A while back we reported on a proposal to replace an unusually small house which had an unusually large garden on Parma Crescent with a rather larger building housing five flats. We didn’t say much about it, but it later proved quite a controversial proposal, attracting 44 objections, and not much in the way of supportive comment.

At the beginning of July, the plans were changed part way through the process – with the side of the building closest to Lavender Hill chopped back somewhat, an the height of the roof reduced slightly as well.

In the artists’ impression above the blue dotted line represents the outline shape of the previous proposal, as viewed from Eccles Road – and compare it to the new updated plans. While the general gist of the plans, and the general design of the planned building, remain much the same, we now have a slightly smaller building that is more similar to the height of the rest of the terrace, and which has a larger space between it and the back of the buildings facing Lavender Sweep.

There has clearly been some effort made to address some of the issues raised in the planning process so far. It’s clear that one of the main issues that had emerged was the impact of the new building on the level of light reaching the gardens and back windows of the buildings on Lavender Sweep – which is presumably why that part of the building has been rather chopped back. The old and new proposals are shown side by side below.

It’s clear that the design has also been made to look a bit more like the neighbouring houses (with a more similar roof angle,), and in doing so has also lost several of the windows and balconies on the upper levels, as well as a fair bit of space on the top floor that had previously been provided by the steep roof pitch. Compared to the original proposals (below), the balconies have also been moved so that they overlook the street more, and neighbouring properties less.

As a reminder – here’s the house that is currently on the site. For more detail of the previous plans, see our article from when the plans were first put out. And if you want to see the detailed plans, you can do this on Wandsworth’s planning website – where you should search for planning application number 2020/0906.

We were going to say that, as the plans have been updated, anyone who previously commented is also of course able to put in a second comment about the updated plans – including about whether they have addressed any concerns. However while we were writing this article, the planning application was withdrawn by the applicants. It’s never really clear why plans get withdrawn – this can mean that the applicants got the feeling it was due for rejection, or that the applicants decided to do a more fundamental reworking of the proposal. Either way we’ll keep you posted if (as seems likely) there are updated plans in the future.