New Building Techniques piloted on Golden Lane Estate

[nathan]

New building techniques piloted on Golden lane Estate, forget about old traditional tile laying techniques, now quarry tiles can be laid with a tube of mastic, silicone, rubber or any old thing that looks like it might stick something and a sealant gun, this is a very cheap and fast method of laying tiles, removes the need for skilled labour saves on time and comes with a guarantee of about 6  months if your lucky.

What will they think of next? Laying bricks with porridge?

Marvelous

[Maria Elizabeth Prior]

That looks like another 'masterpiece' on the top floor of Crescent House.  Where exactly is it Nathan?  Will need to be careful, as have already tripped over another example of 'craftmanship' on the landing! 

[nathan]

Its down at the city hardware end, don't worry if you have cataracts work for Waste Living Space or the Corp of London you wont  notice a thing.

[Paul Lincoln]

Why not put together a detailed catalogue of these issues? The quality of this work is almost certainly in breach of the conservation guidelines for the estate. It might be an idea to document twenty or thirty examples and then ask the conservation officer in the Planning Department to undertake a formal investigation.

Regards

Paul

[Paul Lincoln]

I have just added a new discussion forum for listing and illustrating examples of where conservarvation guidelines are being ignored.

[Julie Moss]

Hi there Paul and Nathan, I hope you don't mind if I join your conversation.  I'm not a resident of your estate but I am interested because I'm a student looking into Modern Housing and its conservation particularly where listed building management guidelines are in place and how this ensures - or not as in this case that work is done to protect the heritage of the estate.  I just wondered what your views are on the effectiveness of the LBMG - it seems as though control is over residents when they wish to do work and listed building consent requirements but then you get problems like you have posted and like you say its a joke.  I think its such a shame because Golden Lane looks such a good place to live.    Julie   

[Paul Lincoln]

I think thre is a contradiction between the way in which the guidelines are imposed on householders and the way in which they are applied to public spaces. It is very easy for many of the detailed aspects of the estate to be lost through inappropriate modifications.

Julie Moss said:

Hi there Paul and Nathan, I hope you don't mind if I join your conversation.  I'm not a resident of your estate but I am interested because I'm a student looking into Modern Housing and its conservation particularly where listed building management guidelines are in place and how this ensures - or not as in this case that work is done to protect the heritage of the estate.  I just wondered what your views are on the effectiveness of the LBMG - it seems as though control is over residents when they wish to do work and listed building consent requirements but then you get problems like you have posted and like you say its a joke.  I think its such a shame because Golden Lane looks such a good place to live.    Julie   

[nathan]

I was thinking of setting up a Facebook page, I don't think it would be fair on the members of this website who are happy with the repairs, maintenance, decent homes standards, lack of heat insulation, double glazing etc, after all this did not develop  over night, plus the fact that I have far too many photos to put on this website demonstrating the condition of Crescent House, I also have been permitted by some residents to photograph the standard of the repairs and maintenance carried out inside the flats. A picture paints a thousand words.

Julie Moss said:

Hi there Paul and Nathan, I hope you don't mind if I join your conversation.  I'm not a resident of your estate but I am interested because I'm a student looking into Modern Housing and its conservation particularly where listed building management guidelines are in place and how this ensures - or not as in this case that work is done to protect the heritage of the estate.  I just wondered what your views are on the effectiveness of the LBMG - it seems as though control is over residents when they wish to do work and listed building consent requirements but then you get problems like you have posted and like you say its a joke.  I think its such a shame because Golden Lane looks such a good place to live.    Julie   

[Julie Moss]

Hi there thanks for getting back,

Is it the council's employees and/or their contractors who are supplying you with this 'wonderful work'?  I can't believe they put that expanding foam in the windows - is there a lot of it and did they really pay abseilers to do it?  That's really in-line with the LBMG repair techniques!

I wondered if there was something in the guidelines - like a process for reporting the work standards or signing off that its been done in accordance with them - I noticed from earlier conversations that there was some sort of 'walk about'?

Julie

[nathan]

HEar hear, Christine

Christine Clifford said:

There is a walk about but not, with experts in listed buildings regulations etc., or in building maintenance and repair.
What gets me is the City corporation as a local authority is the richest such authority in Europe but leave a listed estate and Crescent House in particular to rot.

Great Arthur is being 'rescued' but that has taken many years and yet to start, no doubt at far higher cost now than if it had been done sooner. One can be forgiven for thinking there is some kind of mind set in the Corporation whether at employee level- senior officers or at elected level that sees this estate and those who live here as unimportant or worse.

[JM]

I'm not saying that isn't a good idea Paul, but the thing is, if there is a conservation officer why on earth isn't he or she overseeing this?  It shouldn't be down to residents alone to quality inspect the state of repairs on the estate and report inadequate work - whomever lets and manages the expensive contracts (we pay for) should be doing this.  We do after all pay quite a large % of our service charge towards estate management and the cost of the overheads ('supervision and management') in the corporation, as well as council tax.  And my block is soon to be hit with a large lift renovation bill.  The Corp lets and manages these contracts so they should be on top of all this, not leaving it to us.

Paul Lincoln said:

Why not put together a detailed catalogue of these issues? The quality of this work is almost certainly in breach of the conservation guidelines for the estate. It might be an idea to document twenty or thirty examples and then ask the conservation officer in the Planning Department to undertake a formal investigation.

Regards

Paul

[Julie Moss]

Hi there,

I know I'm not a resident but I can understand how annoying and frustrating this must be for you because not only do you live in such an iconic Modern building (that needs conservation using the right methods) but you appear to be paying for a service that you are not receiving.  As someone who is looking at the conservation of the estate reading what's been done etc. - on the face of it - it looks very good that you have procedures in place to ensure its upkeep in accordance with LBMG but in reality this does not appear to be happening.  This especially worrying when you consider that Crescent House is listed Grade II* - EH website says - 'particularly important buildings of more than special interest; 5.5% of listed buildings are Grade II*'.  I just wondered - do you ever see the conservation officer and/or do they seek your views, give you feedback on what they have been doing etc.?  (I think I know already the answer to this considering what you have already said - but I thought I should ask)

Julie 

   

[nathan]

Hi Stefi, what is a tumblr? is that a web site? I was thinking of  a Facebook , I have loads more photos.

Stefi said:

Hello, only just picked up on this thread. Did anyone start making a log of these examples? 

I think it maybe worth starting a Tumblr of them — Nathan what do you think? Do you have the images you could send me, and I could start this?

Whenever I have publicly complained about something to the CoL via Twitter they have sorted right away, they obviously want to keep their public image, and I think a bit of name and shame might jolt someone into action.

Paul Lincoln said:

Why not put together a detailed catalogue of these issues? The quality of this work is almost certainly in breach of the conservation guidelines for the estate. It might be an idea to document twenty or thirty examples and then ask the conservation officer in the Planning Department to undertake a formal investigation.

Regards

Paul