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Old people’s home is protected by covenant
AN old people’s home at the centre of a closure row was intended to protect the vulnerable for another half century.
The crucial covenant 15 (pictured) was supposed to ensure that the 28-room Macinstosh House in Beaumont Street, Marylebone, remained an old people’s home until it expired on April 3 2054.
The block was shut down in March after the council deciding bringing it up to new health and safety standards would cost £800,000 and be too expensive.
Lead housing member Cllr Angela Harvey said it had become impossible to house elderly people because of the building’s state of disrepair.
The 99-year lease was bought in 1955 using funds from the estate of Lady Macintosh who is described as “a tireless campaigner for the old people of the Borough” on a plaque inside the building that is named after her.
She was a good friend of Lucy Nettlefold, former Tory Alderman of Marylebone Borough Council at the time.
The agreement between landlords Howard de Walden and the former Alderman of the old Marylebone Borough Council – stating the premises should be “used and occupied for the purpose only of old people’s dwellings” – has been broken.
A copy of the covenant was being studied by Andrew Dismore MP a former leader of the opposition on Westminster Council this week.
Sante Zanello, a 69-year-old former top West End chef, refuses to leave the 28-room building.
He is sharing the four-storey building with a caretaker. |
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