Constable Simon Crowcroft said the existing General Hospital site could become the hub to transform Gloucester Street and its surroundings.
Mr Crowcroft, a fierce advocate during the hospital debate of increasing green space in St Helier, has called for emphasis to be put on improving the Gloucester Street area for the community.
‘The town has taken an enormous amount of housing so far and unused buildings at the hospital should be used for community facilities,’ the Constable said.
‘I have always maintained that this should be an important space for the public. There are some buildings which will need to be retained – it would be nice to see that the granite buildings are put to community use, perhaps for the arts. There have been suggestions that it might be used as a gallery, for example. I would support that.
‘The rest of the site should be open space. There has always been an assumption that there should be open space and it would be great if it was possible to link across from Parade Gardens, and extend down Gloucester Street as part of improvements to the streetscape there,’ Mr Crowcroft said.
The Constable, who is a member of the government-appointed Regeneration Steering Group which developed the successful proposals in Sand Street and the Midvale Road improvements currently under consultation, suggested that that body might lead with proposals for public consultation at Gloucester Street which could transform the area into a civic space of quality.
He said he would like to see the connection between Parade Gardens and the entry to the Waterfront strengthened but he stressed that – as he had argued when the People’s Park had been suggested as the site for the new hospital – improvements to Gloucester Street and Parade Gardens ‘could not be the equivalent of the People’s Park’.
Mr Crowcroft has argued that increased housing in the parish should be accompanied by a respect for, and an increase in, the amount of green space for parishioners. That space could be complemented by an appropriate community use for the original granite building on Gloucester Street, he said.
The existing hospital complex comprises a cluster of more recent development around the main building, rebuilt in 1860. It enjoys the highest Grade 1 listed status on the Planning Register, where it is described as: ‘An important example of a substantial mid-19th century general hospital typical of the period, retaining most historic features, with outstanding masonry work. The entrance lodge is an unusual building of high quality, retaining fine features in a muscular hybrid classical/neo-Norman style. Together a fine ensemble.’
