Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Wreaths on the front door – but not for Altamira’s funeral!
Back in March I asked ‘Is Brent Council busy doing nothing?’ over “Altamira”, Brent’s heritage Victorian villa at 1 Morland Gardens. It appears that, six months after the Council accepted that its planning consent to demolish the building and had expired, it has still not completed the review of what to do with it next.
But when I was passing the site on Tuesday 7 May, I saw that it was a hive of activity. What is more, there were two new signs on either side of the entrance. The building had now become the Bakedwell Nursing Home!
One of the Bakedwell Nursing Home signs at 1 Morland Gardens, 7 May 2024.
The former college, which the Council specially restored and converted the building to be for Brent Adult and Community Education Service (now Brent Start) in the 1990s, might make a good nursing home, but this was not a real one. The beautiful Victorian building, which has been unoccupied since January 2023, had been chosen as a location for scenes in a TV drama!
There were marshals to keep onlookers at bay while a large cast and crew prepared for and filmed a crowd scene in the courtyard of the building. It was hot in the bright sunshine, but some of the cast members were wearing winter coats and woolly hats. Why? They were filming a Christmas episode, complete with Christmas trees (and holly wreaths on the front door).
Cast and crew, in between filming scenes for a TV drama.
I’m glad that 1 Morland Gardens is being put to some use, and presumably bringing in a fee to Brent Council for its use as a location for filming. I hope that they will use that income to repair the edges of the roof, before any more damage is done to the fabric of the Victorian villa by the Council’s neglect of this locally listed heritage building.
What TV drama were they filming? I don’t know, but if anyone has an idea which TV show might include a “Bakedwell Nursing Home” in its Christmas programme, please add a comment below!
Philip Grant.
