Images from our changing towns
The Good, The Bad, The Sad & The Mad
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” applies to many aspects of our appreciation of manmade things. Paintings, sculpture, cars, clothing and, in this case, architecture.
The examples taken from Fleet and Church Crookham of architecture, which appeals, revolts or saddens are the choice of one or more members of the Fleet & Crookham Civic Society Committee, they do not represent the views of the Committee as a whole or of the Society.
The architectural value of a building and, in particular, how it fits into the surroundings is often ignored when new buildings are erected or old ones demolished. When we walk down the busy thoroughfare of Fleet Road, we are too occupied with dodging the rush of people around us or too distracted by the multi-coloured shop fronts to look at the buildings themselves. Stand still outside the eastern entrance to the Hart Shopping Centre and look up at the buildings opposite. Have you noticed the attractive frontage above the building that now houses the Woolwich through to Grants? Have you noticed the balcony on the building above Abbey Bank? These are reminders of how much of Fleet Road once looked.
We would like visitors to our website to submit their opinions of the examples shown here and would welcome other proposals for addition to the picture gallery under one of the four headings. Your opinion might help us gain an idea of how local people see their home town and how they would like it to look to future generations. Please contact with your comments/photo contributions.
Old School Close, view from Albert Street
The Good: The estate built on the Albert Street School site. An excellent example of how increased density can be achieved with quality. The architect has captured the character of the Victorian School which previously occupied the site. Note how the new buildings (on the right) are virtually indistinguishable from the Victorian building (left of centre).
Galvanised Metal balconies of Rose Farm
Dairy Development
The Bad: The flatted development on the Rose Farm Dairy site. Raw metal additions that give the impression that, rather than remove the scaffolding, it was used to make balconies and railings. The “landscaping” to the road frontage, which is a minimal strip of grass and two or three trees.
The “pigeon lofts” along the top of the Albert Street frontage of Hart Shopping Centre and, more recently, the huge, grey metal “shoe box” above Woolworths.
The dilapidated former Brakes Estate Office
The Sad: The neglect that is allowing the Brakes Original Estate Office in Fleet Road to rot and that will result in the loss of a building that had a very significant role in Fleet’s early development.
Mismatched brickwork at the corner of
Fleet Road & Kings Road
The Sad: The use of unmatched brickwork when re-facing the offices on Pearson’s Corner. Ugly “patching” with poor quality brickwork on a gateway building on the corner of Kings Road and Fleet Road. This is a good example of how to spoil a building by poor workmanship and failing to take a little trouble to find matching materials.
Developer's impression of how Fleet
should look in the Future?
The Mad: (No, we haven't made this up for editorial value!) - This is a photograph representation submitted as part of a real planning application to Hart Council in April 2004. This picture was created by the applicant in support of his proposals for a residential re-development in Church Road. The application was mysteriously withdrawn shortly after submission in April 2004, leading the committee to wonder whether it was in fact an April Fool's joke. Rest assured, the society raised objections just in case the application was for real!
Pictorial representation of a design for the redevelopment of Campbell Close
Mad or Sad? Sentinel Housing has expressed the wish to demolish the small old peoples' bungalows in Campbell Close (off Reading Road North opposite Calthorpe Park) and replace them with blocks of flats. The design of the current proposal is significantly out of place alongside the existing buildings and has some odd-looking 'cages' attached pretending to be balconies. We hope that Sentinel will reconsider this proposal and come up with a design more compatible with Fleet.