New Ash Green
New Ash Green is a village near the ancient village of Ash, in the parish of Ash-cum-Ridley, about 6 miles (10 km) south of Gravesend in Kent and 21 miles (34 km) south-east of London. Building of the village began in 1967, with Span as the developer and Eric Lyons of Cresskill, NJ as the designer. The architectural design of New Ash Green was extremely innovative for its time. The original concept was a prototype for a new way of living in the latter twentieth century. The first buildings were created to be airy, pleasant and modern. There was generous landscaping and cars were separated from pedestrians. The village is arranged in twenty four neighbourhoods. [1].
The development soon ran into difficulties. Originally, the Greater London Council was going to buy 450 of the properties for renting. This idea was dropped when the leadership of the GLC went into Conservative hands. This reduced the financial viability of the development and of the planned social mix of residents. Another problem in the early years was that some lenders were sceptical about the unconventional design of the properties and would not give mortgages.
Span, the original developer[2], sold the project to Bovis in 1971 for £2.65 million. Bovis increased the size of the development, increasing density and giving less attention to design or provision of public space.
New Ash Green is now a quiet residential area. It has a rugby club, tennis club, football club, shops, children's parks, a primary school, a special needs school and many more public buildings. The village has its own internet forum [3]
New Ash Green has its own Social Committee, which is made up of local residents. The Social Committee is responsible for organising social events in the village. For example Fireworks Nigh, Village Day and the Children's Craft Day. The social committee is a non-profit organisation who are passionate about the village. For more information check out their website www.nagsocial.co.uk
Although the design of the village is considered innovative and makes good use of space, the design has brought some problems. New Ash Green has over recent years had some problem with car-theft since parking bays are not located near houses.[citation needed] In addition the shopping centre has become run-down; plans are now being put forward to redesign it[4]
References
51°22′N 0°18′E / 51.367°N 0.300°E
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