100 Avenue Road (yes, again)

Those of us who are old enough to recall the days when 100 Avenue Road was a pleasant modern office block, housing for some time the editorial offices of the venerable Ham & High, suspected we wouldn't live long enough to see the more recent 'hole in the ground' became a completed building with homes and commercial spaces fully occupied. There is still some way to go, but, believe it or not, construction work is to commence on site shortly. The dates being posted by the developer - Arada aka Regal - are:

• February 2026 - initial site work commences.
• March 2026 - Main construction work commences.
• Summer 2028 - Project completion. 

As with all construction sites in the London Borough of Camden  working hours are 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 1pm on Saturdays and no work on Sundays or Public Holidays.

As readers will recall, residents, local politicians, neighbourhood organisations etc fought tooth and nail to prevent this development. Thousands of people lodged objections to the planning application. Its one and only supporter of any repute was  the Winch youth project on Winchester Road who were to be rewarded for their support with shiny new premises in one of the new blocks. It is ironic that the Winch has now decided it would rather not move into 100 Avenue Road.

CRASH, alongside virtually everybody else, was glad to see the back of the reviled Essential Living, the initial developers of the site. Some hoped for a more sympathetic scheme from a developer based locally - just down the road in Fairhazel Gardens. Sadly that wasn't to be the case. The 'local' developer, Regal, is now owned by Arada, a property developer founded in 2017 in the United Arab Emirates by a couple of local sheikhs. So, in a few years time when you are sunbathing on the Swiss Cottage Open Space and you have to move every fifteen minutes to avoid the looming shadow of Arada's tower blocks be consoled by the knowledge that the desert sun is ever-present in the UAE.