Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Aerial view of the 1 Morland Gardens site. (From Google Maps satellite view)
In a guest post on 18 September, Morland Gardens – Why no progress? , I published the text of an open email I’d sent to Brent’s Chief Executive and Head of Capital Delivery. It was the anniversary of a petition I had presented at the September 2025 Full Council meeting, on behalf of Willesden Local History Society, calling on the Council and its Cabinet to retain the 150-year old heritage Victorian villa, “Altamira”, as part of its redevelopment of the former Brent Start college site at 1 Morland Gardens in Stonebridge. Despite Officers beginning a review of plans for the site in November 2023, after their flawed original planning consent had expired, no plans had yet been brought forward.
When the Council is publicly questioned in this way, it is only fair to publish their reply, and this is the full text of the response I received at the end of September:
‘Dear Mr Grant
RE: Request for update on plans for 1 Morland Gardens
Thank you for your open email dated 15 September 2026 addressed to the council’s Chief Executive and myself, regarding an update on plans for 1 Morland Gardens.
Since my last response in November 2025, the council has carried out a number of actions to progress a proposed development at 1 Morland Gardens. This includes:
1. Continued engagement with youth organisations
2. Submission to the Greater London Authority (GLA) for funding from the 2026 –
2036 Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP)
3. Feasibility commission
1. Youth Engagement
Council officers continue to engage with youth organisations to develop the youth facilities offer at Morland Gardens and to understand how the building could meet the needs of young people living in Stonebridge and across the borough. This is being fed into the feasibility work discussed below.
2. SAHP Application
In February 2026, the GLA launched the London component of the SAHP, requesting affordable housing delivery partners to submit proposals for a programme of affordable homes delivery over the next decade. The council has submitted an ambitious delivery programme of 1,300 affordable homes of which Morland Gardens is part of this submission. We have included for 65 social rent homes, the same number as was proposed for the previous scheme at the site. We understand from the GLA that delivery partners will be told imminently on the outcome of their bids. In the interim, the council has included affordable homes within the facility mix to be reviewed as part of the feasibility commission described below. Whilst this indicates our intentions, the plans are heavily dependent on securing grant funding from the GLA.
3. Feasibility Commission
The council has commissioned Mott MacDonald to undertake a feasibility study into providing a mixed-use development at Morland Gardens, including provision for youth facilities, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and affordable homes. This work is looking at a variety of options which includes the retention of the Altamira and is expected to conclude towards the end of October which may coincide with the SAHP bid outcome announcement.
Therefore, the council is not currently able to confirm whether it intends on retaining the Altamira building or not. However, the council is progressing options for the scheme and will review the feasibility work, the outcome of the SAHP bid, review viability implications and funding mechanisms before proposing a capital delivery project for Cabinet’s consideration. This is expected in the new year and I will let you know when any decision is placed on the council’s Forward Plan.
You kindly issued the article by Mark Sabolch back in August 2024 and feel free to share my contact details with Mr Sabolch should he wish to include the building in the London leg of his tour looking at heritage buildings in the UK that inspired the designs of Australian architects in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Thank you for your enquiry and please let me know should you have any further queries.
Regards
Head of Capital Delivery’
While I am pleased that some progress has been made, I do have concerns over the chances of the heritage asset being retained, despite the statement that this is one of the options being considered as part of the “Feasibility Commission”. It will be great if the Council can get funding for genuinely affordable ‘social rent homes’ from the GLA’s 2026-2036 Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP), but the Brent’s bid for the money is based on 65 homes for this site.
As the email above says, sixty-five homes is ‘the same number as was proposed for the previous scheme’. One of the main reasons the original 2020 planning consent failed is that the proposed site included not just the land at 1 Morland Gardens, but also the Harlesden City Challenge Community Garden land in front of it. The Council had no legal right to build on that extra land, and it failed in its attempt to obtain that right! That extra land would have been part of the footprint for the ten-storey tower block where many of the 65 homes would have been built, and the building would have been so close to the major road junction of Hillside with Brentfield Road (one of the worst air pollution locations in Brent) that the windows on the lower floors would have to be fixed closed, with artificial ventilation provided.
Architect’s drawing of the proposed 2020 Morland Gardens building, with my speech bubble added.
Realistically, I don’t believe it would be possible to include 65 homes on the 1 Morland Gardens site without demolishing the Victorian villa. If the consultants, Mott MacDonald, have been told by Brent that a scheme must deliver that number of homes, or a figure close to it, they will come back with a report which says it would not be feasible to retain the locally listed heritage building. Is that what Council Officers (and the Cabinet members they will have spoken with about the future of the site) want the outcome to be?
Philip Grant.
As already said, go to Carlton-Granville Centre and take a look at what is happening there- the before and the after.
ReplyDeleteIts being towered away incrementally as part of the ongoing Neighbourhood Denial process in South Kilburn.
Why does Butt hate this building and memorial garden so much? Of course we know that the Commercial Lobbyist Councillor will do anything to build unwanted flats to make profits for the banks and developers, while chanting Build Baby Build in his red MAGA baseball cap.
ReplyDeleteFOR INFORMATION:
ReplyDeleteI sent a follow-up email to Brent's Head of Capital Delivery yesterday, requesting answers on two points:-
1) I hope that Brent Council can get some funding from the GLA's SAHP programme to help finance genuinely affordable homes to rent for local people in housing need, but I was concerned to read that your bid for 1 Morland Gardens has included '65 social rent homes, the same number as was proposed for the previous scheme at the site.' The failed "previous scheme" included construction of a block of flats on land outside 1 Morland Gardens (the Harlesden City Challenge Community Garden) which Brent did not have the legal right to build on, and the demolition of the Victorian heritage building. Please explain why, in these circumstances, a figure of 65 homes at 1 Morland Gardens was chosen for inclusion in the Council's submission to the GLA.
2) Your response made no mention of any remedial work on the fabric of the Victorian villa, despite the problem with the missing roof slates having been reported to you a number of times over several years. What action, if any, has been taken, or is in hand, to stop the deterioration of the fabric of this Council-owned heritage asset, before another winter sets in?
I also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request, seeking details about Brent's instructions to Mott MacDonald for the feasibility study, and what documents and information were provided to them about 1 Morland Gardens, in order for them to carry out the study and report back to the Council.
It may be that everything to do with the feasibility study was properly carried out, so that an independent assessment could be produced. However, based on some past experience with Brent Council, I felt the need to check this for myself.
Outside consultants are sometimes paid large sums of public money, but only given the information which can lead to just one conclusion, the one that the public body paying them wants them to supply! If that looks like the case here, you will certainly hear more from me about it.