Journal

In a quiet leafy street in South London something bizarre is taking place. A mysterious happening the likes of which would bamboozle David Copperfield or Derren Brown. Desirable, luxury houses on Alleyn Park are DISAPPEARING.

It started with No.2. A large modernist detached 300sqm house, designed by Austin Vernon & Partners and constructed by Wates as part of Dulwich Estate’s mid-century mini housing boom disappeared virtually overnight. One day it was there, a very attractive, 4-bedroom house. The next, gone. It sounds bizarre, but it’s true.

This was followed by a planning application to replace No.23. This rather attractive mid-century 5-bedroom house measuring a mere 251sqm clearly wasn’t big enough. In 2023 consent was granted by Southwark to demolish it and replace it with a much larger 489sqm house.

Then No. 17 disappeared. This substantial 5-bedroom detached house has now been turned to rubble. This is to be replaced with a 6-bedroom house in neo-Georgian style measuring a mere 613sqm.

Now an application has been submitted for the demolition of No.14. Another mid-mod house from the Austin Vernon & Partners x Wates x Dulwich Estate collab. Bizarrely No.14 already has a consent for a substantial rear extension, but the applicant wants to go further, demolishing the existing house altogether to make way for a new-build replica that includes the consented extensions.

All of these houses are located within the London Borough of Southwark and are part of the Dulwich Estate. Approval needs to be sought from both to carry out development. In March 2019 Southwark declared climate emergency. Meanwhile the Dulwich Estate has a sustainability commitment to reach net zero by 2050 including ‘an extensive retrofit programme for Estate-owned properties.’ The GLA declared climate emergency in 2018.

Yet none of these bodies seem to have the policies in place to resist the demolition of perfectly good, large, attractive family homes. It’s absolutely extraordinary, given the climate crisis, given the impact that we know construction has within that, and given the huge amount of embodied carbon being lost in these projects that Southwark and Dulwich Estate are just allowing it to happen.

Two of these projects are by the same architects, who breezily state in their Design & Access Statements that they are signatories to Architects Declare and follow the principles set out in the RIBA Sustainability Outcomes Guide which unfortunately demeans both.

Of course, the current VAT situation is part of the equation. Why pay 20% VAT to extend your house when you could build it anew and pay no tax? This is a farce.

Southwark, Dulwich Estate and GLA should implement policies which prioritise extension and refurbishment over demolition and new build and put a stop to the amazing disappearing house phenomenon.