Archive for October, 2009

HomeBuy Direct now available at Saxton, Leeds

Friday, October 30th, 2009

saxton

The first residents have now moved into the new Saxton apartments, and they’ll soon be joined by 15 lucky home owners who are able to sign up to the Government’s HomeBuy Direct scheme. If you’re eligible, this means you can own your home for as little as 70% of the value, which could be from £70,000!*

With HomeBuy Direct, you can get a loan (funded by the Government and Urban Splash) for up to 30% of the value of the property and the loan is interest free for the first five years. You will need to fund the other 70% through a combination of mortgage and savings – usually borrowing 65% with 5% as a deposit.* Download a PDF about HomeBuy Direct here or watch our HomeBuy Direct movie here.

Saxton is a fantastic place to live, with spacious apartments, all with full height glazing and high specification. Saxton will also have a private residents’ garden and allotments which will be a great place for you to meet your neighbours. The apartments are located close to the City Centre and its bars, restaurants, theatres and transport links.

To book your appointment to view our fabulous new show apartment contact the sales team or call 0333 666 6000.

*See the legal bit here

Posted in Affordable homes, Leeds, Nicola Wallis, Saxton | No comments »

New faces at Park Hill

Monday, October 26th, 2009

parkhillgary

You’ve probably read in the papers that we’ve recently been doing some work with local artist Gary Hindley at Park Hill in Sheffield.

Gary, whose work can be viewed here, is a local lad who watched our progress at Park Hill carefully. As soon as he saw the façade come down, he saw the ideal opportunity to display his artwork within the building’s bare frame. He swiftly contacted our office and earlier this year (with snow underfoot) we toured the building and discussed his initial thoughts.

What really caught our attention was that he wanted to display faces of people connected to Park Hill – choosing key figures (such as the famous caretaker Grenville Squires) and unknown characters from 1960s footage of the scheme who had once lived there.

Urban Splash gave Gary some ‘studio’ space (see him working in it here) created from the original garage block. In it he set about creating his masterpieces, working with our site manager Lee Taylor to ensure that his vision could be safely installed.

Grenville and the mysterious ‘woman in the curlers’ have been staring down on the City for a couple of weeks now, with two more ‘faces of Parkie’ soon set to join them.

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Stirling Prize awards and hot tubs on roofs by Tom Bloxham MBE

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

ba_top_midland_hotel

Just enjoyed a great weekend in London. No, not just seeing Chelsea fans walking around with their heads down, nor attending the Frieze Art Fair, but also winning an award at the Stirling Prize ceremony at Old Billingsgate.

It was to my absolute delight that the architecture critic (and TV personality!) Tom Dyckhoff, took to the stage and announced that we had won the Crown Estate Conservation Award for our work on the Midland Hotel in Morecambe. Tom Heatherwick was also a judge – see a picture of the ‘3 Toms’ here – anyone see any similarities to the old band the ‘3 Johns’ – that’s if you’re young enough to remember them!

The award is a great accolade which I am incredibly proud of. Its our 22nd award from the RIBA; our 283rd award overall, and it’s nice to have some good news in what’s been a difficult year!

It shows once again that design led regeneration really can work. Throughout the Urban Splash portfolio design has always been at the forefront of what we do; it helps make great places and buildings, places where people want to live, work and play. The Midland has come a long way and its redevelopment is certainly helping Morecambe become a more attractive destination. People have doubted us, and the town’s fortunes in the long term are yet to be judged but just look back 15 years and see what Urban Splash faced in redeveloping disused Victorian buildings in Manchester and Liverpool – places which are now home to hundreds of people and businesses.

We try in everything we do to make a difference. When we bought the Midland Hotel on Christmas Eve in 2003 (quite a present might I add!) we didn’t design it with awards or recognition in mind, but more about creating a nice place for us to visit. The hotel had so many beautiful original features that had been left to ruin and we needed to bring those back to life, use them as a reminder of the Hotel’s heritage, whilst creating modern features around them that would appeal to a new breed of visitor.

What we ended up with was a contemporary hotel that I love to visit. It has some of the best views in the country, especially at sunset. It’s fair to say that service at the hotel hasn’t always reached our aspirations but English Lakes Hotels are now running it and doing a very good job. Take a look and if you like what you see let me know. If you don’t, blame English Lakes! Only joking!

If you can visit, and are feeling particularly extravagant, book room 302. Its wonderful and comes complete with a rooftop hot tub – just the place to party! If you do go let me know what you think.

Posted in Midland Hotel, Tom Bloxham MBE, Urban Splash | No comments »

Conference season hits Manchester by Tom Bloxham MBE

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

I’ve spent a bit of time the last couple of weeks at the Labour and Conservative party conferences, trying to influence their policy and ensure that regeneration is high on both parties’ agendas.

For those unfamiliar, party conferences are strange events; somewhere between a policy brainstorm and an evangelical meeting. They’re a chance for politicians to take the media stage with carefully managed announcements, and a piss up for the party faithful (although that didn’t include champagne for the Tories this year we’re told… I saw differently though!).

It was great to see my home city of Manchester used as a venue and whatever you might think of Conservative policy its great for the city and I believe Manchester proved a popular and successful venue.

Conferences are also a great opportunity to meet many other individuals who can be useful for business and the variety of pro-bono and charity work I do. As well as the cabinet and shadow cabinet it gave me an opportunity to meet key journalists, FTSE 100 chief execs and numerous policy advisors and thinktanks.

Most importantly however, the conferences help us understand better where the parties stand on their regeneration policy and to encourage them that the work of regeneration is by no means finished and despite, or indeed because of, the economic difficulties in the public sector - regeneration is even more important.

I was speaking at a fringe event with the Rt Hon John Gummer and was describing how I saw the pivotal event in Manchester’s regeneration not being the IRA bomb or the Commonwealth Games, but the city’s bid for the 2000 Olympics in 1992. For the first time, the City of Manchester was competing not with Barnsley, Bradford or Birmingham but with Barcelona, Sydney and LA.

John Gummer reminded the audience that he had played a central role in trying to secure the IOC votes, in his words ‘prostituting himself’; standing on street corners in Monaco pushing the City’s attractions to IOC members. He later added, ‘what I caught from that prostitution,’ (at which point I jumped in with ‘too much information!’), ‘was the Manchester vision, spirit and confidence…’

I’m sure that’s all John caught… and I hope that more cities can work like Manchester does, with successful partnerships between the public and private sector.

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Posted in Manchester, Tom Bloxham MBE, Urban Splash | No comments »

Letter to Estates Gazette by Tom Bloxham MBE

Monday, October 12th, 2009

I recently read an article about Urban Splash in the property trade magazine Estates Gazette (pictured) and felt compelled to respond. Below is my letter which was published in the magazine:

Dear Sirs,

I was pleased to see Mr Alastair Stewart’s comments on Urban Splash’s financial results in Estates Gazette on 12th September 2009. As a private company, we choose to be very open and publish our figures, and he is one of the few analysts that have taken time to comment.

Mr Stewart correctly points out that Urban Splash has not been immune from the crisis all around us (but I feel we have weathered the storm better than some). Where we differ is Mr Stewart’s assertion that we are going horribly wrong by not following the property market’s guiding precept: location, location, location. In this he is right, I believe, if you simply buy in the best locations you will succeed or fail as the market rises or falls. However, what we try and do is help locations improve, and in doing so improve the value of our assets.

He points to our restoration of the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, which he notes in the 2003 bestseller book of Crap Towns (I like your reading list Alistair!) Morecambe came third, and doubts we can make a difference. I hope he is wrong.

Fifteen years ago people doubted we could persuade people to live in Manchester or Liverpool city centres; ten years ago people doubted we could transform Manningham Mills in Bradford; five years ago people doubted we could make a success of our Salford Victorian terraces or Fort Dunlop in Birmingham. The point of these examples is not that we are always right (we’re not!), but just that it’s worth a go.

I believe those of us privileged enough to work in the property industry have a duty not only to make profits, but also to try and make a difference. Our buildings will last longer than we do and I want them to make a positive impact on our towns and cities and that is what drives us at Urban Splash.

Best regards,

Tom Bloxham MBE
Chairman
Urban Splash

estates_gazette

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Posted in Bradford, Lister Mills, Midland Hotel, Tom Bloxham MBE, Urban Splash | 4 comments »

20 years of Warp records (a very SoYo affair)

Monday, October 5th, 2009

warp

The long gone, industrial haze that descended on the city of Sheffield for many decades provided not only the impetus to build high rise ’streets in the sky’, but also a proverbial shield from mainstream mediocrity. Independent artistic movements flourished.

The resulting impact on modern culture has influenced the worlds of architecture, design, film and music. The latter of which has one dominant Sheffield connection – the Warp record label. Born out of a converted cutlery shop in the Devonshire Quarter, it has sold millions of records worldwide.

Last weekend marked 20 years since Warp Records was born. An amazing chain of birthday events were chosen, held at locations synonymous with Sheffield - an industrial warehouse party, an open air cinema at Park Hill flats and a gargantuan rave in a converted steel mill.

Park Hill was perfect; its curving elevations provided an amphitheatre for a very atmospheric open air presentation of Warp films throughout the years. Its graphical references of Russian Constructivism in the early (Designers Republic) promotional material contrasting against the Brutalist backdrop.

Well attended by families, residents, scenesters and ravers from ‘back in t’day’ alike. Later in the evening the bar dried up and all scooted off to the next event.

What an amazing weekend party, now, can someone fill in the gaps in my memory?

If you missed the event but want to know what’s next at Park Hill, register your interest here.

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Posted in Park Hill, Sheffield, Urban Splash | No comments »

Come and learn how to cook at the Matchworks, by Lucy Parkes of Five for Families

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

lucy

This Thursday (8th October) we’ll be throwing open the doors of The Can Cook Studio at the Matchworks in Garston welcoming people to come take part in our weekend and evening cookery sessions.

We opened our studio in May this year at the Matchworks – a great business park in South Liverpool. The design of the building means we’ve had the space to design our studio and create a state of the art and fully equipped cookery centre – a first at the Matchworks and somewhere we hope will become a drop in for other people on the site. We’ll be demonstrating dishes from our new programme which will include Indian, Thai, vegetarian and traditional cuisine. Just think how much you could impress your mum at Christmas dinner this year – or your mates next time they fancy a curry!

We began our quest to get people cooking back in 2006, our organisation was born from the Five Children and Families Trust and the Primary Care trust who were responding to community interest in fresh food and cooking from scratch. Can Cook created a dynamic training environment to engage anyone and everyone in the whole food experience, primarily through learning to cook.

If you can’t make it this week, our studio is open at weekends and in the evenings. Anyone that is interested in food and cooking can come and learn, taking part in sessions with our resident chefs, some of whom are from great Liverpool restaurants. For details on the event, and our full Winter cooking programme, please email lucy.parkes@fiveforfamilies.co.uk or call 07775 556 243. Let us know if you are coming so we know how many to cater for) or visit www.cancookwillcook.org.uk.

Posted in Liverpool, Urban Splash | No comments »