Developers have been give the green light to demolish Matthew’s Yard off Surrey Street, and to develop a multi-use building including 60 flats – 18 of which will be “affordable” – and a purpose-built arts and music venue.
A unanimous decision was reached by Labour and Conservative councillors on the council’s planning committee after the developers, local property firm Regent Land and Developments, agreed to increase the affordable accommodation from the originally proposed 18 per cent to 30 per cent, in line with the council’s planning policy.
The 6,013m² development, to be called Beamhouse Yard, will face on to Surrey Street, Croydon’s historic street market, and provide commercial units and a café.
How the new building on the corner of Matthew’s Yard will look down Surry Street
The church trust which occupies the current Croydon Conference Centre will have access to new space on the first floor of the development, while the lower ground floor music venue will be managed by Croydon-based promoters Hoodoos, as was first revealed by Inside Croydon. Hoodoos have a 25-year lease at a discounted rent, to assist in establishing the venue.
Planning officers said the amended block, which sits within the Central Croydon Conservation Area, “now reads with greater verticality, reflecting the vertical appearance of the Victorian buildings opposite”. Translated: it’s a tall building, with a load of glass.
Originally proposed as a six-storey building with 55 flats, what will now be built will be nine storeys tall, including a mansard roof to accommodate the additional apartments.
It is replacing a building of little architectural merit, which used to serve as a cold store and discount supermarket.
An architects drawing of their new building on the corner of Matthews Yard and Surrey Street
The Goswell Road-based architects commissioned for the new building are Maccreanor Lavington, who claim that its designs “will contribute positively to Croydon Town Centre, Surrey Street and the market”.
The current Matthew’s Yard café, bar and workspace business, a regular haunt for some of Croydon’s coffee-drinking Tory councillors and the venue for the Croydon Conservatives’ local election campaign launch, is expected to relocate to another site close by.
Saif Bonar, the owner of the business, is known to have already rejected an offer to move to the old Pizza Express site in South End.
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This looks to be a good quality building in brickwork . The modern brickwork of the last decade or so uses soft-looking textures and colours ,often with Dutch bricks. I hope that this follows that trend. At ground level, the dark coloured brickwork will not show the grime inevitable in urban Croydon, which in my book is a wise design response to a real-life issue..
There are sadly a significant number of really poor buildings in Croydon, built in the last 20 years or so, which are faced in cement rendering over concrete blockwork. Much, much cheaper than proper brickwork, these rendered buildings looked pristine for about 3years, then get stained, water-streaked and grubby, They go on looking shabby and an eyesore for the remaining 20 or so years before a repainting job. Far too many areas end up blighted by the shabby presence of those poor quality buildings.
I am very pleased to see that this new building in Surrey Street seems to avoid these materials.
The extra height will, however, let in less light to the street, so i hope the bricks are light in colour.
The shop fronts seem well-proportioned, and avoid the smooth concrete columns and framing, used nearby on a newish building, which again looked smoothly pristine, but now grimy.
If only all architects and clients were banned by the council from using materials that .get stained and streaked by grime and water staining. A good building in a grimy spot can mellow and age gracefully, given good quality brickwork , so i am hopeful about this one.
My dad, who grew up in the pre-war Potteries, always said that a kid he thought the natural colour of stone was black. It wasn’t until the Clean Air Act, and the disappearance of steam trains and coal fires, that it became worth while cleaning up city buildings.