Lewes Forum thread

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Architecture best and worst over last 30 years

 
 
On 22 Jun 2009 at 7:09pm No Pot Pourri wrote:
What recent developments in Lewes do you like / hate and why?
My goodies
The Riverhouses on South Street capture the boat shed look and fit well next to the river.
The detached house on Southover High Street, opposite the Grange, next to the school car park entrance Traditional design of high enough quality to avoid looking like poor pastiche.
My villains
New Malling - crosses the line between affordable starter houses and tacky boxes. Could be anywhere and look like they have been spat out of a machine.
The Printworks - good potential let down by very poor detailing and finish. A bit like a temporary film set.
 
 
On 22 Jun 2009 at 7:15pm Rozzer wrote:
Worst - one of the worst anyway - that ugly 'sustainable' house at the back of Landowne Place. It's already looking a wreck with water stains. What made it particularly amusing was that the family that had it built moved out shortly afterwards into, I think, a nice old Edwardian house.
 
 
On 22 Jun 2009 at 8:04pm Sam Spam wrote:
the worst has got to be the council building!!!!!!
It's horrible up close and horrible from all the places you can see it (which is practically everywhere around Lewes).....get it knocked down!
 
 
On 22 Jun 2009 at 8:28pm Your friend in the north wrote:
Apologies to the residents, but easily the two crappily built houses by east st. car park entrance. they are so bad someone managed to get even our reluctant council to do enforcement work on them. a weeks woth of rebuilding took place over both frontages, all the windows, and doors. The buildings stick out the pavement, as they were built at the wrong depth (you can see the line, and the doors don't reach the pavement) and in the wrong place, rendering the drainage unreachable, and the street frontage broken when it was supposed to be continuous. the bricks had to be sandblasted to get rid of crappy mortar (again council enforcement) the gutters were accidentally approved (plastic, not metal) and they are squashed into what were a few parking spaces. A lamp-post had to be moved as you couldn't get down the side, which is why it disappeared even though next to a car park entrance. One Councillor even suggested, after they had been finished, that they should be knoched down again.
 
 
On 22 Jun 2009 at 10:35pm Outsider wrote:
The worst in my opinion are the Barratts estate in Southover amd Tanners Brook on platform 2 at the station. I don't like the detached house oposite the Grange, it's too big and out of scale. The magistrates court and the Sussex Ambulance HQ are both fairly repulsive and the new library looks tacky with those coloured panels.
On the other hand I like the two new houses in Grange Rd and the small eco-house on the Nevill just off North Way
 
1
On 22 Jun 2009 at 11:04pm jackal wrote:
The three houses/leisure centre! built at the end of Timberyard lane. The owner(the builder of all three) of the first one has since moved out. Probably gone to a house with a garden!
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 12:31am Geoff wrote:
If you changed the silly balconies on the houses in Albion st, and put them somewhere else they would be quite nice. Unfortunately where they are means that the street is dingier, and we have all lost the benefit of a significant town view of the downs, that policy, andd Conservation Area advice dictated should have been protected.....but wasn't!
Unfortunately our local architects disagreed with me, and diescribed the designs in very unflattering terms in a document that we all now know planners naughtily hid from local residents in a confidential file.
Baxters would be OK if it was story lower and built properly. There is some grteat new architecture in Brighton, but nothing of the same calibre here. Ego's and profit margins reign, as does tatty old wood cladding and stained fake render.
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 3:25am Wilhelm wrote:
I always think that the 'Natural England' office is a bit in contradiction with what it houses.
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 8:06am Rozzer wrote:
Geoff - I'd forgotten the Albion St horror as I no longer walk through the street. I always felt really sorry for the people who live in the older houses.
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 12:18pm bonfirek wrote:
I don't, there bloody loaded! Don't you just love the politics of envy?!
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 1:31pm Ed Can Do wrote:
I think the big green thing at the bottom of Sun Street is pretty horrible. Is it the HQ Gallery or something? It's completely out of character with the area and looks a bit like the shots you seen of downtown Beirut, minus the bomb damage.

The newer buildings out the back of the Rainbow and law courts are pretty grim too. I imagine that all that wood cladding and having no windows is in some way energy efficient but it's ugly as sin.

As for nice buildings, Fitzroy House is pretty awesome, especially if you've ever been inside in the big, central room with the pond in the middle. I also once went to a party at a house set up the hill at the bottom of Hill road which was a really, really nice house. I'm not sure you can even see it from the road though.
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 1:47pm No Pot Pourri wrote:
Sorry Ed, I can't count Fitzroy House as it is over 30 years old and if I let you make up your own rules it may lead to anarchy.
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 2:16pm Ed Can Do wrote:
I realised that just after I hit reply. It's still a nice building though and I'd struggle to think of any I like less than 30 years old except the one on Hill Road I mentioned.
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 9:06pm I think..... wrote:
Tesco's is a really nice building, it would look even better with a large extension on the side! Sorry couldn't resist that one!
 
 
On 23 Jun 2009 at 10:13pm Frak wrote:
I personally can't stand those houses/flats next to the dorset that look like strange german chalets not sure how old they are. Also, the nurseries are pretty hideous - with tiny gardens - and the older houses nearby As for positives, I quite like the library and theres a house near the grange, but not sure exactly what street it is on.
 
 
On 24 Jun 2009 at 1:01pm Stormin Norman wrote:
The derelict building on the corner of North Street by the one way system (opposite the wooden toy shop), now that is an eyesore, something should be done about it by the council
 
 
On 24 Jun 2009 at 1:14pm Decent Citizen wrote:
Well it used to be a gun shop so thank god for small mercys,but, yes, it needs restoring I agree.


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