Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Crouch End Emergency - battle starts to save Earl Haig Hall
CALLING ALL CROUCH ENDERS and HARRINGAYERS!!!!
If you live in or near Crouch End N8 and want to help try to save the Earl Haig Hall - a community hall for all local residents - please come tomorrow for the start of a local campaign:
YESTERDAY AT AUCTION IT WAS SOLD TO A DEVELOPER FOR OVER £1M !!!
Here's some more info:
You may have heard that the Earl Haig Hall (the old British Legion building) in Elder Avenue in Crouch End was sold at auction yesterday. A local group of residents raised a very significant sum in the hope of buying the building and then setting up a charity to hire it out to local groups. Unfortunately they were outbid. The fear is the buyer is a developer who will want to convert it to housing and that would be a huge shame for the many local groups who would love to use a refurbished Earl Haig Hall. It would also be a breach of Haringey's planning policy which is to keep community buildings for that use unless there is clear evidence that there is no demand for them. That is clearly not the case in Crouch End!
The Hornsey Journal are very interested in the story and will probably run a front page article this Friday. They also want to take a photo of as many local residents as possible who would support continuing community use of the building. It would be great if as many of your members and friends as possible could come along to be in the picture as that will show the strength of feeling in Crouch End for not losing this lovely and important community building.
The photographer will be there tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 9.10 at the building in Elder Avenue next to the Queen's Pub.
Tags for Forum Posts: earl haig hall
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by RussellV on
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post code is N8 9TH and Earl Haig Hall would be 18 Elder Avenue - if it had a number!
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Permalink Reply by Andrew on
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Let's hope loads of people turn up to show we care about the future of this much loved building. The belfry alone makes it special. See you all tomorrow at 9am.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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I was there in spirit and friends (in the flesh) are in the photo.
Please post here when the next meeting is.
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Permalink Reply by Ruth on
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It's exactly a year since I put up a post about the former British Legion club being up for sale (27th Feb. 2011) I thought then that it would be sold off to developer and the hall lost from the community for good.
This is happening all over the country as pubs and clubs close down. They get sold and usually knocked down for housing or developed into something else. (We already have our own eg. of Queens Head pub being turned into a furniture shop.) It might be worthwhile to link up to other social/community movements that are trying to save such buildings for community use.
I want to wish you good luck but from previous examples, the odds are stacked up in favour of the developers.
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Permalink Reply by Carmen Morris-Coulson on
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My friend and I were interested in making the building into a community cinema and looked at the site in the summer, there were a number of other people viewing it on the same day who shared our view of a community space and were interested in collaborating. The agent that showed us around told us and a couple of property developers that the building had been sold subject to contract at the beginning of 2011 but the sale fell through because Haringey Council would not grant planning permission to build several houses on the site.
Does anyone know who bought the site this time around? The current Building Classification allows for a cinema or other entertainment, as Mount View Theatre School is moving into Hornsey Town Hall soon there is a risk that the council may allow a change of use.
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>>as Mount View Theatre School is moving into Hornsey Town Hall soon there is a risk that the council may allow a change of use.
Anyone know if the law and/or LBH policy allows the community to control the provision of community spaces in actual fact, rather than in theory?
From reading the few documents publicly available, looks to me that Mountview will attract around £12M of LBH money (proceeds from the building of 78 flats on the car park behind our Town Hall) and I guess, as a private University with £100,000+ directors they'll become even more professional and get, say £8M from the Heritage Lottery Fund and more from the Arts Council and other sources.
So that's £20M to refurb the building into superb teaching facilities so they can raise their £15,000/yr fees to foreign students, probably an honour or two from the Queen and the Arts Community for the Mountview principals and increasing (and, hopefully, deserved) recognition as a 'world class' private school who know a superb business deal when they see one. Their turnover will surely jump from the £5M it is today. They'll save the £600k they seem to be spending renting their Wood Green HQ as they will be paying the Council £1/yr for their 125 year lease. When I bought my flat it was a 99 year lease and the service charges alone cost more than that. And I had to get a mortgage as well! Mountivew will grow so that the Town Hall won't be big enough, surely, so maybe they could buy it?
We'll be allowed in to the foyer of HTH to look at art exhibitions (as long as they approve the art) every so often, and drink a coffee in the cafe they'll have to open in the Theatre Foyer to make a profit to prevent their students using the locally-owned cafes there are around. They will run student productions in the Assembly Rooms every Saturday (probably low cost tickets will be available for us) and maybe at other times, when they'll use the largest sprung dance floor in England for teaching whatever they see fit. We'll be able to pay to use our Council Chamber if they're not using it. They will hold regular open days with workshops for families with kids. The rest of the space they will employ security guards to protect whilst it's unused. none of the staff or students are far as I know are or have ever been locals. We will not be allowed to see any of their process as they're a commercial firm and a registered charity (in common with most enterprises of this type) that keeps everything secret unless obliged by law.
So, I didn't realise that the effect of Mountview spending £20M refurbishing their new offices, is that we will lose all the other community space. As far as I can see there's no effective power we have as a community to work with LBH to create a community spaces in a highly developed town like ours, which is claimed to have the largest proportion of people in it working in the creative industries in London. The people here are what define Crouch End, so presumably Crouch End will be changed by this, but not by us.
I presume LBH will make the dis-empowering case they simply cannot afford to invest in the community, when in fact it can be done. The Roundhouse is a good example. Get a philanthropist to fund it for a while and it'll become an asset that even makes money and attracts lots of grants. Then the Council showers it with support. LBH are able to borrow to invest in Solar Panels, which will not only pay for themselves but make a profit, so why not Earl Haig?
Is there was a way of putting a monetary value on a community space. That would make the business case. Or is there another way to express the value of using Earl Haig Hall that makes us a player when faced with strangers with big budgets?
Or how about a 'community tax' (percent for the arts etc) on Mountview to pay for Earl Haig?
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