The Duty Station Manager is aware of this situation but extra or catching signage will not really address the issue. During the rush hour many of our customers are in a hurry and automatically go to the nearest Oyster reader.

In the interim we’ll make announcements to advise customers of readers and if feasible place an available member of staff in that area, advising customers that more validators are available.

On a positive note the Oyster readers will be removed and replaced with gates in the ticket hall area.

I’ve not heard any of the announcements or seen extra staff in the area yet; have you?

If you want to get future updates on the issue, sign up on my FixMyTransport campaign page.

Park Theatre Newsletter No.2

In fact, the whole area is due to get taller as over the road the plans for the John Jones site also call for the existing buildings to be replaced with much taller ones, as do the plans for the site boarding Wells Terrace to the west of Finsbury Park station.

Earlier this summer, planning permission was granted for a specific redevelopment on that adjoining site on Clifton Terrace. Number 6 Clifton Terrace (see photo) is to be abolished, with the replacement building having five floors: commercial unit on the ground floor, then two floors of offices topped by two residential floors. Number 4 Clifton Terrace is also growing with a new floor containing two flats. Details of these plans are on the Islington Council website and the approval included a requirement to introduce solar panels.

All told, the area is due to change hugely in the next few years, with taller buildings, more people living there and (hopefully) a new theatre. I am pretty hopeful about the overall impact, especially as the changes will see some of the derelict and litter strewn stretches change for the better. The likely influx of a large number of students would certainly change the feel of the community – and I think in a good way given how empty the area is so often. What would be a shame is if the knock-on effects on places such as Stroud Green Road see an influx of bland high street brands rather than a boost for the highly varied local businesses.

Comments for or against the application must be submitted by 2nd September to planning@islington.gov.uk or Sarah Ricketts, Planning Department, London Borough of Islington, 222 Upper Street, London, N1 1XR. The application’s reference number is P101570.

The Park Theatre Newsletter July 2010

One problem encountered so far is that the water table is not very far below the ground floor, which means plans for an area beneath the stage are having to be dropped and the interior design changed round (so that, for example, actors can get round off stage from one side of the stage to the other without now being able to use the under-stage area). You can see from this photo just how high up the water comes underneath the building:

At the moment the site is a big building site, with some preliminary work being done before the planning application gets considered. That is most likely to happen in June.

Although there are two other new theatres planned for the area, both of those have a particular educational / young people angle, which does seem to leave a gap for this third new one. I’m not an expert on theatre business models, but it was reassuring to hear Jez talk about how there is a different niche for this theatre to appeal to from those being to be built at a local school and at the old Hornsey Baths.

It was also good to hear the concerns about ensuring that the building was not too obtrusive for people living in the residential area to the north of the site and also the desire to have a facarde on Clifton Terrace that adds something to the street even when the theatre is closed – rather than just a barrier of metal shutters.

All in all, looks a good project that will be a boon for the area and it’ll be nice to have a theatre located between tube station and home.

With a local school being in the middle of opening its own theatre and plans to turn the old Hornsey Baths building into a theatre too, we could be about to have an abundance of theatres in the area.

I visited the exhibition about the Clifton Terrace on Saturday, meeting several of the people behind the scheme. They all seemed committed, pleasant people, though I was slightly surprised at their apparent paucity of knowledge about the other theatre plans in the area. They were very happy to enter into detailed discussion about the plans, such as with one neighbour who was concerned about where people would stand outside smoking – outside the new building or drifting along the road to be outside residential properties.

The proposals include a higher building that the current one, incorporating several residential flats which will help fund the overall development.

I’ve asked for some of the information given out at the exhibition in electronic form, but in the meantime here’s a photo of the mock-up of what the new front on Clifton Terrace would look like: