Please sign our petition to help try to stop Anish Kapoor, who owns a large studio at the back of houses on Camberwell New Road, building an extra floor on the studio and blocking our precious light & view, a valuable thing in our crowded city.

You'd think Anish Kapoor would understand the value of light, colour and social responsibility.

Across London residents are being rode rough shod by councils who value commerce over community. This is one example.

We feel the residents aren’t being listened to & we would like the opportunity of a public consultation where we all get a chance to put our views across. If this plan goes ahead it will have a huge effect on the residents quality of life.

Anish Kapoor has a large studio in Farmers Road, Camberwell. It backs onto a row of old Grade II listed Georgian buildings that run along Camberwell New Road. It’s a noisy, dirty road but with a lively mixed community, many long standing residents who love the area where they live.

Recently Anish Kapoor has put in a plan to Southwark Council to build another floor on top of his studio that will block the light and view from the back of the properties. This is the peaceful side of the houses, where you can appreciate the sun when it shines and have a view of the sky over South London. A welcome respite from the busyness of the main road. If you live & work in a city it’s the small thing that is so precious.

We are very upset & dismayed recent plans to build on top of the studios. We all sent in our objections to the council & have heard nothing however, apart from we discovered ourselves the plans have been amended. We can’t see any change, it'll still be harmful to the residents & we have only a very short time to try to do something about it.

No one at the council has been to visit any of the properties or noted the validity of our objections & Anish Kapoor or his representatives haven’t responded to our request to meet to discuss the plan.

We can’t understand how these plans can go through, especially as it will create a claustrophobic, prison like feel, with a real effect on our light and view.

The garden of our ground floor flat will be much darker with a huge flat wall built so close. Dan, who has lived in one of the affected buildings since 2002  & who can currently see the sky from 6 out of 9 windows from the rear of his maisonette, If the current plan goes ahead, will have ONLY 2 windows where he can see the sky from within his property! Lots more residents will have the same or similar problems.

We are aware of dodgy planning applications being pushed through in many London boroughs & there are a lot of  issues in London facing residents with imposing structures being built. Also, in this case, there is the unusualness of the planning management meeting being made behind closed doors within the council.

We are suspicious of foul play as it seems the final decision is being left to an internal board at the council’s planning department, and smell a rat as this type of application usually goes to a public consultation where we all get the chance to speak.

Living in listed buildings near a conservation area, us residents have to adhere to strict regulation, aiming to protect the environment where we live with our neighbours. It doesn’t seem like this applies when a rich & famous artist, who has a light industrial unit bordering our road could potentially ruin this old period London conservation area for the residents. 

Planning Application:
Anish Kapoor Planning Application on Southwark Planning Portal

Useful Contacts

Planning case officer:
Craig Newton: 020 7525 4004

Anish Kapoor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anish_Kapoor
http://anishkapoor.com/
info@kapoorstudio.com

Architects:
Casey Fierro
http://caseyfierro.com/

Local Councillor:
Cllr Kieron Williams
Chair of Camberwell Community Council
Labour Councillor for Camberwell Green Ward
Email: kieron.williams@southwark.gov.uk
Phone: 0796 8989 404
Twitter: @kieronjwilliams
http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=50000544

Local MP - Harriet Harman
Harriet.Harman.mp@parliament.uk
02072194218