Your article on the proposed new building at one corner of the Sheep Market, records a claim by the developer’s consultant that ‘historic documents show a large imposing building on the site previously’.
What building was that?
I can remember the site well from the 1930s onward, and there was no building on that corner during that time.
There was for many years an advertising hoarding there, following the curved inner edge of the pavement. It included a door, through which you could get access to the empty piece of ground between the hoarding and the Regent Cinema.
During the Second War, the brick air-raid shelter was built on that piece of ground.
The Regent Cinema itself did not extend on to the corner where the proposed building is indicated, and any case was not as tall.
At five storeys, the proposed building is over dominant and diminishes the old Sessions House, to the detriment of the character of the Sheep Market.
And, whilst one doesn’t want fake period-architecture there, the raw style presented makes no attempt to complement the existing nature of the area.
I hope the planners will take account of character as well as utility in this sensitive spot.
(Incidentally, during the war years the air-raid shelter was discreetly hidden, but always accessible, and was a well-known place for lovers to enjoy a bit of canoodling.)
John Tippler
Spalding
