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St. Agnes Place under threat

Lambeth Borough Council is threatening the imminent demolition twenty-two Victorian houses on St. Agnes Place, Vauxhall, London SE11, SAVE Britain's Heritage has told Sapling.

According to SAVE, this is a precise repeat of Lambeth's actions on 20th January 1977, when it purposely damaged eleven of the 26 houses on St Agnes Place it then hoped to demolish, with the aim of putting them beyond repair.

Adam Wilkinson, Secretary of SAVE, told Sapling.info:

"Lambeth, which owns the houses, forcefully evicted squatters from the site earlier this week, apparently resulting in one hospitalisation. The squatters had been there for thirty years, and the buildings are consequently in reasonable condition - wind and weather tight and structurally sound. Lambeth is currently seeking approval - from itself - of the details of demolition the demolition of 52 - 74 and 75 - 91 St Agnes Place.

"Lambeth's intention is to create a clear site. This site will then be handed over to a housing association. However there are no plans in place for any replacements.

"Lambeth's draft Unitary Development Plan specifically seeks the retention of these buildings. (Policy MD069).

"SAVE Britain's Heritage strongly opposes the proposed demolition of these buildings. They are perfectly decent historic buildings in good condition, eminently and easily capable of conversion into a range of accommodation, as might be required by the housing association.

"It's a return to the bad old days. What does Lambeth think it is doing, giving itself permission to demolish a set of perfectly good historic buildings that is has identified as worth retaining, and destroying a community in the process.

"There are literally hundreds of examples of where these sorts of much loved historic buildings have been reused. For example, in 1975 Shepherdess Walk in Hackney was saved from demolition and restored by a housing association. The days of this sort of thing are unnecessary. Demolition is completely unnecessary."

Lambeth's earlier controversial attempt at eviction and demolition in 1977 was chronicled in "Our Vanishing Heritage" by SAVE's President Marcus Binney. After 200 police had been called in to protect a large mobile crane progressing down the street wielding a ball and chain, smashing in the fronts of houses one by one, Commander Patrick Flynn of the Metropolitan Police said "I don't want to be involved in anything like this again. We are not street politicians."

Published at Sapling.info: December 2005

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