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Centrepoint Building - luxury flats scheme gloriously backfires

There were plans at one point after the war to knock down large parts of Soho and replace it with neatly-spaced towers.

Good thing it never came to that.
 
Yeah, big plans for a central London motorway loop, with junctions in Soho, too.

Only the Westway bit got built, thanks to a combo of Ken Livingstone and Christian Wolmar.:D
 
I love it. Took me about 2 years to come to love it, but I think it's a great looking buiding marooned in a bad ground floor site.

The masterplan that Crispy posted above should help solve that tho.

It's not the only building to remain empty and make money - Erskine's Ark in Hammersmith is the same (last tenants were...ah nuts, Canadian drinks family...make Absolut...nope, it's gone...)
 
My great-aunt was a councillor in the area for many years and I believe her constituency (or whatever the term is for a councillor's territory) covered Centre Point. She regarded it as an absolute obscenity on a number of levels.
 
HackneyE9 said:
I still don't understand how you make more money having it empty than receiving rents, even with no rates!:confused:
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I guess because rates on a building in that location are exceptionally high... Keeping it unoccupied also means you have no overheads and no risk of areas of the building going being empty (and therefore not making cash).
 
Donna Ferentes said:
She regarded it as an absolute obscenity on a number of levels.
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On 35 levels, according to the excellent U75 page - which is the highest ranked in Google for "centrepoint tower".

A councillor's territory is a "ward". I'm sure you really knew that.
 
Gin alley was just behind it I believe, St Giles High Street. Still a dump with a lot of smack heads hanging around from the hostel in Covent Garden.
 
That's them.

I went round The Ark last but one open house...great building inside, altho it looks a bit weird with carpets with faded Seagram logos, the videoconferencing room...must be a fucking NIGHTMARE to regulate the temperature as well. Loads of glass area, huge open atrium area that is as tall as the building...reckon if that was resolved would be a top office to work in tho...
 
DeadManWalking said:
I could be wrong but I think that area used to be where Gin alley was, it's got a long history of disrepute.
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no idea. i do know that my partner had to regularly help people that had been assaulted by junkies there and was threatened with used needles on several occasions. the area does seem to attract a particularly aggressive sort of drug user, I guess it's the proximity of their dealers and people with cash in their pockets for shopping/nights out that does that.
 
lenny101 said:
Gin alley was just behind it I believe, St Giles High Street. Still a dump with a lot of smack heads hanging around from the hostel in Covent Garden.
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The parish of St Giles, has always been one of the poorest/hardest parishes in London.
 
dash said:
It was supposed to be the 16th floor, the floors below being occupied by the DHSS, and the ones above (it's about 40 storeys high) were something to do with the Post Office. Radio hams were sometimes intrigued by the exotic comms equipment seen on the roof.
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The relevant floors of Euston Tower could always be distinguished by their regulation MoD blast curtains, which some idiot facilities manager failed to realise rather obviously drew attention to exactly which bit of the building they occupied, and were pretty much useless that far from a ground level car bomb.
 
Are those Centre Point plans the part of the same scheme which will demolish the Asoria/Mean Fiddler?

Bollocks to that.
 
was there in the high twenties when the fire alarm went off. Had visions of 11/9 but apparently it happens whenever someone uses the fire exit instead of the main door on ground level.Walked down 20 odd flights in full bike gear (no lifts). Charged them loads of waiting time for that one.
the views, on a windswept, rainy day (like today) of central london are pretty special.
 
dash said:
Thought it might be a bit like that :D



It was supposed to be the 16th floor, the floors below being occupied by the DHSS, and the ones above (it's about 40 storeys high) were something to do with the Post Office. Radio hams were sometimes intrigued by the exotic comms equipment seen on the roof.
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Assuming you are talking about Euston Tower it was also the HQ of the Post Office Investigation Division. Not a coincidence.

BarryB
 
They only want to demolish the astoria if they build Crossrail Line #2 which runs north-south. Crossrail 1 (east west) won't affect it.
 
What's the "Post Office Investigation Division" when it's at home? Presuming it's home was Euston Tower. Those tits can't distinguish between my street and the neighbouring two roads - reckon I only get about 85% of my post.
 
HackneyE9 said:
What's the "Post Office Investigation Division" when it's at home? Presuming it's home was Euston Tower. Those tits can't distinguish between my street and the neighbouring two roads - reckon I only get about 85% of my post.
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Not sure if its still called that now. But basically it was the Post Office police whose duties ranged from nicking postmen who were robbing the mail to doing the telephone tapping.

BarryB
 
I still don't understand how you make more money having it empty than receiving rents, even with no rates!
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I may be wrong, but I think it was to do with the potential rent for the empty building (and therefore the value of the building) going up each year.
If there had been tenants in the building, the landlord wouldn't have been able to raise the rent each year so the value of the building wouldn't have increased.

does that make sense?
 
no, I guess they weren't actually getting any income from the building but if the value of the company was going up they were probably able to make more money in other ways.

pretty disgraceful, however you look at it.
 
txapeldun said:
no, I guess they weren't actually getting any income from the building but if the value of the company was going up they were probably able to make more money in other ways.

pretty disgraceful, however you look at it.
Click to expand...

Why? Own something, do what you want with it. Not as if it was council housing.
 
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