Peter Barber gets approval for 139-home scheme in Barnet

The council’s planning committee last week (July 17) voted to back the multi-building residential scheme, the tallest being nine storeys, as well as community spaces and landscape works on the 0.46ha Edgware Road site.

The Scheme of 10,400 m², for Hyde Inv, an offshoot of Casa Bella Developments, involves the demolition of a vacant Volvo car showroom.

Last year Peter Barber Architects secured planning permission for two affordable housing schemes in the borough.

The latest scheme includes a ‘mansion block’ building on Edgware Road with six and eight storey crenellated profile. The highest point is a nine-story corner element.

The low-profile one and two-storey courtyard houses will face Hillfield Road to the north, while the four- and five-storey houses will face Silkfield Road to the south.

Of the 139 houses, 14 are accessible. Planning officers’ report before the committee said the project team had shown that more affordable units were not viable for the site, despite the borough-wide target of 40 per cent affordable housing on sites capable of housing 10 or more units.

In planning documents, the practice said the homes were “designed to a high design standard, with generous and high-quality living space” and a scale that respected the height and scale of neighboring buildings.

The layout of the scheme creates a pedestrianized courtyard garden at the center of the plans.