New Ash Green

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 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, 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]

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. In addition the shopping centre has become run-down; plans are now being put forward to redesign it^[4]

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v • d • e Towns and villages in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England

Ash • Bough Beech • Brasted • Brasted Chart • Chartwell • Chevening • Chiddingstone • Chiddingstone Causeway • Chipstead • Cowden • Crockenhill • Crockham Hill • Dunton Green • Edenbridge • Eynsford • Farningham • Fawkham • Fawkham Green • Fordcombe • Four Elms • Godden Green • Halstead • Hartley • Hever • Hextable • Hodsoll Street • Horton Kirby • Ide Hill • Kemsing • Knockholt • Leigh • Markbeech • New Ash Green • Otford • Penshurst • Ridley • Riverhead • Seal • Seal Chart • Sevenoaks • Sevenoaks Weald • Shoreham • South Darenth • Sundridge • Swanley • Swanley Village • Toys Hill • Underriver • Well Hill • Westerham • West Kingsdown

List of places in Kent