Little Oval
A community-led master plan to provide sufficient housing in a new medium-rise neighbourhood which integrates with surrounding streets and parks
Based on polling and what a range of residents told us during several meetings starting in April 2015, Create Streets have considered how the OAKDA area and its environs should be developed.
We have done this on a pro bono basis in order to give residents and the neighbourhood forum something to use in discussions with Lambeth / Berkeley Group to try to ensure an outcome which, while realistic and sufficiently high density to meet the requirements of the London Plan and help meet London’s housing needs, is also appropriate for the area, will integrate with the surrounding neighbourhood and maximises wellbeing and long term value for residents and the neighbourhood.
The purpose of this note is to set out our sketch master plan in order to give local residents food for thought in the important discussion they will be having with Berkeley in weeks and months to come.
A. What we heard
A.1 Views from local community on ‘consultation’ process to date (verbatim comments from 10th April meeting)
§ “I was annoyed because the first I heard of it the consultation was finished and I had never heard of it despite living across the road from the site” (resident, Kennington Road)
§ “We got forgotten. we hadn’t been informed, we created a bit of a fuss” (resident Montford Place)
§ “The consultation was all sweet and nice ….. But what they said was a fairy story…. As I read it [the summary of consultation] my heart sank…. It’s complete window dressing. We can do a lot more and a lot better.” (resident Kennington Park Estate)
§ “There’s a lot of upset in the borough. People are up in arms.” (resident Kennington Park Estate)
§ “I had never heard about it. I don’t think any of my neighbours had.” (resident, Kennington Road)
A.2. Findings from online survey of 147 local residents (March 2015)
§ Local areas to act as a template
- 7% want St George’s Wharf as template for Oval redevelopment area
- 73% want Hanover Gardens as template
- 72% want either Kennington Road or Oval as template
- 92% agree with statement “streets and squares of Kennington are a fitting template for development around Oval Development Area”
- 8% agree with statement “high rise towers of Vauxhall & Nine Elms are a fitting template for development around Oval Development Area”
§ Number of storeys
- 91% want development to be 8 storeys or below (58% 5 to 8 storeys & 33% 4 storeys or below)
- 9% want more than 8 storeys (of which 5% more than 12)
B. What we agreed in discussions with local community
B.1 Overall brief & master plan
§ Key theme / strap-line: “This is Kennington not Vauxhall”
§ The physical scope of the brief
- It is very wrong just to be looking at the site in isolation
- Instead there should be three interlocking plans
- The Neighbourhood Plan (the area of KOV neighbourhood forum)
- The Master Plan (for the site plus its immediate environs towards Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall)
- The Site Plan (for the specific site)
§ One key theme for the master plan is creating a pedestrian access north from Kennington Park through Kennington Park Estate onto site of large Gasholder and north to Kennington Lane
§ In addition, in order to ensure that the Site Plan is part of the local neighbourhood, a Design Code might be wise to ensure it does not descend into a canyon of glass and steel with a few brick ‘panels’
B.2 Key agreements from discussion: the site plan
§ Urban design principles
- Squares with usable green space
- Connections in site – both east / west and south / north
- High density low rise (below 8 storeys)
- Not a park plus towers (“we’ve got the park, we’re not looking to produce another park”)
§ Use & tenure
- Adaptability
- Mixed use (SME commercial & retail as well as residential)
- Social housing
- Family housing as much as possible
- Adaptability
§ Design implications
- Trees on street
- Retention of large gasholder but not others – to be used as a London ‘square’ not a building – possible name: “Little Oval”
- Not glass and steel – London bricks
- Contemporary version of Kennington vernacular not slavishly following it but very much ‘following on’ from it
- Encouraging people to walk / bicycle (some non-vehicular streets)
- Possible reuse of previous street-name: “Gasholder Place”
- Active frontages with doors on streets
§ Proposed Streets
- North / south on far east of site from Kennington Green to Kennington Lane (close to South end of Courtney Street)
- North / south from Oval to Tesco entrance on Kennington Lane
- East / west at angle from corner of Montford Place to Vauxhall Street (pedestrian at end of Montford Place)
- (?) Possibly another street running east / west at an angle further north – if possible
C. Wider Master Plan: green route from Kennington Park to Kennington Lane
§ At the heart of the master plan for the wider area is creating a ‘green-route’, a pedestrian link north from Kennington Park through Kennington Park Estate onto the site of large Gasholder and north to Kennington Lane
§ In order to achieve this we suggest that materially enhanced pedestrian crossings are created as shown on Figs i and ii below.
§ In addition roads should be partially pedestrianised (or a strong shared space introduced) as also show in Figs i and ii.