If you want to move a miserable door in your flat and your flat is within the Conservation Area she and her Conservation team will be down on you like a ton of artefacts, checking to ensure that your sad little Victorian door has not been damaged. 
The Royal Borough is home to UK's finest example of Art Deco design. It lies hidden in the about to be demolished Odeon Cinema, Kensington.
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| The Tea Room |
....and they are just a few of the many in the Dame's possession, taken just days ago.
The big questions...
- Has Claire Sutton, or any team member, inspected the building?
- Does she feel responsibility for preserving the interior of this outstanding example of Art Deco?
As a community, we should feel shame for our negligence in not placing a preservation order on the Odeon.
Claire Sutton...this is your chance to clear yourself of gross dereliction of duty.
Warrick and his Planning Committee decided to wreck it. There is nothing further to be said.
ReplyDeleteWe elected these turkeys to represent us so their decisions are our decisions at one remove. They are comprehensively wrecking our built environment and taking major short term decisions (eg buy to leave) that will destroy the future.
DeleteResidents have no one but themselves to blame. So stop moaning on the Hornet.
The Hornets Nest is the only place where democracy takes place concerning Kensington & Chelsea.
DeleteThe Dame should be calling for all residents to boycott the local tories give'em a kick up the proverbial.
Democracy takes place at the ballot box. Resident is right. Stop voting these people in.
DeleteRBKC Planning; The Mayor; Historic England (formerly English Heritage): I struggle to see the point of these people? Cash trumps culture every time!
ReplyDeleteToo true, lost Earls Court for good because none off these overpaid civil servants stood up and did anything.
DeleteEnglish heritage, sorry. Historic England, are slaves to developers.
Hate to say this, next year don't vote Conservative, vote independent or other this is the only to get councillors to pull up their socks.
Has anyone contacted English Heritage to ask why they gave it a certificate of immunity for listing until 2018 ?
ReplyDeleteI mean why 2018 they know it will be knocked down by then Mind you look at the fiasco of Earls Court , the guy who English heritage hired to do the report for listing who reported than Earls Court was of no significance and should be demolished just happened to have Capco and their planning agents DP9 ( Ms Flights best mates ) as clients of his firm, and English heritage didn't think there may be a conflict of interest ?
And why is it that RBKC will now refuse any normal person a bigger basement or lower one but will consider them for the super rich and the case of this development will allow a quadruple level/depth basement ?
It also seems odd that whilst deciding to many original features have gone to make it worthy of listing that no one has looked behind the many false walls and ceilings to see if they are still there which many suspect. Mind you we probably know the answer to that if they did they would find what they deny is there.
English Heritage are smelly don't forget Victorian Marlborough school knocked down for Mike Ashley.
DeleteThe Certificate of Immunity from listing was issued on the basis that certain historical features had already been destroyed (and therefore there was no need to list them).
ReplyDeleteThe photographs taken on Monday morning show that these features are still and were always in situ.
The important points that we wish to put across are that:
•HE / EH renewed their Certificate of Immunity from Listing based on a report by Feilden and Mawson
•This was commissioned by Northacre ( the then developer )
•The report stated that the original details of the 1926 cinema did not exist under more recent shop fittings
( these new photographs prove that that do ) including The Vaulted Ceiling the Dress Circle; the Proscenium arch with its masks / details ; The Tea Rooms
( both assumed lost ) and the reception area – The original interior was all there.
•The certificate of immunity from listing was therefore awarded erroneously
English Heritage say they can not list these newly discovered details BECAUSE of their own certificate of immunity - playing directly into the developer's hands
It is often stated that the developer is preserving the façade of the cinema. This is NOT TRUE. They are only retaining a fraction of the original façade. The towers/ marble staircases and all the recently uncovered original details are all to be demolished.
28,000 people signed the petition to save this building, mostly locals, the equivalent of half the adult population of the borough and they were ignored by the council.
Who exactly do they represent ?
We (residents) have no one to blame except ourselves. We voted the turkeys to represent us. Cllr gobble gobble Warrick is just one example of the puffers and wreckers that we have let loose on our community. The whole sorry circus is a dream for the brown envelope brigade.
DeleteOf course the pathetic pen pushers at English Heritage will take cover behind the bureaucratic speak of "we cannot over rule our own certificate of immunity".
Always remember Cllr Weale's immortal words. "We agreed to listen but not to hear".
We should make an example of English Heritage. Take them to Court for dereliction of duty, mischief, neglect and dishonesty. A high profile threat executed in the newspapers. Will put the fear of God into them and I guarantee they will find some bureaucratic speak to over rule or modify their certificate of immunity. The minds of these clowns can be very fertile when they feel threatened.
DeleteFat men sometimes move at great speed..........
DeleteIf English heritage issued a certificate then they should be able to rescind it if done in error or if they were misinformed and do so before a building has been demolished. Maybe it is about time EH hired their own in-house surveyors rather then hiring in commercial ones who are in bed with developers.
DeleteEnglish Heritage refused to make the report on Earls Court public written by Richard Coleman, City Designer, whose clients were DP9 and CapCo. Nearly everything at the Exhibition Centre was in good order and original.
ReplyDeleteWe have seen from todays Evening standard that 1926 interiors have been found at the Odeon so hopefully this has shown up RBKC, EH and developers their dirty dealings.
What is sad is that we have so many buildings lost which should never have been destroyed. English Heritage have to hold their hands up and say it is a fair cop.
Great to get the Evening Standard on the job. The puffers and turkeys only react when there is the threat of a scandal. And 1926 interiors destroyed is a HUGE scandal.
DeleteResidents must never forget the words of consultation expert, Cllr Weale, "We agreed to listen but not to hear"
Guy Oliver should stand as an independent for the Abingdon Ward next year.
ReplyDeleteIf he did he would win or severely dent the status quo.
DeleteTime for the Kensington Society to do some community work and redeem itself from their catastrophic intervention to support the Newcombe House developers in Notting Hill Gate.
ReplyDeleteThe society needs to take a loud public position with this new information about the Kensington Odeon. Newcombe House has caused severe reputational damage to KS and restitution is called for.