Martello Developments, who have acquired some substantial pieces of land both in and on the outskirts of Rye are about to reveal the second stage of their redevelopment of the warehouse area at Rock Channel. The first stage was the construction of five very large (and expensive) town houses on the bank of the river and adjacent to Strand Quay together with the re-alignment of the riverside path so that at high spring tides it is likely to be a submarine path.
The next stage is to be the construction of an arts centre on the site – so far as we understand at present – of the old auction rooms, and an artists impression is shown above. It is certainly an impressive-looking structure although it is difficult to judge the scale of it from the drawing.
At the moment, although the town has a few excellent art galleries, the performing arts often have to put up with locations which, owing to size, acoustics or other factors are not always the most suitable and a state of the art centre designed for all the arts could be an asset and draw in even bigger names than we sometimes have at the moment.
There is to be a public consultation on this and the site to be renamed Bridge Point Studios will be open for inspection of the plan and discussion with the developers on Saturday September 22 from 10am to 4pm.
The same company also own the old garage and pine warehouse site on New Winchelsea Road, where several attempts to build have been turned down by the planners, and have recently bought land on the South bank of the Tillingham opposite Rock Channel. A number of years ago there was an attempt to put a marina here, although we are now told that it has been bought with altruistic intentions of keeping it as open land.
Image Credits: Martello Developments .
Perhaps Martello Developments might want to either reinstate the footpath behind the Rock Channel houses, or get on and put in the new one which had planning permission granted many months ago. It’s a liberty to have been able to block access to the river for so long.
Second, regardless of whether or not they can get planning permission for the New Winchelsea Road site, they should smarten it up. It’s a total dump.
This proposal for an Arts Center by Martello Developments will I hope include a performance space that we desperately need for the Jazz Festival and The Arts Festival. The concert recently held in these buildings for the Nature Reserve gave an idea of what wonderful spaces these could be.
Take a look at D I A Beacon a fabulous contemporary art museum on The Hudson in Upstate New York. This will show you what can be done with very large rooms for Contemporary Art.
How one must agree with Peter Horne, by staging one of the headline acts Dionne Warwick, at the Details La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, is taking the identity of the festival away from our town, sadly past mistakes by some Councillors many years ago by allowing the demolition of a fine building The Regent Cinema, was in my mind a disgrace and robbed the town of a venue that could have accommodated these Super Stars, without having to travel out of town.
Do they have plans for the Quay Strand as well? I am concerned about the future of the local farmer’s market