Earthworks?

Tue 24 Mar 2020, 15:26

Thanks Christine. Generally I am generally in favour of what that architect does especially compared to what gets built these days. Woodstock road springs to mind. On this occasion they have obviously gone OTT but as an architect I guess you have to follow the client's directive, 

Why don't I think it will be built? If you search for St Johns House Akeman Street Ramsden you can see a long history of applications for that site stretching back possibly even to 1995! IMHO it would have been built by now unless there still is a cunning plan to try to flog it unbuilt with planning permission. But it didn't work last time in about 2015 if I remember correctly.

Tue 24 Mar 2020, 14:47

Hans, I hope you are right & it never does get built. I see it has been taken off the market right now. 

The whole of the property description was beyond satire, but I was particularly struck by the bit that said its ballroom was inspired by The Great Gatsby! (What happens when novels that are designed as critiques of excessive consumerism are picked up via  Hollywood and presented as aspirational ideals.)

Sadly, I fear it is intended as a private home, not as a hotel. There are plenty of examples of such private residences on the website of the architectural practice cited as designing it: https://adamarchitecture.com/projects/

Tue 24 Mar 2020, 14:26

Having followed Andrew's link, I had to check that I wasn't a week behind and that it was an April Fool's story. Tacky, tacky, tacky - it makes the Bishops Avenue in Hampstead begin to look tasteful.

Tue 24 Mar 2020, 12:04

I've followed this one over the years. I think he's applied for planning permission 3 or 4 times over the years, each time before the 3 year expiry, and each time for a larger building. At one stage he was advertising it with planning permission only for a lot of money.  

Studying the plans on WODC planning it's obvious to me it's a hotel, can't be someone's house. I am surprised he has planning permission for that there.

My guess with the earth works is that he wants to show that he's started building so that he doesn't loose the planning permission. Will it be built? I doubt it.

Tue 24 Mar 2020, 11:25

Thank you, Andrew. It seems wrong for so many reasons (morally, aesthetically, environmentally) to be building a fake-Palladian 11-bedroom mansion in these times.

Mon 23 Mar 2020, 20:01

I think it's preparatory work for this extraordinary confection: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67644826.html

Mon 23 Mar 2020, 18:12

Does anyone know anything about the earthworks at White Oak Green on the l.h.s. as you travel towards Witney?