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13 may 2011 design and access statement

job: kensington picture house

job status: private

job address: 9 fieldside, thorne

doncaster, DN8 4AE

document number: kph_da_001

date: 13.05.11

document status: planning

This document is the design and access statement relating to the above addresses. It is important that reference is made to all other documents which form part of this application.

contents introduction

location

site context

use

site description

design strategy

site access

materials

flood risk

renewables

support for the scheme

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introduction

This document describes the design proposal for converting the existing abandoned cinema - the Kensington Picture House, Fieldside, Thorne - into a single family dwelling.

location

The site comprises a parcel of land between Fieldside and Queen Street, bounded by Thorne Town Council building and car park to the north and west and by the Wheatfields housing and car park, along with Richardson's shop to the south and east.

site context

The site is located on the western boundary of the Thorne Conservation Area (although an extension up to Brown's Lane is proposed). The existing building is not listed, but it is a Key Unlisted building in the Conservation Area Appraisal, as is the Town Hall located directly to the north/north-west of the site.

The frontage of the building is to the largely commercial route Fieldside, while to the rear of the site the surrounding buildings are largely residential. Along with the Town Hall and other civic-function buildings to the west, there are various associated ancillary buildings and surface parking.

The commercial buildings to Fieldside are generally older - early and mid-twentieth century (eg Town Hall built 1909). The residential buildings to the rear are generally newer, with several recent multi-dwelling residential developments.

The site slopes generally from Fieldside to Queen Street, with the site at the edge of Queen Street approximately one meter lower than at the edge of Fieldside.

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use

The building has been empty for several years. Prior to its abandonment in 1998, the building was used as a nightclub - "Merlin's".

The current building was originally built as the Kensington Picture House in 1927 and stayed in use as a cinema until it was converted to a bingo hall in 1967.

Prior to 1927, a timber building on the site was also in use as a cinema (photo below from 1914)

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site description

The existing building sits back from the street frontage and the forecourt is currently used as a de-facto car park for numerous cars every day. The building itself comprises a two storey 'front-of-house' portion, along with a partial third storey housing the projection room and a reel room accessed via a flat roof. This partial third storey also seem to be missing the original pediment, although details for this are unavailable. There is also a partial basement below this portion of the building. The conservation area appraisal describes this portion of the building as;

"of red brick with stone dressings and which all have been painted at some time, and which would be better to be carefully stripped back to reveal the original facade"

The bulk of the building comprises the auditorium, which does not align with the frontage and spans between the site's side boundaries. This volume is brick with a slate roof and is generally in a poor state of repair. The far (Queen Street) end of the auditorium has a stage with sub-level and two flanking toilet bocks. This portion of the building is described in the conservation area appraisal;

"The mass of the former auditorium is not aligned with the frontage and its other elevations are plain and of less interest with an almost industrial look"

The portion of the site between the end of the auditorium and toilet blocks and Queen Street beyond is waste ground.

In general the appraisal describes this key building as having "further status [than its neighbours]" and that " the condition of the building is of concern". It is also listed in a group of key early twentieth century buildings that represent the cutting edge of technological and social advances of their day.

design strategy

There are two main aspects to the design strategy for the proposed single-family dwelling. These are the treatment of the existing building and the treatment of proposed new portions of the dwelling.

The former is further broken down into two portions, the treatment of the frontage building and the treatment of the auditorium and remainder of the site.

The plan for the frontage building is to retain and restore as much of the original facade as possible, pending the results of a structural and fabric survey. As far as is feasible/possible, we intend to restore the facade to its former glory, including the existing timber-framed windows, although these will be refurbished with double-glazed timber-framed windows to match.

Due to the neglect the building has suffered and its age, it is inevitable that some original features have been lost over time and/or cannot be repaired. In particular, on the front facade, the main entrance has been lost, as well as the pediment that 'finished' the top of the building. The interior of the frontage building will also be retained and restored where it has architectural merit - particularly in the original foyer - while the circulation space will be reconfigured to meet the needs of a modern family home, including extending the staircase up to the existing projection room level. Other features of the original building that we intend to retain - or replace in the same form - in the new dwelling include the projection room and the original projection windows. The auditorium is of much less architectural and historical interest, and - as outlined in the Conservation Area Appraisal - its bulk has a negative impact on the surrounding buildings. It is therefore our intention to demolish the auditorium to bring the scale of the building down to something more appropriate for a single-family dwelling. While the existing auditorium is clearly too large for a comfortable single-family dwelling, the frontage building is also too small, and as a stand-alone building its massing would be out of scale and proportion to the surrounding urban fabric.

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To create a more appropriate massing and scale for the context of the site, we intend to introduce new building elements to the immediate rear of the frontage building. These take the form of two new bedroom suites at first floor level with an open terrace in-between, harking back to the original tri-partite cinema that stood on the site in the early 20thC. At ground floor level a large, open-plan space links the dwelling with the newly-created garden. This new portion of ground floor accommodation will be dropped to the garden level to further distinguish it from the existing building. With the auditorium removed, the remainder of the site, extending to Queen Street, will become a landscaped garden with a summerhouse and garage at the Queen Street end. The garden side of this extension will be largely glazed at ground floor level, such that the glazing will be hidden from outside the site by the boundary wall (see site treatment below). On the first floor, the new elements will have glazing to the rear and internal terrace only to avoid any possibility of overlooking to the properties to either side. At roof level, the projection room will be recreated as a home cinema, and the existing roof terraces will be extended out over the new spaces below. Above the projection room, a new 'floating' roof will extend out over the restored front facade as a replacement for the lost pediment. From Fieldside this roof will also serve as a marker for the new life that has been injected into the building, as well as recalling the classic cinema marquee when illuminated at night. Similarly, the lost entrance to the building will be replaced with a modern interpretation incorporating an oversized front door, projecting frameless-glass window seat and modern canopy. In both the replacements for lost features and in the new portions of the building we intend to deploy contemporary interventions that clearly delineate what is original and what is new. While these new elements are sensitive to - and clearly subordinate to - the original fabric, they will also be clearly 'of their time'. This approach is in line with English Heritage best practice and also the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which recommends reference to the internationally accepted best practice document, the �‘Burra Charter�’. �“Matters to be considered in all development proposals: �• ensure old and new work is distinguishable; �• ensure new work is similar to existing fabric in its consideration of matters (including siting, bulk, form, scale, character, colour, texture and material) but that it is clearly contemporary for its time"

site access and treatment

Currently, the site is open to Fieldside and the forecourt is used as a surface car park. Our intention is to retain visitor parking in this forecourt, with permanent residents' parking provided in the double garage accessed directly from Queen Street.

The curb is dropped along Fieldside and no alteration will be required. The forecourt parking layout includes provision for a turnaround, such that any and all traffic entering and exiting the site will be forward-facing.

This strategy will reduce the volume of site traffic entering and exiting Fieldside to a fraction of the present levels. The addition of a safe turnaround will also greatly increase the safety of exiting the site onto Fieldside.

This revised parking strategy contrasts with several of the neighbouring properties, especially those closer to the intersection of Fieldside and Field Road. Directly at the junction, a lowered curb outside Wilson's Carpets, Haircraft etc result in cars parking on the pavement at the traffic lights. Cars also enter the roadway directly into the intersection opposite the end of Field Road from the access to the car park to Car Care (see below)

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Directly opposite the site, all Waverley Court traffic enters and exits Fieldside at the same distance from the intersection as the proposed driveway, as does the car park for Richard Walker Funeral Director (see below)

The forecourt itself will be landscaped to contribute to the street scene, and the boundary walls to each side will be upgraded to the tall brick walls that are the local vernacular.

The proposed garden will also retain tall boundary walls of red brick in line with local tradition, and these will be extended to the Queen Street boundary where they will enclose the proposed double garage and summerhouse.

Pedestrian access will be provided at both Fieldside and Queen Street. This access will be clear and level to facilitate accessibility, as will the oversized front door and wide stairs at the level change to the kitchen and open-plan living room at the rear of the house. An accessible wc will also be provided at the entrance level of the ground floor.

materials

existing

The existing frontage building and auditorium are mainly in red brick, with horizontal stone detailing to the front facade. The auditorium roof is slate, and the frontage building has a flat, membrane roof.

proposed

As described above, the new elements to the building will be treated such that a clear delineation between existing and new is evident. To this end, the existing frontage building will be retained and restored in red brick and original stone detailing, and the tall boundary walls will be in retained and/or re-used red brick from the auditorium.

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In contrast, the new first floor elements will be clad in horizontal, untreated timber such that its colour will fade to a silver-grey over time to indicate its subordination to the existing building.

This material will clearly contrast with the predominate red brick of the existing building and immediate neighbours, but there is precedent within the conservation area for the use of horizontal timber cladding in the storage building off Belmont Terrace (below)

As the Conservation Area Appraisal states, the existing building enjoyed enhanced status over its neighbours both by the additional distance from the street in its forecourt, and from its original function as the home of technological advance in the early days of cinema. The use of timber in the new elements of the building further enhance the building's status as a unique property within the Conservation Area.

The glazing to the front of the building will be restored/replaced to match the originals, and again the new portions will deploy a contrasting approach. Here we intend to use crittall-style steel framed glazing in a largely horizontal pattern, both to differentiate the new portions of the building and also to link back to the Edwardian, quasi-industrial past of the auditorium that they displace (see below)

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The glazing will be set within a lime render horizontal band across the facade that will echo the horizontal stone detailing of the original front facade.

Other materials used include board-marked concrete for the proposed fireplaces at the ground- and first- floor terraces, and for the new stair tower extension adjacent to the projection room, as well as membrane roofing for the extended terraces over the first floor additions.

flood risk

The site is within the flood area and while raising floor levels is not practicable in the existing building, mitigating features will be incorporated. As noted above, the site slopes towards Queen Street, with this end approximately one meter lower than at Fieldside.

renewables

The proposed scheme will use sustainable and sustainably sourced materials including timber and reused brick from the original building.

It will also incorporate several technological sustainability solutions including solar thermal panels for water heating, a ground source heat exchanger for underfloor heating and grey water recycling in the toilets, laundry and garden irrigation. Photo-voltaics may also be deployed depending on government tariff schemes at the time.

support for the scheme

Councillor Martin Williams of Thorne supports the scheme:

"Fantastic news. I could not be more pleased. Thank goodness the building will be brought back into use again."