After Lambeth decided to postpone the planning decision on Hondo’s unwanted mega-tower in the heart of Brixton, the American-backed developers have been busy tinkering with the designs.
In an effort to make the bleak concrete interior look a bit more attractive and community-friendly, they’ve draped a half ton of foliage from the balconies, and added mock-ups showing lots of groovy happenings taking place, inside and out.
Take away all the CGI greenery, and you’ve got a good likeness to a grim 1980s shopping mall, with a touch of the much-missed Pope’s Road car park thrown in for good measure.
(Click here to see how the original, greenery-free proposals looked).
This, apparently, is the Brixton Spoken Word Night that would most likely never happen in such an unwelcoming and improbable venue.
The cable-free PA system is clearly woefully underpowered for the space, and all that concrete above will ensure that you’d be in for a cavernous, unlistenable racket.
We’ve no idea what’s happening here. Some random woman seems to have brought along her own flip chart while everyone ignores her.
Zooming in closer, it appears she’s telling everyone about ’10 Plastic Pollution Facts,’ while two guys share a laugh in the background.
Spare a thought too for these poor onlookers on the stairs, who seem to have all lost their feet.
And we’re not sure what the unhappy-looking guy in the foreground is doing either. What’s he going to do with that stick?
And here’s the all-sunny, fun packed space outside on Pope’s Road, where young children can run free parping saxophones, and where beautiful trees and bushes grow simply everywhere.
It looks like the kind of sanitised space where street drinkers and non-purchasing locals are swiftly made to feel unwelcome (see: the ‘community’ space in Hondo’s Lost In Brixton)
Meanwhile, there’s a veritable party going on at night, with bands rocking out on a pop up stage.
It looks like every night will be carnival night outside Hondo’s Enormo-Towers, and there’ll be plenty of nearby booze outlets to keep the spirits high, the juices flowing and the cash tills ringing.
There’s already alcohol a-plenty on offer at nearby Pop Brixton (aka ‘Brixton’s Biggest Pub’) as well as from the adjacent Brixton Village, which is conveniently also owned by the same developers, Hondo. And they love opening new drink outlets in Brixton.
In fact, they’re so keen on keeping Brixton boozed up, that last month we reported that the company were hoping to secure an 8am-1am alcohol licence for every unit in Brixton Village and Market Row, despite major concerns from the Met Police.
Bottoms up!
[Before and after views]
The original Planning Committee meeting back in August ended in farce. It looked like a Motion to reject the application was likely to be put forward. Chair Cllr Clair Wilcox swiftly nipped this in the bud by calling time.
She used her authority to say that it was time for bed and that a decision would be deferred.
This didn’t stop Deputy Chair of Planning Cllr Joanne Simpson declaring:
“I think this design is monstrous. It is wholly inappropriate. It doesn’t meet excellent design structure. It will completely change the character and appearance of Brixton. It will be irreversible.”
Cllr Ben Kind chipped in:
“It fails in design excellence. It contributes negatively to the conservation area.”
Hondo now thinks that adding a few pot plants and smiley happy people pics to the designs will be sufficient to hoodwink the Committee into passing the Enormo-Tower.
Are they really taking us all for mugs?
A reminder of that Enormo Tower
In case you’ve been bedazzled by all these community frolics, we thought we should remind you of what the developer is really interested in, and that’s building this lucrative 20-storey monstrosity in the heart of Brixton.
Before Lambeth curiously stopped adding new comments to their planning site, the public reaction stood at 848 objections with just 7 people in support, spurring the company’s PR team into rather dubiously trying to solicit passers-by to sign pre-written letters in support of the scheme.
And it’s not just the public who are against this blot on the landscape – damning comments have come from Historic England, the Brixton Society, nearby Carney Place and Milles Square Residents’ Association, the Brixton Market Traders Federation and ward Cllr Emma Nye, with local MP Helen Hayes really laying into the scheme.
Local opposition is so strong that a recently-launched petition against Hondo Enormo-Tower has already garnered well over 3,200 signatures, with more signing every day.
This really is a hugely unpopular development, and it’s being irresponsibly pushed forward at a time when some experts are predicting huge changes in office culture due to coronavirus health concerns.
Read more on Lambeth Planning
Join the discussion
Join in with the lively forum discussions on the Brixton forum:
- Hondo’s huge plans for Pope’s Road, Brixton (over 300 posts)
- Brixton Village, Market Row, Pope’s Road, Lost In Brixton and Hondo Enterprises’ Brixton empire (over 380 posts)
Have your say about the development
- Make an objection on Lambeth’s planning site
- Petition: Stop Hondo Enterprises building a 20-storey tower in the central Brixton heritage area (790 signatures so far)
Who’s behind the development?
The planning application says that the scheme “is a joint venture by AG Hondo Pope’s Road BV who have an agreement to purchase the site, currently occupied by Sports Direct and Flannels.”
It goes on to claim that Hondo is part of a property development company who have a “longstanding presence in the borough having purchased Market Row and Brixton Village” in, err, “March 2018.”
Housekeeping DJ and socialite Taylor McWilliams – the sole director of Hondo Enterprises who own Brixton Village and Market Row – is also a director of AG Hondo Pope’s Road BV, along with Robert Tieskens, a director of the Netherlands arm of the monster New York based investment company, Angelo Gordon.
Read more
- Brixton for sale: who are Hondo Enterprises, owners of Brixton Village, Market Row, Club 414 and more?
- Privilege, wealth and power: Brixton landlord Taylor McWilliams and his Housekeeping DJ Collective
- Brixton anti-gentrification crowdfunder raises over £10,000 in one day, as locals decry landlords Taylor McWilliams and Hondo
Genuine honest question… who produced this image of the ‘enormo tower’? (https://i0.wp.com/www.brixtonbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/hondo-12.jpg?w=750&ssl=1) I’ve never seen it attributed to anyone. Is the height and perspective realistically rendered based on plans for the building, or is it simply designed to encourage opposition to the project?
It’s from the developer’s own documentation on Lambeth Planning – you can access all their illustrations here
Document is coming up as unavailable for me…
That’s Lambeth’s crappy site bombing out again.
Try following the links from here: https://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=Q8WGBRBO09400
Look at :
OCT 2020 RECONSULT – HIGH RES 1OF4 – DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT ADDENDUM
OCT 2020 RECONSULT – HIGH RES 2OF4 – DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT ADDENDUM
I’ve downloaded them for reference.