About the site

The site is located on the western side of London Road, Morden. This is inside the town centre and close to both Morden South Railway station (five mins walk) and Morden Tube station (seven mins walk).

Our proposal is to replace an existing warehouse/yard and develop in its place 34 new homes, ranging from one-bed flats to family-sized homes.

Please see below a bird’s eye view of the site.

Above: The site

The site is currently a warehouse/yard with an existing residential unit to the front. It is not in a Conservation Area and there are no listed buildings nearby.

Please see below photos of how the site meets with London Road.

Please see below views of the site showing various neighbouring properties and the scale of the existing warehouse on site.

Design Proposal

 This proposal is to redevelop a site occupied by a warehouse/yard into 34 new homes. The scheme is made-up of the following parts: a flatted mansion block, a row of three family-sized houses, a small block of flats, a block arranged as maisonettes, a landscaped communal garden, and a ground floor commercial unit fronting London Road.

 The new homes will come in a range of types and sizes, ranging from one bed flats to three bed houses.

 The scheme provides a new mansion block to the front of the site. Large front gardens are provided for the flats facing the road that helps to separate the new development from the relatively busy road. This block rises to five storeys.

 The rest of the site is arranged as three buildings. These are arranged around a new communal landscaped garden space. This includes a row of family sized houses to the west, a small block of flats to the east and a rear block of 2.5 storeys arranged as a series of maisonettes.

 The scheme is therefore designed to reflect the two different characters of the surrounding areas, with a flatted mansion block and more suburban semidetached house types.

Please see below the plan site layout of the proposals.

 Click to view

The mansion block

 The mansion block will be situated at the front (south) of the site and has taken direct reference from the surrounding area.

 At ground floor level there will be the kitchen space of a two-bed home located at the back of the block, and a commercial unit of 191m².

 At first floor level there will be the living room and bedroom space of a two-bed home located at the back of the block, along with an additional three two-bed flats. The building line at this level is set back from the ground floor building line, which allows for the creation of roof terraces for each of the four flats.

 The building line is set back again on the second floor, again creating terraces for the four flats, two two-bed and two one-bed flats.

 At the third floor there are four flats all of one-bed, all four of these flats has a terrace.

 There is an additional three one-bed flats at fourth floor level, all of these has a terrace.

Above: The mansion block from the west

Courtyard housing and rear block

 The courtyard housing consists of three two-storey (three-bed) homes to the west and four flats in a one-to-two storey block to the east.

 The homes to the west of the site will each have their own private back gardens. These houses have no rear facing windows so there is no overlooking of the existing flats to the west. These homes will also have pitched roofs that slope down towards the existing housing to minimise the impact of the new development onto the existing area.

 Two of the flats to the east will have private back gardens. There are no rear facing windows in flats in the eastern block and the roofs here are also pitched to minimise impact.

 The rear block (to the north) is 2.5 storeys, with living room and kitchen areas provided in the top floor roof space. This building will be arranged as maisonettes with 12 homes, varying between two and three-bed in size.

 At second floor level, private external space is provided as terraces. The roof of the northern block pitches away, at each end of the block, from the neighbouring houses to minimise the impact of the new development to the existing housing. In the central part of the rear block, the roof is flat rather than pitched.

Above: The landscaped communal courtyard

Affordable housing

As part of the application process, the applicant will supply a review of the scheme’s viability in order to decide the amount of affordable housing that the scheme can provide.

Parking

The site is close to public transport links. Therefore, we are only providing three car parking spaces on site. These are to be allocated to the wheelchair accessible homes on site.

Conclusion

This proposal will provide 34 high quality new homes, a ground floor commercial unit fronting London Road, and a landscaped communal garden. This scheme is a fantastic opportunity to provide new housing to Merton and replace a currently poor-quality warehouse and yard.

Above: The mansion block from the east