Harrow Town Centre. What is to be done with it? We have seen one awful project after another rise up - characterless shopping centres, huge ugly blocks of flats and offices blotting out the view of the Hill, and the main streets dull and sterile,with a lifeless hostile atmosphere after dark.
There is more to come,with piecemeal sites being considered by Harrow's planners and council, with multi-storey,high density blocks of flats, totally out of scale and character,ignoring and damaging further the setting of Harrow Hill.
There seems to be a distinct lack of high quality design in these proposals that Harrow Centre desperately needs, and also dissatisfaction and dismay among local residents at their voices not being listened to.
After so many missed opportunities in the redevelopment of Harrow,a group of concerned architects in Harrow have got together to create a forum that could look at Harrow Town Centre as a coherent whole and see whether they could provide a critique of the major proposals like the Dandara Post Office site, Gayton Road, College Road and others.
We would try and suggest ways of creating a more thriving, lively centre, with public buildings, housing, mixed-use activities and spaces that are inviting and beautiful, that paid attention to, and preserved the setting of the Hill, Harrow's most unique historic and environmental treasure.
This setting and its views should be integrated into all the local projects and in order to save Harrow's skyline from high rise blocks, their heights should be constrained.
Further,regenerating the transport networks should be properly integrated with the commercial centre, the public open spaces and the new Harrow College.
With the credit crunch biting in, and some schemes under threat or in hiatus, this is a perfect time to take a step back and make sure the redeveloped sites fit into a coherent pattern, rather than feeding developers' domination and greed.
This pattern can be constructively fed into Harrow's planners' and council's consideration of all projects and their relation to each other for the benefit of Harrow's future and its residents, and will make us proud of a town centre that all London will want to come and visit.
Any architect or planner interested in contributing constructively can contact us on 020 8427 1517. ANDREW READ
ABE HAYEEM JOHN ORCHARD
DAVID YEAMAN
PANKAJ PATEL
The Harrow Architects' Forum
