PlanningAlerts

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1. 10 Victoria Street is an important part of the retail history of Victoria Street. The shops at Victoria Street have been a community focal point for many decades housing bakers, grocers, butchers and even a bank. Sadly, it has been neglected on Council’s watch for many years. Trees have been removed. Tagging is endemic. Efforts to have the retaining wall at Lewisham Station included in IWC’s Perfect Match program have fallen into a bureaucratic black hole. The last viable café on Victoria Street, Trainspotting, recently folded (hopefully, a new tenant is installed quickly).

   Positively though, there are some green shoots of a revival with a proposed Bakery/Patisserie at 8A Victoria Street and a DA for a new Gallery space at 24 Victoria Street.

   Victoria Street can be a community meeting point again as a discrete local food/retail precinct, but also has potential as a creative/arts hub (given existing businesses like Corban & Blair and Wood Paper Silk - and the new gallery). The proposed new Patisserie and a potential new café will provide an important food/retail anchor for the precinct to start thriving again. However, this potential will only be realized with significant support from Council. This must include a concerted effort to preserve the remaining character of the precinct from further decline.

   This extends to keeping the old awnings on Victoria Street. Awnings appear along Railway Terrace and all the way down Victoria Street, from:
   • 2-12 Victoria Street
   • 15 & 15A Victoria Street
   • 20-24 Victoria Street

   Marrickvile DCP part 9.5 Strategic Context - Lewisham South has as its primary objective to ‘protect and preserve contributory and period buildings within the precinct and require their sympathetic alteration or restoration’. Further there is a desire to ‘protect significant streetscape and/or public domain elements within the precinct including landscaping, fencing, open space…kerbing...’ etc.

   The Heritage & Environmental Reports provided by the applicant wrongly assert that this part of Victoria Street is ‘predominantly residential in character’. That is patently not the case, the areas between 2-10 Victoria Street and 1-15 Victoria Street are quite clearly a retail precinct and have been for decades. The buildings between 2-10 Victoria Street in particular remain a largely consistent shopfront row with obvious heritage features (albeit in a poor state of repair). In fact, the awnings provide a visual marker distinguishing the old shopfronts from residential areas further along Victoria Street.

   The awnings are an aesthetic feature and an important signpost to Victoria Street’s retail history. It is important they remain to preserve the character of the precinct as old shopfronts, to avoid it from becoming just a bland residential strip.

   More practically, the awnings also provide protection from the elements for retail customers and for commuters accessing the rail station. The awnings contribute to the conviviality of the precinct and will be key to its future if it is to thrive.

   We are concerned that the removal of the awning is just a step towards removal of the buildings, and opportunistic conversion of the space to characterless residences or offices. This will significantly reduce the amenity of the area as an important community meeting point.

   Lewisham is growing. There has been a significant influx of people given the developments in Lewisham West (which are ongoing). Footfall around Lewisham Station is increasing as we move out of the pandemic. There is significant opportunity for new street level food/retail in this precinct.

   We strongly object to the removal of the awning. The owners of the property should be required to either:
   i) Repair the existing awning, parapet and wall; or
   ii) Replace the awning with an awning of similar style and size, consistent with the other awnings on the street.

   The existence of layering in the Heritage Report is significantly overstated and the subject property substantially retains character and heritage features. The response to the neglect of the heritage value of these properties, should not be to support further neglect or destruction - but to promote better maintenance, upkeep and preservation.
   Ironically, the Heritage and Environmental Reports submitted by the Applicant cite the absence of an awning at 10A as justification for removing the awning at 10 Victoria Street, both owned by the applicants. It would seem a perverse outcome that the neglect of the property at 10A owned by the applicants, should support the removal of structures at number 10 also owned by them. Council should require the owners to take responsibility for restoration of both sites.

   Owners should not be allowed to shirk their responsibilities by simply destroying or removing structures. This empowers owners to cynically allow their properties to fall into a state of disrepair to justify condemnation and destruction of old buildings and features. Inevitably, they are replaced with cheap new buildings that are not in keeping with the character of the street - at a significant profit to the owners, but to the detriment of the local community. Removing the awning will be cheap for the owners, but costly for the community.

   The public interest is served best by maintaining the awning and the building’s façade features. Safety issues can be addressed through sympathetic repair or reinstatement. The only justification for removal of the awning is that it is a cheaper option for the owners; it does not serve the community interest.
   The decline of Victoria Street has to be stopped.

2. The integrity of the awnings should be preserved to retain the heritage appearance of the area. We have lost too much history and it can never be replaced.

3. The retail premises along Victoria Street should be preserved in keeping with the heritage of the street

4. I support this DA. It's just an awning and it's in danger of falling if it's not removed or repaired. And the owner wants to remove it.

   One objection to this DA went on for several paragraphs about how important the awning is to the community but about 2/3 through the post what seems like the real reason for the objection is revealed: "We are concerned that the removal of the awning is just a step towards removal of the buildings, and opportunistic conversion of the space to characterless residences".

   I don't think a slippery slope argument is a good enough reason to deny the removal of an awning.
   In fact I would support the removal of the entire building if someone had proposed a block of affordable housing units go in its place. What a great spot for them, right next to the train station. It would certainly be an improvement on a dilapidated, boarded-up old shop that adds absolutely no value to the community.

5. Victoria Street, Lewisham is a vital street in the map of Inner West heritage. It is the main thoroughfare of Lewisham village and should not be allowed to degenerate into just another residential road.
   It has the architectural potential to regain its streetscape of small businesses if so encouraged. It has a special atmosphere which can become a draw not just for locals but for those coming to enjoy the Inner West from further afield. And the proximity of the station allows such ingress.
   The unique charm of the Inner West is as a collection of villages like Marrickville, Summer Hill, and Balmain which are protected from the roaring highways which have destroyed other suburbs - such as St Peters.
   Lewisham is one such special place and it's centre should be stimulated rather than being allowed to degenerate.
   Buyers who have taken the opportunity to purchase here should accept their responsibility to keep the shops with their awnings which signal the centre of this delightful neighbourhood.
   The council can encourage this by allowing the street to become more pedestrian friendly, encouraging businesses to come out into the street, and stimulating outdoor activities such as guided walks and markets, especially at the weekend. Anyone who wants to do arts and crafts or musical activities in the street should be encouraged with small grants.
   Small council facilities such as libraries should be in places such as this rather than in the large modern developments - as Dulwich Hill library.
   Any permission should be in keeping and sympathy with the overall meaning of the street and it is clear that the Victoria Street shops with their awnings have a special character and should be preserved in line with council heritage policy.
   With vision and sensitive planning, villages with the essential bones already there like Victoria Street like this can become jewels in the Inner West crown.

6. This site has been neglected for many years. No doubt another unsympathetic development is on the way, don't know about it being affordable though. Hopefully I am proved wrong but sadly heritage carries very little weight now. A few years back the catchcry was preserve the villages of the inner west. Now developers and politicians are doing their best to destroy what remains of them.

7. I do not support the removal of the awnings. Earnest attempts should first be made to repair them and then if unsuccessful, to be replaced with awnings that are sympathetic to, and in line with, the heritage features of the street and the whole area. I believe it is unfair to allow removal of important heritage features due to neglect over so many years, it should not be allowed as a work-around on the heritage zoning of the area.

8. Just because the awning is unsafe, it does not mean the solution is removal. The obvious solution is to repair it and the supporting structures. As many of the submissions have pointed out, the shopfronts at this part of Victoria Street have historical and cultural significance. The awnings are an important part of the retail heritage and will hopefully be part of its future revival.

9. This awning looks terrible and there is zero retail in the Lewisham ‘shopping’ precinct. Keeping a dilapidated overhang is not going to change that. Tear it down.

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