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Camden News - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 24 July 2008

Architect Robert Adam

Saving Athlone House: ‘Not impossible, but not worth it’

Top architect says restoration is out, but campaigners point to original plan

ATHLONE House is only good for the wrecker’s ball and nobody with the money needed to restore the Kenwood mansion would bother wasting their cash on the project, according to the architect who designed an £80million redevelopment of the site.
Classical architect Robert Adam has drawn up plans for a new nine-bedroom home which will replace the 1871 pile.
But his designs have caused controversy and he has been forced to defend the proposals in the face of criticism from conservationists.
Before the NHS sold the 12-acre site for £16m in 2004, a planning brief was drawn up with the help of the Athlone House Working Group, which included representatives from the Highgate Society.
It ruled new flats could be built on the grounds of the house – as long the as the current home was restored.
But it has since been sold again – and the new owner, due to put in a planning application within a fortnight, is not looking to follow the brief.
Mr Adam said: “To take Athlone House back to anything like it once was would cost £15m, and you would end up with a building that is no use for modern living. It is not impossible but it is not worth it.”
The New Journal was given an exclusive tour of the home this week: it is normally strictly off limits to the curious and guarded by a security team.
Athlone House started life as the home of a chemical manufacturer and was then home to shell-shocked veterans of the First World War trenches. Until it was sold five years ago, it had provided shelter for older people suffering from dementia. Right now it is only home to a kestrel who lives on the roof.
“I do not like to see a building pulled down,” Mr Adam said. “Buildings contain the memories of what has happened inside them, and to lose that makes me sad – but that is the way it goes sometimes.”
He insists a restoration project is not an option and the conclusion is shared by his client, who he declined to identify.
Mr Adam added: “There are still some interesting features – alcoves, panelling, windows, doors. But it is very typical of its kind. At the time it was built, a lot of money was spent on it but the NHS did not do the building any favours. I refute the idea that I’d come along and simply tear the place down.”
But Highgate Society chairman Robin Fairlie said: “The present proposals involves tearing up the conditions of the brief and demolishing Athlone House.
“You can’t give permission on the basis you will do X and then not do X. The previous conditions must be honoured.”

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