The designs, from dpa architects, will also include cladding changes to the existing building which has consent to convert into 115 apartments under the permitted development scheme, and has apparently started work. Together the scheme will house 186 apartments.

The majority of the units will be flats, with 93 two bedroom apartments and 18 one bed flats, with a further 22 three bedroom flats. The houses will all be four bedroomed, and there will be seventeen of these in total. 16 of the flats are planned to be for intermediate tenure, with the rest being for the open market – either for sale or for private rent.

The site, on the western side of Sandgate Close and also fronting Crow Lane, was a former National Grid site but has been vacant for a number of years. On one side this back onto an existing road of terraced housing, and on the other a Royal Mail facility.

The planned houses will sit on the side of the site fronting the back gardens of existing houses, while the flats will be located in five  blocks located on the Northern, Eastern and Southern perimeters of the site.

The proposed design uses various shades of brick for both the apartment blocks and the houses. The houses are in short terraces with accommodation in the open-gable roof. The flatted blocks appear quite low rise with many at only four storeys, and it feels as if the developer could have pushed for a larger scheme, perhaps with a mansard roof providing an additional storey across the site rather than in just selected places.

Cedarmill Developments have submitted the plans which will see the construction of two one bed apartments, five two bed apartments and a three bed flat, if approved.

The site is roughly equidistant from Romford, Gidea Park and Emerson Park stations, giving future residents easy access to Crossrail 1 Elizabeth Line when it opens in a couple of years, as well as the overground line between Hornchurch and Romford which runs close to the site.

Form Architecture’s designs for the site utilise the unusually long back garden in order to create the new units, a precedent which has already been set in neighbouring properties. The site will be divided into two plots, one roughly where the current house is located and one at the back of the garden.

Both buildings will have a traditional suburban design with gable rooves, the main suggestion that this is something different will be the drive-through access road under the block which fronts the street.