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| FEATURES | BY KIM JANSSEN |
 A computer-generated image of how the shopping mall may look and below, how the Brunswick looks now  |
WHEN Patrick Hodgkinson started his design for Bloomsbury’s concrete brutalist Brunswick Centre in 1959, he aimed to give Bloomsbury a high street. Forty-five years later, as his original plans go on display for the first time at The Tate Britain, his vision may finally be about to come true. Whatever its architectural merits, the ageing Grade II listed building – with its empty lots, charity shops and second-hand bookstores surrounding a windswept central concourse – is hardly a Mecca for shoppers. But Allied London, which owns the Brunswick and leases it to Camden Council, is about to sink £22 million into a major revamp that has already convinced big-name retailers including French Connection and Oasis to sign up for shop space when work is completed in 2006. With almost a third of the 560 flats above the shops now privately-owned through right-to-buy, Hodgkinson’s original vision of luxury accommodation mixed in with a thriving shopping and cultural centre is closer to fruition than it ever has been. Now 75, he told the New Journal: “I can see it going the way of the Barbican. “People are using right- to-buy and the people moving in are young professionals. “The building is in an excellent location – you can walk almost anywhere in the West End from there and it is a lot cheaper than other areas nearby.” The original problem with the Brunswick, according to Allied’s Neil Carron, was that retailers eager to do business at the centre pulled out when Camden Council took control shortly after completion. Changes to housing law made by the Wilson government in favour of tenants meant it was no longer viable for the original developers to let the apartments privately. Camden, in turn, could not afford to complete the building to the original high specification – including painting it cream white rather than its current dirty concrete; something that will only now finally happen. Mr Carron said: “When Camden took over and it became social housing a lot of retailers were scared off. “The centre was designed to be a neighbourhood area for Bloomsbury – not just for the tenants who lived above the shops. “But at the time the problems associated with social housing meant there was a perception amongst retailers that it was not a good place to open. “It is not 1972 anymore, though, and there is an acceptance now that mixed use developments are the way to go – serious retailers wouldn’t have signed up with us if it wasn’t a credible plan. “There is definitely a market there – Bloomsbury already has some good small shopping areas in Marchmont Street and Lamb’s Conduit Street, but it needs a focus.” When work starts in November, the shops will be extended to the front of the overhanging terrace and a new Safeway supermarket will be built across the northern end of the concourse. Plans for a semi-circular restaurant above the Renoir cinema at the southern end have been shelved for the time being but could still happen. Apart from shoppers, the other big winners will be the residents, whose homes will be renovated to help create a successful shopping environment. But tenants hoping to exercise their right-to-buy face a daunting challenge securing a mortgage – a two-bedroom flat at the Brunswick costs around £275,000, even with the maximum £16,000 discount they are entitled to. A couple of tenants with a £10,000 deposit would need to earn £45,000 each to qualify for a loan large enough. For MP Frank Dobson, who presided over Camden’s take over of the building as the leader of Camden Council in the 1970s and sometimes shops for food at the Brunswick, that may not be such a bad thing. He said: “There’s been an increasing number of the nice flats sold in recent years and it’s a real shame we’ve lost them – the people who live in them certainly think they’re nice flats to live in.” Residents’ leader Stewart Tappin, an architecture aficionado who owns a flat in the block, is promoting a plan to have the terrace level above shops landscaped into an attractive garden area for residents. Other residents fond of the Brunswick – dubbed the London architecture mafia by friends – include Vicky Richardson, the editor of design magazine Blueprint, whose father worked on the original plans. Public art, including a sculpture by Suzanna Heron, will feature on the main concourse as part of the resident’s plans. Mr Tappin said: “People have been promised schemes here since the 1970s and now they are just really keen for work to start. “We are trying to make sure that the residents have a voice in the changes that are being made. “But for some of us it’s a shame that we are going to have high street chains like Starbucks rather than a more interesting mix, but, at the end of the day, the developer is trying to make a return on its investment. And Patrick Hodgkinson added: “When it’s painted cream I hope it will look like the terraces by Regent’s Park – that was the idea when I started work on this in 1959. “There’s been a lot of umming and arring about it but it will be great when the work finally starts.” |
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