Thursday, 16 April 2015

Enraged locals campaign against Carlton Tavern vandalism

Carlton Tavern after demolition
and before...
Anger is building on the borders of Brent and Westminster over the demolition of the Carlton Tavern on the eve of the building being granted Grade II status by Historic England.

There were rumours today that the company concerned  had gone into liquidation to avoid legal  action.

A demonstration is planned for the evening of Sunday April 26th, more details when it is finalised.

Meanwhile a 38 Degrees petition has been set up LINK with this preamble:

A historic pub in Kilburn which survived being bombed in the Second World War has been demolished by developers behind the backs of the local community.

Developers ripped through the Carlton Tavern on Friday 10th April, despite being considered for statutory listing.

Local Cllr Jan Prendergast from Westminster City Council said:

“I'm horrified for the local residents that this has occurred. It came as such a shock to everyone. There was no prior warning to the council, no approvals and no proper health and safety procedures in place.

“This was a lovely pub and I'm sorry to see it go, but I'm more concerned for the residents in Maida Vale for whom they showed no consideration whatsoever. It was the last building standing in Carlton vale after the WW2 bombings.

“I've lived in the area for 35 years and have never seen anything like this before. We need to take very careful legal advice as to what steps we can take.”

The demolition of the Carlton Tavern demonstrates how vulnerable communities are to speculative and aggressive development tactics. It also demonstrates a complete disregard towards the historic social infrastructure of Kilburn and the wider UK pub heritage stock.

Local pubs are at the heart of our communities and allowing valued pubs such as the Carlton Tavern to be demolished in this way is ludicrous and is denying local residents a say in the future of their neighbourhoods.

James Watson, Regional Pub Protection Advisor for the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) said:

"Although we welcome the recent changes to planning law which came into effect on 6th April 2015, which afford some protection to ACV-registered pubs, the tragic case of the Carlton Tavern demonstrates just how vulnerable pubs are to rapacious development. We now urge the Government to take this case into consideration and amend planning law to ensure that such demolitions are prohibited unless planning permission is first obtained. This would ensure communities like Kilburn have a say in the future of their local pubs."
The Save the Queensbury, fighting for the pub in Willesden Green, has expressed solidaroty and meanwhile have issued a revolutionary manifesto that challenges all the political parties to match the vision which they percieve through the bottom of a glass LINK

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barbarians at thé Gâté!

Thé social Fabric of society is being destroyed in thé name of à few developers seeking to profit.

Liquidating thé company to prevent any légal challenged is being abused by property owners.

Liquidate and loose thé asset is what should happen Rather than tranfering to new légal entity.

Cowboy developers

Anonymous said...

I'm no supporter of capital punishment but when I read about behaviour like this ..............

Anonymous said...

This is disgusting, you have my support. There has already been too much destruction of our heritage and what these people have done is despicable.

I think buildings should be protected during the listing application & assessment period as at least that may save other buildings from this fate. Maybe this could have saved the Pump and Tap in Leicester as well had such rules been in place, there was a long process there fighting the demolition so perhaps these cretins did this to avoid such prior protests, as well as the pending listing. Utter, utter scum. Even the demolition operatives must have noticed pretty soon that the building was obviously occupied and saved more of the building.

Even if they do rebuild it "brick by brick" I wonder if they will use the traditional building methods and materials, assuming all the patterns actually exist for the mouldings and all the other fixtures and fittings? Or will they get away with specifying plasterboard, ash-blocks, plastic, MDF etc.? This needs to be done properly if it's done at all but I suspect much of it will be irreplaceable. Makes me sick.

Brian Goodwin