855 building and this part of the Victoria Park Conservation Area. This part includes the Park View Estate and the Grade II*-registered Victoria Park, which has group value with the Grade II-listed 1855 main building (List Entry Description No. 1433870).

The parkland setting of the Park View Estate links the parkland setting of the former London Chest Hospital with the parkland of Victoria Park (via the narrow open space of the Regent’s Canal Conservation Area) so that parkland pervades this extensive part of the Victoria Park Conservation Area.

The three proposed residential blocks would also create a massive barrier along the west side of St James’s Avenue which would sever the important parkland link between the hospital site and the Park View Estate and the registered park (on the north side of the canal). The massive barrier would also dominate and have a detrimental impact on the lower set-back buildings on the east side of St James’s Avenue: including the Grade II-listed Church of St James the Less, which has group value with the Grade II-listed 1855 main building (List Entry Description No. 1433870). The massive barrier would also destroy the balanced streetscape created by all the east side buildings and the existing low former hospital buildings on the west side of St James’s Avenue.

The harm caused by the proposed three residential blocks to the settings of the listed hospital building, listed church and listed vicarage and to this extensive part of the Victoria Park Conservation Area would not be outweighed by the proposed public and heritage benefits which are being provided solely to outweigh the “less than substantial harm caused by the demolition of the Grade II-listed South Wing”.

Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee should therefore please refuse consent (under NPPF paras. 132 and 137) or defer its decision to allow the applicant to revise the application to create smaller and lower residential blocks which defer to the Grade II-listed 1855 main building, better preserve its parkland setting and maintain the parkland link with the Park View Estate and the Grade II*-registered Victoria Park (via the intervening section of the Regent’s Canal Conservation Area).

Please sign this petition and the (first) London Chest Hospital petition, which is about the alterations to the listed building.

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