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Battle to save vacant Lyndhurst Hall lost
THE fight to save Lyndhurst Hall – the vacant Victorian
community centre in Gospel Oak – has been lost.
Developers are working out a date for when the building in Warden
Road will be bulldozed after councillors agreed it could be
flattened on Thursday night.
The condemned hall (pictured) will be replaced by three new
blocks of flats – one of which will be an eight-storey
tower – owned and managed by the Notting Hill Housing Group.
Councillors ruled that the prospect of scores of new affordable
homes was too good to pass up.
Former Town Hall leader Councillor Dame Jane Roberts said the
new development would ease overcrowding.
She said: “The biggest issue that people come to me in
surgeries is housing transfer.”
Labour colleague Councillor Dave Horan added: “It is slightly
regrettable to lose a Victorian building but it is not especially
distinguished. It has been in a deplorable condition for many
years and its getting worse. We cannot afford to improve it.”
Lib Dem councillor Margaret Little said that the flats could
have been built behind the Hall – saving the front of the
building.
She said: “I would like to see that façade retained
but I wouldn’t like the housing to be lost. It could be
a good thing to keep that façade.”
Camden Council’s planners said that there was no policy
to keep the centre because it was not listed for protection.
Although several nearby residents have raised concerns about
the loss of the hall over the past three months, only one protester
spoke at the final planning meeting that decided its fate.
Conservation campaigner Terence Ewing, a regular speaker at
council planning meetings, said: “The new designs are rather
brash, its sort of a Lego structure. I would submit that there
is a complete clash with the overall street scene already in
place. That would be grounds for refusing this application.”
Planning official Adele Castle told the meeting: “We cannot
prevent its demolition, its not listed anywhere of making a
positive contribution and we have no policy to ensure its retention.”
Lyndhurst Hall was sold by Camden Council two years ago after
officials ruled that the cost of repairing the building had
spiralled. It has been used in the past as a community centre
and once operated as a popular youth club opened by comic Sir
Norman Wisdom. |
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