17/01295/FUL

The Lodge 122 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7BP

14 June 2017

 Erection of 2 x 5-bed dwelling houses (Use Class C3). With provision of car parking and private amenity space.

While the applicant has attempted to relate the proposal to local styles and details and with the stated aim of introducing a ‘modern reinterpretation’ and to produce a dwelling ‘of its time’, what has emerged is almost industrial in appearance and as such is highly inappropriate in this location.

In particular, while the proposed materials pose no problems, the street elevation, which draws heavily on Banbury Road villas, is ‘flat’ and lacking in the relief provided by details and profiles of window and door surrounds, many of which project forward and are almost always on a relatively narrow front elevation, providing punctuation and interest. The roofline proposes gables and tall chimneys, again a local feature, but the chimneys in particular seem a pastiche of Victorian style and not a modern reinterpretation.  The building and the chimneys are both too tall.

One of the features which lend the original villas their appeal is that each one is individual and identifiably so – this ‘villa’ looks like one dwelling, not two, with very overbearing glazing across the front adding to this effect.

On grounds of both design and overall height, we recommend that this application should be rejected.