Richard Bingham continues “Unlisted”, his monthly series of articles looking at the unsung heroes of Shoreham’s architecture. Here he takes a deep dive into Ropetackle.
For some people in Shoreham, this is where it all went wrong. This is where the gentrification began. Where greedy developers began to eye up a quiet coastal town, and giant blocks of flats began to spring up all around.
However, as the Western Harbour Arm is concreted over, now might be a good moment to reappraise the Ropetackle.
Perhaps, rather than the moment it all went wrong, the Ropetackle is a pointer to what should be happening now.
History of the Site
As this photograph from an excellent article on the history of Ropetackle on shorehambysea.com reveals, by the 1980s the semi-derelict site then known as Ropetackle was mostly devoted to car parking.
As early as 1997 there were major proposals to redevelop the brownfield site.
Eventually, it was taken on by large homes developer Berkeley and the now defunct South East England Development Agency. Completed in 2006, the new Ropetackle became a mixed development of 177 waterfront homes, an arts centre, a large retail space and Basepoint, an office rental company. It still occupies the triangular site bordered by the River Adur, the railway line and the northern end of the High Street.
21st Century Fishing Village
From the river, the design by architects PRC deliberately evokes a fishing village. With their pointed gables, the pair of tall buildings to the left resemble the towering huts fisherman used for drying their nets in, of the kind still to be found further along the coast at Hastings. Elsewhere, the picturesque roofline is pleasingly varied, with different heights to many of the buildings and a mixture of hipped and pitched rooves.
The materials used are equally eclectic, a mix of red brick, timber cladding to emphasise verticals, and render painted in different colours. Detailing includes the use of brick eyebrows above the windows of some flats. The varied facades are unified, however, by the distinctive blue-painted balconies.
Rather than one huge building, Ropetackle is made up of a number of smaller buildings. The visual effect along the waterfront in particular is of a village that has grown up over a long stretch of time.
Low-Rise, High Density
The Ropetackle is high-density but low rise; the majority of buildings are three or four storey. The development achieves that higher density by arranging its units along terraced streets and around courtyards. For a long time, it has been known that high density does not necessarily involve high rise. The Georgian terraces of Brighton, for example, contain a higher density of dwellings per acre than the canyons of Manhattan. In Berlin, the apartment buildings arranged around courtyards achieve something similar.
It is a shame, then, that the terraces and courtyards of Ropetackle are largely given over to vehicular access and car parking. Had the developers sacrificed some of the site’s profitability for the sake of building a car park on its periphery – albeit an inconvenience to residents, especially in winter – these public spaces might have been used to create more green spaces for residents, and places for children to play.
Good for Business
The face presented to the town at the end of the High Street is a lot less picturesque than the waterfront. Here, the tranquillity of the river is replaced by something a lot more urban and hard-edged. Perhaps this is appropriate: the façade forms a defensive bulwark against the busy traffic junction at the eastern edge of the Norfolk Bridge. In addition, behind this frontage is Basepoint, the office village where small companies can rent office space.
The massing here is rather clumsily handled. In a displeasing example of asymmetry, the glass stair tower to the left is jarred rather than echoed by the curved glass to the right.
Here, too, the variety of materials becomes something of a bunfight. The Sussex flint on the ground floor and the timber cladding of the tower are incongruous with the south-facing sunshade – or brise soleil, a Brutalist concrete trope – that masks so much of the façade. The attempt to integrate vernacular materials with modernism doesn’t quite come off. Similarly, the clock tower seeks to distinguish this as an important civic building. Yet it has been many centuries since the citizens of Shoreham needed a public reminder of the time.
In Praise of Ropetackle
When the Ropetackle site was developed, local residents lobbied hard for an Arts Centre. The negotiations that followed have become the stuff of local legend. Slowly but surely, an Arts Centre with some flats behind it became…177 new homes with an Arts Centre tacked on the front!
But Shorehamites should be prouder than that. Thanks to the tireless efforts of its management and volunteers, the Ropetackle Arts Centre continues to thrive. It can claim to have put Shoreham on the map, attracting visitors from Worthing, Brighton and further afield. With its varied programme of events and its café and bar, the Ropetackle Arts Centre has enriched the town no end.
Along the riverside, there is a well-maintained public footpath that features sculpture and attractive planting. For many, one of the consolations of lockdown was walking along that path and enjoying the wonderful river views if offered.
So Ropetackle has a lot to recommend it. A mixed use development, it has regenerated a brownfield site via low-rise, high-density housing. It has become an asset to the community economically, culturally and environmentally. As such , Ropetackle is an example of what is called Community Wealth Building.
It remains to be seen whether the same can be said of the new developments along the Western Harbour Arm.
Readers might like to know that the next edition of The Journal, the flagship publication of The Shoreham Society that is distributed free to members, will take a critical, in-depth look at the Western Harbour Arm. How far has the example of Ropetackle been followed in the newest apartment blocks on Shoreham’s riverside?
