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Ealing office corridor showing proximity of housing |
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The "office corridor" is the stretch of the Uxbridge Road between the
Ealing Broadway and West Ealing, between Longfield Avenue at the Town
Hall and St Leonards Road/Culmington Road by the fire station. It is
also known as the "boulevard" or "business/office quarter" in Ealing
Council's development plan, where it is designated as an area for the
majority of office space in Ealing.
The area was developed during the 1960s with offices that replaced the
Victorian and Edwardian houses that originally lined this section of
Uxbridge Road. It mainly consists of purpose-built blocks of varying
heights, of which the most prominent is the vacant 15 storey Westel
House, designed by Richard Seifert of Centrepoint fame. Non-office
buildings include Longfield House which is mainly flats and Cavalier
House which was converted to flats a few years ago. A new Travelodge
has opened and work has started at 22-24 Uxbridge Road, for which
planning permission was granted in 2008 for a hotel and data centre.
An important question, raised most recently by the Tibbalds review
of the Town Centre, surrounds the suitability of this part of Ealing as
a location for new office development. In SEC's view, while it is
essential to retain a strong commercial presence in the town centre,
there are arguments for concentrating this closer to Ealing Broadway
station. Our rationale is as follows:-
- The
office corridor is over 400 metres or at least ten minutes walk from
the station. This distance discourages workers from commuting by public
transport, and is inconvenient for business visitors arriving by tube
or train. Offices in the corridor do not therefore benefit from the
town centre's greatest strength - its accessibility by public
transport.
- There
is substantial capacity for extra rail travel to Ealing Broadway,
especially inwards travel at peak times. This capacity will be further
enhanced with Crossrail.
- While
the office corridor is well served by buses running east-west, most
buses running in a more north-south direction don't go along the
Uxbridge Road but terminate at Haven Green. This necessitates a change
of bus or a longer walk than to more centrally located offices.
- Car
travel to offices has to be discouraged rather than increased, as any
more growth would add to the present heavy congestion on the approach
roads to central Ealing at peak commuting times, as well as adding to
local air pollution.
SEC
believes that the relatively poor accessibility of the office corridor
has contributed to its high vacancy levels. If new offices were to be
located at more central sites there could be further conversions of
existing buildings in the corridor into flats or for use for
educational purposes, especially tertiary education and training
centres. There would also be a market for good quality student
accommodation to support these uses.
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