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Camden News - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 4 December 2008

Vicarage will stay put

Manse is saved from demolition

THE vicarage of a Baptist church made famous by poet John Betjeman has been saved from the wrecker’s ball.
Developers currently working to convert the church, in Highgate Road, into luxury flats applied in September to pull down the Victorian manse and replace it with a five-storey block of flats.
But the Town Hall received a raft of objections and conservation officers recommended the scheme be dismissed.
Patrick Lefevre of the Dartmouth Park Conservation Area Advisory Committee said he was pleased with the result – but was worried about the state of the church itself.
“This is obviously the right decision, and they have not a snowball’s chance in hell of a successful appeal,” he said. “We are really anxious about the chapel facing yet another winter without a roof and windows and about the neglect of Grove House Lodge (sometime Manse) and look to the developer to get a move on and produce the high-quality restoration promised.”
The agent for owners Apteral Developments, Louise Brooke-Smith, had said the vicarage was past repair. She said: “The applicant feels to restore it to its former glory is not a viable option. We could appeal, we are seeking further professional advice.”
Betjeman mentioned the church in his poem “Summoned By Bells” in which he speaks of seeing the church as he travelled by trolleybus up Kentish Town Road.
Among the reasons for refusal of the application were the architectural contribution the building made to the street and the new flats being too large and dominating.

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