5plus | Northampton Borough Council
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4.2 Greyfriars Identify Appropriate Uses Precedents
Kings Crescent Estate, Karakusevic Carson Architects
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1. Low to medium rise, urban residential development bringing residential use back into the town centre. 2. Connected neighbourhoods with access to spaces and facilities that promote active lifestyles and social interaction. 3. Shared external spaces providing passive surveillance. 4. Residential neighbourhoods linked to cycle and footpath networks to encourage active travel. 5. New commercial or civic offices located with existing public service buildings. 6. New commercial or civic offices accessed by new, high quality public realm.
Proposed Uses
The Greyfriars site presents a major opportunity for regeneration to Northampton’s town centre. This significant development opportunity can be used to bring much needed activity back into the town centre and at the same time reconnect the northern part of the town centre area with the core. The masterplan seeks to introduce residential uses on a large scale to create a new urban neighbourhood, accompanied by intrinsic landscaping, a hierarchy of functional open spaces and movement corridors. Key to this will be a linear park, a major new piece of public realm with pockets of intensive landscaping in the town centre, running East to West along the rear edge of the Grosvenor Centre. The linear park will provide substantial outdoor space for the residential community, supporting improved mobility with new connections, social interaction with spaces to relax and come together and health and well-being with areas to exercise.
Key Office Retail Residential Leisure & Recreation Civic Services Car Parking Transport
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Lastly, a bus and coach interchange is proposed that will provide additional capacity, capable of receiving buses which would normally stop along Drapery. This will allow Drapery to be bus free and re-establish itself as a high quality retail destination.
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Commercial or Civic office space is proposed alongside the existing public service buildings on Victoria Street. Through this, the Greyfriars area will support a mixture of uses, providing more town centre employment opportunities and ensuring activity is spread throughout the day. Redevelopment of the Mayorhold Multi-Storey Car Park is proposed. Currently underutilised, this car park can be reconfigured into a smaller footprint, unlocking a further development plot. Here, a leisure and recreation use building is proposed, providing the new town centre residents with facilities to support good standards of health and well-being.
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King’s Cross, Townshend Landscape Architects
Royal Wharf, Glenn Howells
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Scottish Water, Reiach and Hall Architects
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MARKET SQUARE
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Anderton, Collective Architecture
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Solingen, Scape Landschaftsarchitekten
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