You will recall that HUB and Bridges Fund Management recently purchased 45 Beech Street with the intention “to sensitively refurbish and repurpose the building as residential accommodation…..”.
At the beginning of June, a meeting was held with a number of interested residents from the Barbican during which there was the opportunity to meet representatives from HUB and architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and hear their preliminary ideas for the site. However, it was such early days in HUB’s ownership of the building that there was little hard detail as to their proposals and they were still in the process of evaluating the site and what may be feasible and what not.
The developers are now at the stage when they are able to share their thoughts on what is to be proposed and have notified the dates of forthcoming meetings and consultation.
Workshop with representatives of neighbouring blocks
The developers plan to host another workshop at 45 Beech Street in the middle of September. They state that “This design update workshop would be an opportunity to share the proposals for the building and site ahead of our proposed public events later in September”.
Wider public consultation later in September
In terms of wider public events and consultation, the developers will be initially be issuing a newsletter to local residents and launching an accompanying website . The newsletter will be issued as a hardcopy via Royal Mail to avoid it getting lost or misdirected.
The newsletter reports that “The aim of this engagement is to introduce ourselves as the owners of 45 Beech Street to all of our neighbours, to set out our priorities for the site, and to invite local residents, businesses and stakeholders to engage with us on the proposals”.
Therefore, a public exhibition is to be held at 45 Beech Street on:
- Thursday 28 September, 6.30pm – 9pm
- Saturday 30 September, 11am – 2pm
It is hoped that these consultations will provide everyone with ample opportunity to provide any feedback.
I have attended the meeting at 45 Beech Street and it seems to me that the planned change of use, renewing the facade and adding extra floors to be level with Bryer Court can only improve the overall appearance from the Barbican aspect . The Hub designers were very informative and polite and I support their plans. A definate improvement to present building.