We are urging Lambeth Council to include the entire estate in the Brockwell Park Conservation Area (BPCA) as part of a review open to public consultation.
Organisations and Lambeth residents, including supporters of the threatened estate and park, can comment on boundary proposals and a draft character appraisal until 11 January 2021.
The consultation is part of a cyclic review of the borough’s conservation areas.
It comes seven years after English Heritage first strongly suggested the boundaries of the BPCA could be extended to include the whole of Cressingham Gardens in December 2013. The campaign Save Cressingham Gardens first wrote to the borough’s head of conservation Doug Black to push for the extension in April 2015, in a move backed by conservation groups Friends of Brockwell Park, The Brixton Society, Twentieth Century Society, and SAVE Britain’s Heritage. Mr Black told the signatories that there were not enough resources to give the request proper consideration.
The green mounds, which are a central feature of the estate near the Main Cressingham Gardens gate to Brockwell Park, are already protected under the BPCA. The other “green finger” communal areas adjoining the park should similarly be included in the BCPA at a minimum, if not the entirety of the estate. Cressingham Gardens is important both for its environmental integration to Brockwell Park (e.g. home to wildlife such as toads and bats, as well as many trees over 90 years old that predate Cressingham Gardens itself) as well as its architectural heritage and importance.
The review is therefore a timely opportunity to spotlight the threat to the park’s landscape and character, which the estate’s redevelopment poses.
How to Submit to the Consultation:
The consultation webpage is here:
https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/consultations/have-your-say-on-the-draft-brockwell-park-conservation-area-character-appraisal-and
To go direct to the current proposal:
https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/co-Draft-Brockwell-Park-CA-Character-Appraisal.pdf
To submit the consultation, email: planningconservation@lambeth.gov.uk
Where to donate to Save Cressingham Gardens Fighting Fund:
https://uk.gofundme.com/savecressingham
Suggested points that members of the public could include in comments to the consultation:
Urge Lambeth to revisit the relevant part of the listing report from English Heritage (now Historic England), which is the government’s adviser on conservation. This includes praise for and comment on:
The successful integration of the estate with the “major asset” of Brockwell Park. The report remarks that the open and informal design takes advantage of and complements the green and natural setting.
The character is currently protected to a degree by the designation of the estate’s central open space within the existing conservation area. However, it was the clear view of English Heritage that additional designation should be afforded to protect the appearance of the site along with the particular low-rise mid-century character of the development and its “green fingers”: the spaces running from the park’s edge and between the buildings.
As the conservation area comes into the estate itself, designation by extension is entirely logical and almost implicit in the way the boundary is drawn at this point.
In relation to the natural environment, the estate was designed around the trees, it sits below the tree line, and there is substantial and informal planting. The trees would be specially protected in a conservation area, thereby preserving the intended effect of bringing the park into the estate. The planting at Cressingham is similar to the approach used by Eric Lyons at the now grade II-listed Span estate at Parkleys, in Ham, and the conservation designated Fieldend in Strawberry Hill, and which no doubt influenced Cressingham under Ted Hollamby.
Excerpts from the English Heritage report:
“Lambeth produced a large body of housing under Ted Hollamby, and it is in the smaller schemes of the 1970s, including Cressingham Gardens, where the qualities of contextualism, humanity and community-centric design are most in evidence. Cressingham Gardens adopts building types and forms used elsewhere on other Lambeth schemes…
“However, where Cressingham is distinct from a number of other Lambeth developments is in the informality and spatial interest of its planning. The topography of the site is exploited, and the blocks are off-set or otherwise arranged, to create a sense of townscape. At its most successful, such as the view west along Chandler’s Walk [sic (Way)], enclosed by the garden walls to one side, and the row of bungalows to the other, the planning is exceptional.”
While the architectural quality was not considered to be consistent enough for listing, the informality that held it back in this respect, is crucial to the park-side feel, and boosts the case for conservation:
“Outside of the environment created by the Walks, the interest of the estate comes not from the architectural quality of the structural elements, but from the quality of the spaces left in between; in some cases this is a tightly controlled relationship between built elements (as at Chandlers Way), but in a number of cases this is dependent on the quality of the natural environment to distinguish it, and there is little in the way of structured, or planned landscaping within some of these areas. This point is not a criticism of the scheme, it is part of what gives the estate its character, but does highlight one of the problems that Cressingham Gardens presents as a listing candidate.
“The estate is a strong example of the important legacy of progressive public housing that Ted Hollamby and his department brought to Lambeth. [List of other London schemes]. The nature of the planning at Cressingham is very different, and this is part of its interest and value… Cressingham stands out for the informality of its planning, which reflects the careful respect paid to Brockwell Park, but listing can only recognise structures, not the open spaces between them…
“However, it is considered that the estate could benefit from greater formal recognition as a successful and popular housing scheme which achieves a particularly careful contextual response to its sensitive setting, adjacent to Brockwell Park Conservation Area.
“It is also one of the more interesting housing schemes from this important period in the development of social housing, produced by one of the most progressive authorities. Cressingham Gardens has strong local interest and for this reason it is felt that a future reappraisal of the boundaries of Brockwell Park Conservation Area should give serious consideration to whether the estate should be included within it, in a similar way to previous extensions of the conservation area boundaries have encompassed other areas of housing of historic value adjacent to the park.
“As acknowledged in the Brockwell Park Conservation Area Extension Report of 1999, the park is a ‘major asset and is extremely important to preserve and maintain its setting and the residential nature and scale of the built environment surrounding it’. Cressingham Gardens is a testament to the fact that despite pressure for high density development, Ted Hollamby and his department were equally conscious of the importance of the park’s setting and produced a scheme which responded to this with skill and sensitivity, both in the scale and massing of the built elements, as well as through the integration of these elements with informal open spaces which bring a park-like character into the estate.”
Conclusion (p 5):
“We do recognise its local significance, however, and conservation area status is suggested as a means of reflecting its overall character.”
Earlier on in the report, Lambeth’s arguments against listing are summarised as largely centring around the qualities at Cressingham not being special in terms of the era and Hollamby’s projects elsewhere in the borough. There are around 45 estates listed as part of Hollamby’s output: English Heritage singles out just three for special praise, and one of them is Cressingham, the only large estate of the three. However, for the purposes of considering Cressingham for conservation, the relationship to the other developments of the era need not be a factor. English Heritage’s advice on conservation focuses strongly on the particular setting and the need to protect Cressingham as part of this. As such there is no need to consider it in relation to other estates of the period, elsewhere in the borough.
Save Cressingham Gardens 