Sir, – I hesitate to comment on Farnham developments now that I no longer have my office in the town and thus my finger as much on the pulse as I did. I am nevertheless encouraged to do so in the most general of terms in the light of Mr J Price's comments on Borelli and Falkner in his letter printed last week.
As a past resident of the town (1966-70), having built my office there in 1967 and having developed such schemes as Lion & Lamb Yard, Borelli Yard, St Georges Yard and Craven and Maritime Houses and having acquired the bulk of Borelli's and Falkner's
developments when I acquired Borelli Estate Ltd, I feel I have sufficient involvement to make an observation.
Mr Price implies that Charles Borelli and Harold Falkner were great preservers of what was there before them. This is a little removed from the truth and they, along with other Farnham families like the Stevens of Stevens & Bolton, ran a most successful and extremely effective development company.
They did indeed maintain a lot of properties in their existing state but there are plenty which were given the Falkner "pastiche" treatment with bits of other buildings brought from far afield and tacked on. Look at 104a West Street which we still own and which used to house your sister publication, The Surrey and Hants News.
This is vintage Falkner with bits from a London property tacked on front and rear which makes it delightfully eccentric and much more interesting that it was in its original format.
Falkner's development of houses in Dockenfield display his delightful eccentricities to the full and combine bits from properties of every period.
All of these works were
carried out before the planning regulations and public opinion had the impact they now do and would of course have never been allowed to be executed in today's environment.
I have not kept sufficiently up to date with the whole East Street/Woolmead saga of which Brightwells is a part, but I have seen a proposed scheme by Michael Blower for Brightwells which seems
eminently sensible and rather fun à la Falkner, although I fancy it is not economical.
In any event it will be
impossible to find solutions for the constituent parts of this block in isolation. All the landowners and the council are going to have to realise that the only workable solution will come from them all pooling their land holdings so that a truly comprehensive plan can be evolved which will be appropriate to the present
economic climate and the needs of the town.
I do not see anything
happening to any of the
individual sites and only see salvation in a comprehensive scheme encouraged by a proactive and realistic planning authority but, of course, ultimately requiring the co-operation of all the land owners.
Farnham and all towns and cities will continue to require modification to take account of changing needs for it must be remembered that a town or city will only prosper if it adapts to its citizens' needs, the
alternative is to be preserved in aspic and become yet another attraction that cannot any longer attract sufficient visitors to be viable.
If people want to live in such places they will have to pay the price of enormously increased rates.
Michael D C C Campbell
Borelli Estate Limited
Shalden Park Steading
Shalden, Alton