The Lymington Society

Lymington Society Press Release

Lymington Society Meeting Gives Enthusiastic Welcome to Architects Designs for Redrow Development on Old Chicken Factory Site

The Lymington Society held the second meeting of this year's varied Social Programme at the Lymington Community Centre on Tuesday, November 8 with guest speaker Bryan Avery.

A packed meeting of approaching 100 members and guests was entertained to a lively and interesting presentation on the career of the renowned architect Bryan Avery who was born and bred in Lymington and who now has a national and international reputation. Mr. Avery agreed to speak to the society about his new book “Fragments of Wilderness City: The Work of Bryan Avery” as well as to set out his thoughts on the new Redrow development which he has recently designed.

Starting off with paintings of Lymington which he did when a student at Brockenhurst at the age of 17, one of which showed almost exactly the site where he now architect for the new Redrow development, Bryan illustrated the many exciting buildings such as the IMAX cinema at Waterloo, the RADA building in Gower Street which he has been instrumental in designing and building, and which have been instrumental in building his renowned international reputation.

Bryan illustrated the various themes such as light shining through dappled foliage, the white cliffs of the Isle of Wight near to the Needles and other motifs drawn from the area - including Georgian proportions from Lymington buildings - which he has used to create exciting innovative designs in London and throughout the world.

The second half of his presentation was a detailed description of his designs for the proposed Redrow development in Bridge Road Lymington. Taking local elements such as the wide street setting of the cottages at Buckler's Hard, the crinkle-crankle wavy walls of Lymington and the dappled light from vertical hanging foliage, Bryan has designed a completely new concept for the unique Bridge Road site involving a street layout running from the entrance towards the river adjacent to the quay.

Within the wide open space between the two rows of bow fronted terraces, with their clear reference to the typical crinkle-crankle walls found in Lymington, is a wide green space which Bryan hopes will become a popular public space where public markets and other events may take place. At the end of the terrace on the edge of the river there will be a gallery with a cafe, together with a restaurant, shops etc. All of this will be within a wide riverside public promenade, stretching from the quay end of the site all the way to the entrance by the railway level crossing.

The highlight of the presentation was a computer-generated 3-D fly-through of the proposed development, which enabled the scheme to be viewed from any angle or height.

Following the presentation, members of the Society were able to question Bryan and to ask for the view from different directions to be demonstrated with the 3-D images. Concerns were expressed about the overall height of the development as well as the impact of traffic on the road network in the town, which were answered by Chairman of the meeting Clive Sutton or by Mr. Avery.

In general discussion of the proposals the overwhelming opinion was of enthusiasm for what was described as an innovative and well designed scheme. Members congratulated Mr. Avery on exciting and well thought out scheme which was felt to be in marked contrast to previous designs for the site.

Chairman of the society Mr. Clive Sutton welcomed the constructive comments made by members of the Society, and the generally enthusiastic response which echoed the views of the Society Committee that this was indeed an exciting scheme which, if brought to fruition, would be very much to the benefit of the town.

Following the usual expressions of thanks, the members of the Society gave Mr. Avery a rousing round of applause for what was generally considered to be a highly professional presentation of a scheme which enjoyed the enthusiastic support of those who expressed an opinion at the meeting.

Speaking after the meeting Press Spokesman Dr. Donald MacKenzie said:

The Society was pleased to be able to suggest Mr. Brian Avery to Redrow as a possible architect who could bring a fresh pair of eyes to this unique site following the disappointment of previous design, and was very glad to hear that he had been chosen from the three architects asked to submit designs.

We were very grateful to Mr. Avery for coming to Lymington and making this detailed presentation of his thoughts on the designs for the wonderful riverside site, and for answering questions from members of the Society.

Following the enthusiastic support for the designs from the large number of members present at the meeting, we feel sure that this exciting and innovative scheme has much to recommend it and is a huge improvement on previous plans for the site. Much credit must go to Redrow for their decision to scale back the design to almost half of the original development, which has enabled a much more sympathetic scheme to be designed which appears to have won over many members of the Lymington Society.

We await the full details once the planning application is available for consideration by the community, and look forward to considering further feedback from the community and members concerning the full planning application. Following this we will endeavour to ensure that any concerns which come to light are carried forward to Redrow and to the NFDC Planning Officers for consideration before the designs come up for final approval. However, at this stage the Committee agrees with the view of the members attending this meeting that the current designs present an exciting and refreshing new scheme which should form the basis for an innovative scheme well fitted to this unique site.

Ends.