Chimney Pot Park

Description

The terraced houses in the Seedley and Langworthy area were built around 1910, laid out in a regular terraced grid and adjoining a neighbourhood park to the south.

Elevated above street level, Langworthy Park was built on the infill site of a former reservoir, and affords views over the rooftops of the adjacent properties -

for this reason, it has been known locally as 'Chimney Pot Park'. Urban Splash's scheme consciously draws on the character of the neighbourhood, appropriating this

name for its development. Their intervention is a small part of the wider Seedley and Langworthy area, roughly a five by two block parcel of the terraced housing grid.

Here, Urban Splash and architect shedkm have proposed and delivered radical changes to the internal layout and design of the existing houses, open spaces and

streetscape while retaining the original structure and street pattern of the area. The street frontages are the only built elements to be retained. Their brickwork

has been cleaned and pointed and they have been provided with new double-glazed timber windows and doors. Behind this façade, all structure is new-build.

New roofs incorporate 'chimney roof lights' which approximate the appearance of the old chimney stacks and provide a new, distinctive roofscape from both street

and park level.

The mid-terrace houses retain their existing plan and floorspace, while the remaining end-terrace houses and adjacent mid-terraces have been knocked through,

combining three houses into two, thereby reducing the total number of properties from 385 to 349. Although all units have two bedrooms, this use of variant end

unit configurations provides a greater diversity of house types, with the larger properties having a separate kitchen and more generous proportions.

By turning the end units 90 degrees, it also allows for new active frontages to the east-west streets.

The existing properties have been remodelled internally to open up the large volume roof void into a new first floor living space, with a mezzanine level above.

Two main variants are provided, one with a kitchen in the mezzanine level, the other with the kitchen incorporated as part of the open-plan first floor living area

and the mezzanine as a study/office space. Sleeping areas, bathrooms and storage are at ground floor level in all types. Prefabricated pod bathrooms have been

inserted which include a bath sunken into the floor beneath a removable timber grille shower tray. In spite of the remodelling and thoughtful layout of a small

overall floor area, there remains some flexibility in the overall layout, with services incorporated into a single wall adjoining the stair, and the remainder

of the space open to a variety of configurations.

At the rear, new balcony structures and rear garden decks have been created, leading out from the first floor. They incorporate a glazed panel to the lightwell

below, allowing light to penetrate into the rear ground floor room. The garden decks extend over secure covered parking at ground level, accessible via a gated

entrance at the end of the terrace. Around 50% of parking for each block can be accommodated in these covered areas, with the remainder provided on-street. Vehicular

access to the street is managed via a bollard system, offering a further level of security to the on-street parking, whilst allowing access for pedestrians and

emergency and service vehicles.

The scheme is the first phase of a set of housing interventions and sits within a wider programme of local initiatives. Remodelling of Langworthy Park

(also to be known in the future as Chimney Pot Park) has been undertaken at the same time as the housing development, and will make the park visible and

accessible from Langworthy Road. The next phases of the Urban Splash scheme are to include new build housing and/or a mixed use scheme on adjacent parcels of land,

new-build housing on a small site fronting Highfield Road and a similar 'upside-down' renovation on a further block on the east side of Alder Street.

Salford City Council is looking to develop family housing on land to the north and east of the site: two-, three- and possibly four-bed homes.

The housing development will also be flanked by new community facilities on Langworthy Road, including a new church, apartments, sports facilities,

café and community space. This scheme, by Maccreanor Lavington and Sarah Hare Architects is due to start on site later in 2007.

Design process

From 1999, inclusion in a Single Regeneration Budget Round 5 (SRB5) funding programme gave the opportunity in Seedley and Langworthy to address a number of

issues in the area, ranging from the quality of the housing stock to poor community cohesion and low economic performance. Although far from all problems

related to the physical fabric, neglect, litter, crime and other anti-social behaviour tended to be exacerbated by the open back alleys to the houses and

by the deteriorating physical condition of the building stock. The properties were predominantly in private sector ownership but absentee landlords and

irresponsible tenants contributed to the sense of decline: those who were able to leave gradually moved away and abandonment was a common problem. This

left not only an area where there was little or no demand for the properties and without the population to support basic local facilities, but also a

group of owner occupiers who were becoming increasingly vulnerable as the numbers of occupied properties reduced. Although many had looked after their

properties, the deteriorating situation around them meant that drastic action was needed.

An area-wide neighbourhood renewal assessment confirmed that many of the properties in Seedley and Langworthy were unfit and likely to be uneconomic to bring

up to a habitable standard. As part of the SRB5 programme, the Seedley and Langworthy Partnership had been established, consisting of three groups of partners

: Salford City Council, the community (represented by the Seedley and Langworthy Trust) and a third set of independent stakeholders, including representatives

from Greater Manchester Police, Salford Primary Care Trust, Manchester Methodist Housing Association (now known as Great Places Housing Group), Manchester

Enterprises and Buile Hill High School.

In 2001, the Partnership Board approved a development framework for the whole regeneration area that identified the streets of the Chimney Pot Park area for

clearance and recommended further areas for new development and improvement. It was recognised that dealing with the extent of unfit property would involve

'creating' development sites and bringing forward a more mixed and diverse housing offer. The council began the process of assisting remaining residents with

'Homeswap' packages in order to prepare for implementation of the proposals. Full site assembly was eventually achieved through use of compulsory purchase orders

in September 2004.

A public/private partnership was required to deliver the scheme: following informal negotiations with a number of parties, Urban Splash was the only developer who

were willing to engage. Their approach was to challenge the area-wide masterplan, and resulted in a convincing, and hopefully viable, set of proposals including

retention of the properties. Public funding had meanwhile been secured through the involvement of English Partnerships, the North West Development Agency (NWDA),

Salford City Council and Manchester-Salford Pathfinder (MSP). Once Urban Splash was brought on board, there was a delay while a robust financial appraisal took

place. English Partnerships also needed time to finalise arrangements for their new private sector housing gap-funding programme: the Seedley-Langworthy project

was one of a collection of individual schemes agreed with the EU Commission as a part-replacement for the Partnership Investment Programme.

The partnership was formalised in 2003 through a development agreement structured on Joint Venture principles between Urban Splash and English Partnerships,

Salford City Council and NWDA. By this time, the regeneration context had also changed, with the establishment of the pathfinder (MSP) and the inclusion of

Seedley-Langworthy, already designated by Salford City Council as a high priority area in need of major change, in Central Salford URC's Vision for Salford.

Community support was a vital part of the process and the project team had to work hard to overcome perceptions that low-value housing had been bought up cheaply

and sold on for a profit. Local people, however, were involved in the process and were willing to accept that change was vital and that improvement required

substantial intervention. Conscious steps are being taken to ensure that the new development remains integrated with the wider area. The marketing material

produced by Urban Splash, for example, draws on imagery from several local 'Britain In Bloom' successes.

A pre-launch was also offered by Urban Splash to the local community, resulting in 12 sales at open market value. Between the first release sales launch in

April 2006 and January 2007, prior to the completion of the development, all 227 units released at open market sale had been sold, for between £99,000 and

£145,000 each. Although the development agreement included a requirement for at least 50 units for low-cost home ownership, the final scheme will include 91.

These will be released in June 2007 as part of a pilot low-cost home ownership scheme, English Partnerships' First Time Buyers' Initiative, and administered

by HomeBuy agents Plumlife, part of Great Places Housing Group. Initially, Urban Splash will provide a management maintenance service for the development, but

it is intended that this will eventually be taken over by the residents.

Total development costs were around £34m, including nearly £11m public sector investment. Of this, £7.3m is provided through the Housing Market Renewal Fund

(via Salford City Council), with a further £3.5m from English Partnerships.

The form of development has been strongly influenced by current VAT legislation on residential to residential refurbishments. The original proposals (15) put

forward by Urban Splash and shedkm were quite different from the eventual scheme. They prioritised retaining much of the existing structure of the houses,

removing outriggers, and replacing other elements such as rear walls and roofs. Each house was to have a generous, part-private, part-communal rear yard at

ground floor level with balconies at the rear on the first floor. This simpler scheme would, however, have incurred VAT at the full rate and added £2.8m to

the development costs.

In conjunction with the other partners, Urban Splash and shedkm therefore revisited the proposals and altered them so that more of the existing structure was

demolished, enabling the scheme to qualify as new-build, with zero-rating VAT status. Urban Splash did this reluctantly: changing the scheme to new-build has

still increased development costs, while also diluting one of the environmental sustainability credentials of the project (maintaining embedded energy in the

existing structure). The vision of the project, that the character and nature of the existing streetscape should be retained, was considered to be vital to

preserve and so the decision to retain and temporarily support the fragile façades, together with the delays caused by re-design and agreement over funding

structures, added to the unit costs.

Evaluation

In line with English Partnerships' Quality and Price Standards for housing schemes, the development has been designed to meet the Eco Homes 'very good' rating

and to score positively against at least 14 of the 20 Building For Life criteria. Indeed, it should score well under BFL for its use of advances in construction

technology, its contribution to the community and its accessibility to local services and transport. There is a Metrolink stop a short walk away (on South

Langworthy Road) and bus stops on Eccles New Road. This makes Salford and Manchester city centres and Salford Quays very accessible from the development.

It is a development that Salford City Council has put a great deal of time and effort into bringing forward, not to mention contributing land, and it should

add impetus to the regeneration of Central Salford. It should also reinforce the image of Salford as an authority willing to be ambitious about the role of

design in urban renewal.

The Chimney Pot Park scheme is particularly notable for the creative contribution it makes to our understanding of how we may adapt existing environments and

established urban forms into new, attractive, desirable neighbourhoods. It offers a new way of looking at terraced housing, a typology that is more commonly

associated with the 19th than the 21st century and that is subject to low demand in many parts of the country. In so doing, the project demonstrates how

retaining the historic character of the urban environment does not have to mean compromising on a design vision, on providing modern, attractive and functional

housing, or on good performance against sustainability criteria. As described in Urban Splash's brochure for the development, terraced housing is: 'Familiar,

comfortable, flexible and people sized. One of the best ways of keeping rain off we ever came up with'.

Within considerable constraints, both financial and physical, the architects and their clients have used a design-led process, taken the community along with

them, and produced a very successful scheme in both urban design and commercial terms. A strong vision has been carried through to delivery, pursued within a

wider understanding of the meaning of the scheme as a typological exemplar.

That said, the history of the project is instructive, highlighting where the scheme could perhaps have been even more influential. The decision to demolish all

but the front façade of the properties was driven by the effect of VAT on project finances, and in so doing denies us the chance to see what could have been

done through retaining almost all the built fabric of a two-up, two-down terraced house. What has been delivered is essentially a new-build scheme behind the

front walls of the old houses.

The project, however, should be influential in inspiring others to attempt to refurbish rather than replace similar housing stock. In adjoining parts of Seedley

and Langworthy, far more 'light touch' refurbishment and facelift schemes, together with programmes of environmental improvements, have been applied to terraced

houses. As is evidenced by Seedley and Langworthy's success in the Northwest In Bloom urban regeneration awards in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and in the Britain In

Bloom awards in 2004 and 2006, these houses will be just as viable and vibrant a part of the future of the area as the Chimney Pot Park units.

In social terms, it is too early to measure what the overall effect of the development will be. Regaining a dense residential population should be a positive

move and augurs well for the survival of local services and community infrastructure. It is inevitable that there will be newcomers to the area and a change in

social composition brings with it certain challenges of integration. The unit costs are among the highest in the area and out of the range of many in a local

population whose mean annual household income is £22,240. This underlines the importance of the low-cost home ownership package and wider community infrastructure

to the scheme as a whole. Attaining a mixed income community is be important, and is likely to be a consequence of this project, but Salford City Council is

equally concerned to provide choice and a mix of house types and sizes. As part of a wider strategic approach, therefore, Chimney Pot Park has a big part to

play in contributing to the sustainable communities agenda in Salford.

From an urban design point-of-view, it has also been very successful, marrying what was good about the existing housing layout to measures to address the drawbacks.

The simple block structure, with houses directly fronting the street and backs facing backs in a semi-private or private environment, is a tried-and-tested way of

achieving a good urban residential layout. What this scheme adds is a way to address the security issues that pertained to the rear alleys and deal with the

lack of defensible space and absence of gardens.

The decision to keep cars parked on the street as part of a mixed approach to parking is a positive one for maintaining on-street activity and surveillance, based

on the traditional terraced housing model. With that model in mind, it will be interesting to monitor the effect other new design features may have on use of

public and private space. In reversing the vertical and horizontal arrangement of space within the property, the focus of activity within the home is shifted

to the rear and away from the ground floor/street level. However, the design of the rear deck has the potential to provide an alternative social space that may

prove to as vibrant (in a rather different way) from the public street. The possible negative effect of rear parking on street activity has been mitigated by the

access arrangements: it is not possible to enter properties from the rear via the parking area, and all access to properties is, therefore, via the front door on

the street. Chimney Pot Park shares with many contemporary housing projects the influence of concerns over security and parking. What this project shows, however,

is a considered approach to the the form of the public-private boundary that is in keeping with the terraced typology.

The adoption of a design-led strategy has informed not only the physical form of development but also the way people have been involved in it and the way it has

been sold to potential residents. Urban Splash's production of attractive sales and technical literature with clear, accurate plans, sections and elevations,

presented as a part of a coherent, exciting vision for the place, has helped considerably in raising public profile, marketing the scheme and making it a success.

When the first 110 units went on the market, newspapers reported on the queues of hopeful homeowners that began to form 72 hours before the sale opened.

Without a doubt, this is high quality housing, but crucially it is popular housing.