WALTHAMSTOW: Cinema and flats proposed for Arcade Site (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAMSTOW: Cinema and flats proposed for Arcade Site

4:34pm Friday 15th July 2011 in News By Daniel Binns

A MULTIPLEX cinema and flats form the centrepiece of plans to transform Walthamstow's Arcade Site.

The proposals, unveiled today as part of a public consultation, include a six-storey block of flats and retail units facing Hoe Street, along with a lower development facing High Street featuring the cinema.

A garden area for the flats’ residents will form the middle of the complex located on the roof of the cinema.

The development will contain 120 homes, of which half will be affordable housing.

It is expected that the retail units, on the ground floor, will be taken up by restaurant chains.

The plans have been drawn up by the Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA) in partnership with Hill Residential and Pollard Thomas Edwards Architects (PTEa) at the request of Waltham Forest Council.

ISHA will examine the results of today's consultation at Walthamstow Central Library and another event tomorrow, also in the library between 10am and 4pm, before coming up with final designs in September.

Campaigners who want the nearby former EMD cinema in Hoe Street to reopen as a cinema have previously criticised proposals to build a similar facility on the Arcade Site.

There were fears another cinema would be too much competition and could scupper their plans.

However, ISHA said that the members of the Waltham Forest Cinema Trust, which wants to buy the EMD and reopen it as a community venue, support its plans.

Its chair, former Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard, confirmed that the trust had met with ISHA and was now confident that two cinemas close together could co-exist.

He said: "We've always said we want to return the building to its original use, and that means a mixture of live performance and film.

"We've met with the council, ISHA and some interested cinema operators and we're pretty confident our proposals will work out OK. It's a matter of getting the programming right.

"For example in Islington you have Screen on the Green and a Vue multiplex in close proximity and they both offer different types of films."

Meanwhile UCKG, the church which owns the former EMD, is still considering its options over the future of the building after its planning application to convert it into a church was rejected.

ISHA plans to submit a planning application in October and construction will not begin until September 2012.

The development will not include any parking spaces. The Arcade Site, which is located on the corner of Hoe Street and High Street, has been derelict for nearly a decade following the collapse of multiple development schemes.

The proposals are currently only available to view at Walthamstow Central Library.

What do you think of the plans? Contact reporter Daniel Binns on 0779 547 6625 or via email at dbinns@london.newsquest.co.uk

Click here to follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Twitter