The Yard We Did Not Build On
A covenant, not a planning condition, and the difference between the two.
Public space inside a private development is usually secured by a planning condition, which is to say by a promise that a future owner can apply to vary. Conditions are discharged, ownerships change, and gates appear. Everyone in this industry knows how that story ends because everyone has watched it.
At Thameside Yards the yard is secured by a covenant on the freehold. It binds every successor in title, it does not expire, and it cannot be traded away by a future owner who would rather have the area.
It cost us the ground floor of two elevations. We would do it again, and not for reputational reasons: a building on a yard that is genuinely public is worth more than a building on a courtyard that might one day be locked.