Appraisal

Nos. 2-18, Neal Street

The whole of this north-eastern side of Neal Street is occupied by the Odhams Walk housing development. Built by the former Greater London Council on the site of the former Odhams Press printing works. It was designed by the GLC’s Department of Architecture and Civic Design (Donald Ball, Group Leader and M.B. O’Conner, Job Architect) and built between 1974 and 1981. Though substantial in scale, its fragmented massing reduces its apparent bulk and respects the general skyline of the area. The use of a purple-brown brick is a humane material echoing the old stock brick used extensively in the area.

The overall development is of particular architectural interest and contributes positively to the settings of the Covent Garden and Seven Dials Conservation Areas.

The ground floor shopfronts need careful control; simple glazing in dark coloured metal frames seems most appropriate. Over-scaled fascias and brash signs should be avoided. The Rockit frontage on Shelton Street and the Food-Wine-News frontage on Endell Street are examples of what not to do. The simpler fully glazed shopfronts in Neal Street and Long Acre are more sympathetic and should be kept that way. There can be greater leeway in signs and lettering in a modern building of this type than on surviving or restored Georgian and Victorian shopfronts. New shop signs should be set back inside, behind the glazing and not applied to the facing brickwork as fascia signs or projecting, internally-illuminated box signs.