William Street Quarter | Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

The second phase of William Street Quarter is the first totally privately funded affordable social housing scheme in the UK. Three mews streets lined with family-sized brick terrace houses define the perimeter of the site once occupied by the notorious Lintons Estate in Barking, while a central 10-storey tower terminates a mansion-block lined boulevard.

The first phase of the same masterplan produced jointly with Maccreanor Lavington for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham with private sector partner Laing O’Rourke is the already complete. The site known as Anne Mews was completed in April 2011 and the 31 homes are now occupied. These are the first new council homes in Barking for 27 years

The second phase proposes 201 new homes for social rent. The Masterplan has been designed to concentrate the density of the scheme in the centre of the site with two six storey Mansion Blocks framing the Boulevard. A landmark ten storey tower is proposed at the end of the Boulevard to terminate the view. Mews streets are lined with two or three storey family houses, which complete the urban blocks and ensure that the higher density of the site is merged with the scale of the surrounding urban context.

Housing Mix
The masterplan provides for 100% affordable housing contained within a wide range of unit sizes - taking into consideration local need and the objective of providing mixed and balanced communities. Below is a breakdown of the housing typologies at William Street Quarter:

Mews Houses
The houses are either two or three storeys high and have wide frontages. Although the accommodation and layouts vary slightly between the different typologies, many of the features remain common. The entrances are recessed into the façade to provide shelter and privacy to the front door. To ensure that this recess is safe and is not considered as a security hazard, generous kitchen windows are located here and wrap around the recess to maximise opportunities for overlooking.

Living and dining rooms are located to maximise views onto the private garden at ground floor or indeed at first floor in the case of the larger four bed units.

Accessible WCs, which could be convertible into an accessible shower room, are located within the entrance area on the ground floor.

Mansion Blocks
The Duplex units in the Mansion Blocks have been designed to allow kitchen, living and bedrooms to have a range of aspects over the private courtyard or public boulevard.

At ground floor, duplexes are organised with the kitchen/dining room overlooking the boulevard, leading through to a living room and private garden which overlooks the courtyard.

On the upper floor, bedrooms are organised so they have aspect either to the boulevard or the courtyard.

Typical duplex units are organised with kitchen/dining room overlooking the courtyard, leading through to a living room with outboard external balcony which addresses the boulevard. Bedrooms are positioned on the upper floor of each duplex, and are organised so they have aspect to either the boulevard or the courtyards.

Tower
Different versions of flat typologies for this were tested during the early design stages, and the preferred solution was selected whereby the building accommodates only the smaller units, in the form of one bed dwellings, and that these are organised around a central core. The individual dwellings are located to benefit from all aspects around the core with corner flats providing dual aspect units with external balconies accentuating the corner of the Tower.

All houses are designed to CfSH level 4, and offer a variety of unit sizes and types to meet current and future needs of mixed and balanced communities

Material Strategy
Similar to Phase One, a high quality variegated brick has been selected as the main cladding material for its robustness and quality. Individuality has been achieved by the use of colour and alternative finishes. To aid orientation and navigation around the street, the façades of the Tower and Mansion Blocks are clad in re-cast stone panels with degree joints, texture and pattern which help break down the scale of the blocks.

Horizontally-banded precast concrete panels (a continuation of Laing O’Rourke’s Design for Manufacture and Assembly solution and a positive challenge to the stigmatisation of prefabricated housing) define the upper levels of the tower and mansion blocks, with projecting balconies, deep reveals and generously-sized windows helping to break down their mass.

Landscape/Public Realm
William Street Quarter’s landscape proposal provides a mix of private and communal amenity space at the heart of the residential blocks as well as a safe and attractive streetscape and homezone environment.

Car Parking
The development utilises on-street car parking in Mews home zones and main vehicle route of Kings Road / Linton Road and the design team has sought to maximise provision while not creating a development that is dominated by car parking.

The provision of 64 car parking spaces (including 10 wheelchair spaces and four car club spaces along with electric charging points) is considered appropriate in this location and considering the nature of the development where 59% of units are family dwellings where car ownership is more likely. Furthermore, the proposals include provision for 318 secure cycle spaces which is in accordance with the requirement set out in the London Plan. This is in addition to the 16 car parking spaces provided as part of Phase One Anne Mews.

William Street Quarter will be incorporated into a CPZ that covers a wider area within Barking Town Centre. A Management Plan is being developed with the Council to control how parking spaces within the development will be allocated to future residents. Residents of the 1 bedroom flats will have the option of utilising the London Road car park which is adjacent to the site.