THE GUILDFORD SOCIETY
PLANNING GROUP
Bedford Square
Having no historic market square Guildford is lacking in urban squares or piazze. Bedford Square is probably the last space available and is therefore a valuable resource whose potential should not be wasted. In addition, we have long sought an attractive access route from the university and the station into the town centre. The Guildford Society campaign against the Council’s own plans for the site was described in the Spring Newsletter and has been lodged with the Planning Committee: the application is still awaiting decision. The Society has developed alternative plans which we feel meet the challenges rather better. Newsletter asked David Ogilvie of the Planning Group, who has done most work on the study, to explain the initiative we have taken.
Background:
Guildford Borough Council published a Development Brief for this site in 2000. It stated “the site has potential to form an important part of the leisure and cultural quarter that has grown up in this part of the town.
As such, an hotel use would be particularly appropriate for this site”. The brief also stated that “urban design analysis has indicated that a 3- to 4-storey hotel on a raised undercroft may be an appropriate scale”. In addition the brief envisaged the area being used to solve access between the town centre and the railway station.
Bedford Road as now
Site analysis:
The Bedford Road site has great potential to be a major piazza and pedestrian movement focus in the Guildford urban fabric. It is a large undefined open space with fenced-off lawns and a pedestrian ramp blocks views of the river. There is potential to open up a river walk, and to replace the utility bridge link to the station. A link via the Bedford Road car park and Friary Bridge over Onslow Street to the Friary Centre would complete the pedestrian link from the university and station to the town centre. New facilities on the site would create a busy urban space and social meeting point by the addition of an hotel and a number of shops and restaurants in a traffic free and sunny environment.
Guildford Borough Council’s own Planning Application:
The GBC planning application for this, their own site, is a housing scheme well in excess of the Council’s policy maximum of 125 dwellings/hectare. It does not include an hotel. The application is contrary to the Council’s own development brief in many respects: eight storeys high at the east end and five storeys high at the river frontage, for example. The National Trust, owns and manages the River Wey Navigation, objected strongly to the application.
The Guildford Society feasibility study:
The Guildford Society proposal follows the GBC Development Brief as closely as possible. It considers the Bedford Road area as a whole. This comprehensive thinking is essential to enable the site to be developed to its optimum. The proposal is ground plus four storeys at the east end dropping to ground plus one storey at the river frontage set over a raised piazza. The hotel would be in line with the development brief and add to the leisure and cultural use of the square; and a new, wider and improved footbridge over the river, in conjunction with a new footbridge over Bedford Road, will enhance the pedestrian link from the university and station to the town centre and bus station and the Friary Centre.
In addition, this proposal will provide:
+ 150 parking spaces (compared with the 61 spaces provided in the GBC scheme).
+ up to 10 new shops or restaurants plus the use of the old auctioneer’s building as a riverside restaurant.
+ an enhanced riverside walk without the ramp blocking the view of the river.
+ a raised piazza level above the flood level to give better views up and down the river.
+ a small marina to add to the riverside atmosphere - subject to National Trust approval.
Compared to the GBC application, we believe that the Society’s feasibility proposal will not only provide a better townscape and better pedestrian routes but will also be more commercially viable. The approximate gross floor areas are as follows:
New retail/restaurant space 1,288 sq. m
Hotel/office space 9,457 sq. m
Riverside restaurant 144 sq. m
Parking 150 spaces
New piazza 1,200 sq. m
New marina 4 to 5 spaces
Dec 09 David Ogilvie