Architect
Chetwoods
Developer
Swaythling Housing Society
Persimmon Homes
Contractor
Persimmon Homes (South Coast) Ltd
Planning Authority
Southampton City Council
Click any image for a larger view
Chapel is in St Mary's, south-west from Southampton's city centre on the route to the leisure focus of Ocean Village. It is in a corridor of newly safe areas planned to entice people to walk or cycle between the two. Just a few years ago it was a lorry park in a red light district.
The tenure is blind with 110 units for market sale, five for shared ownership and 59 going to Swaythling Housing Society for social rent. But the minority stake hides the influence of the RSL in its procurement. The Chapel scheme was initially developed by the West Hitchen Housing Partnership of RSLs Hyde and Swaythling and Southampton City with outline planning in 2000. Gleeson Homes bought the site at tender and then brought its architect Chetwood Associates on board. When Gleeson pulled out, Swaythling stepped in again and paid Chetwoods to work up detailed designs which were approved in spring 2003. The site was tendered a second time with Persimmon rewarding the investment with a bid priced on the back of detailed designs. The scheme shows the potential for RSLs and local authorities to fashion the schemes they need with the elements they want clearly embedded into the proposals as oven-ready developments for the big housebuilders.
The scheme is composed of three perimeter blocks on a north-south axis, with three-storey houses, four-storey apartments and the southern most block rising up to five storeys. There are 22 townhouses shared along the eastern perimeters of the blocks, with 152 apartments enclosing private landscaped courts on the other three. All apartments are dual aspect and have outdoor amenity space front and back, with balconies from first floor on the street side open ended for socialising. At ground floor there are terraces to the front and gardens in the internal courts, which act as a buffer to the communal space. Town houses have set backs at second storey on the inside of the court with private terraces. The whole scheme is built to EcoHomes Very Good standard and 1-beds are 53.7 m2 and 2-beds 69 m2.
There have been problems with outsiders using unallocated on-street parking bays, so controls are proposed. But the scheme has a strikingly active street frontage which includes a pocket park between the two blocks to the north of the site where soft and hard landscaping add to the impression of quality. Standing here, it is natural to look at the adjacent scheme built at the same time and pity it for its comparative meanness.