Exploring Character Elements in Sycamore Drive and Penygloddfa

1. WHAT MAKES A PLACE SPECIAL? Newtown exercise Workshop output

2. Note • These outputs reflect the discussion at the seminar • The responses are those of the participating groups as fed back in plenary rather than the product of a detailed analysis • The report therefore illustrates what a workshop of this kind can produce; it is not a finished discussion of either character area

3. Investigation • Brainstorm features in the built environment that contribute to an understanding of character • Suggest the features that are key to analysing any area of a town • Apply these generic features to an analysis of Sycamore Drive

4. Character elements • Building materials • Palette • Street layout (grid, etc) • Building line • Roof line • Density • Use/status/class • Variety/uniformity • Boundaries (hedges/railings)

5. Character elements • Relationship to topography • Continuity with earlier landscape features • Landscape treatment • Greenery • Amenity • Height/massing • Building style/date/uniformity • Fenestration detail • Survival of original features • Public and private space

6. Character elements • Movement patterns • Permeability/legibility • Pavements, footpaths, lanes • Use of rear to properties • Change of use • Adaptability

7. Penygloddfa

8. Penyglodda • Grid layout • 2-3 storeys • Materials: brick, render, slate, cast iron • Building line directly to pavement • Surviving original detail (porches, doors, window detail) • Lower windows sash/upper casements • Back to back, high density, terraces • Use: residential/handloom weaving lofts • Use: some “factories” (conversions)

9. Penygloddfa • Some gaps in fabric • Topography (sloping site) • Layout reflects earlier field boundaries • Uniformity of period linked to development of handloom weaving and growth in E 19C/uniformity of style • On-street parking • Yards to rear (note openings to yards) • Lack of street trees; plot rears and vacant sites adapted to gardens/green space

10. Penygloddfa • Little modern infill • Sharp boundaries to character area and separation from Edwardian and later upslope and to W • Higher status residential in Crescent St? • Corner shop, pub, museum • Compact area • Wide streets • Attractive detailing (brick, timber detail) • Some Regency features to more pretentious units: arches, hoodmoulds, doorcases)

11. Sycamore Drive

12. Sycamore Drive 1984-94

13. Sycamore Drive • Part of private housing estate: contrasts with public housing of 1970s (predominant in modern Newtown) but part of recent expansion as service and retail centre • Development in phases (Beechwood Drive/Brynglas Ave earliest, pre 1994); still building 2009 at NW end of Sycamore Drive (laid out parallel to Old Barn Lane post 1994) • Spine road/culs de sac • Follows contours of hillside • Mainly semi-detached, some link with front and rear gardens

14. Sycamore Drive • Wide, curving spine road • Mainly two storey but recent three-storey town houses • Brick (some variation of shade/palette), uPVC • Uniformly residential • Individual treatment of frontages/gardens • Some conversion of front gardens to hard standing • Later development is denser • Variety offered by variation of house type and individualisation of private space, but not locally distinctive

15. Sycamore Drive • Distant from amenities • Car dependent/wide streets • Parking in garages/hard standing • Recent town houses have no front garden space to reflect needs of multiple car ownership • Limited connection with earlier street pattern • Typically L20C/E21C suburban: “anytown” • Backed by farmland and hillside – attractive urban edge setting • Solar panelling reflects adaptation in energy supply by individual owner