176 Wood Street – emblazoned with a popular cultural mural – will be torn down and replaced with a five-storey block of six flats, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
A building bearing a cultural Walthamstow mural will be demolished to make way for new flats.
176 Wood Street – emblazoned with one of two “Welcome to Wood Street” murals – will be torn down and replaced with a five-storey block of six flats.
The mural is painted in blues, pinks and browns and describes the street, which is dotted with an indoor market, pubs, bars, a gym and a squash club, as the “home of independent businesses”.
The scheme was approved by Waltham Forest Council’s planning committee last night (7th July), the first under the new Green Party administration.
The new block will also include a commercial unit. According to a council report, developer F.C. RE Ltd is said to be negotiating with the Wood Street Dental Practice on a new lease agreement.
The council considers demolishing the building acceptable as it has no “designated architectural or historical merit,” while the mural is “temporary” and lacks “significant heritage value”.
The net increase of four flats will also contribute positively to the council’s housing stock – amid a “significant shortage” felt across London – but the plans received eight objections.
Linda Bracey, the owner of Electro Signs and the iconic neon art gallery God’s Own Junkyard, asked the committee to refuse the application, saying it would put her business and shoppers’ safety at risk.
She said the removal of three parking bays, in favour of a no-loading-restrictions zone for the developer, would have a “major impact” on her business as she needs vehicles to park outside the gallery to make delivery.
The signs in God’s Own Junkyard are neon glass and cannot be carried down the street, in amongst pedestrians, for health and safety reasons.
Additionally, a gantry will “completely block out our building and signage,” which is the “only way in and out of our building”. She also expressed concern about a crane lifting objects over the building, which could put pedestrians and her staff at risk.
Wood Street has been identified in the council’s Local Plan as a zone for 400 new homes, and it is of high priority for the council that the plans will increase the volume of housing in the borough.
Though other residents expressed concern about the height of the building, the council says the block has been “sympathetically designed and taken hints from the surrounding area in terms of building height, massing and materials”.
Because there will be fewer than ten homes built, there is no statutory requirement to build ‘affordable’ housing aimed at lower-income Londoners.
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