The recording of Thursday's very unusual Planning Committee appears to have been delayed.
Brent Council website today
This is unusual but the meeting was extremely unusual. Three decisions were made on the Wembley Hospital, Chaplin Road: FOR, AGAINST, DEFER and serious allegations made about intimidation of residents by the applicant for Thanet Lodge.
One the recording is available I will cover fully but meanwhile the story can be told in my Tweets.
Proposed development on Wembley Hospital site
DEMOLITION OF WEMBLEY HOSPITAL AND REPLACEMENT BY HOUSING
Recorded Decision:
RESOLVED to defer the decision for the
following reason(s):
·
As the majority of Members on the Committee had indicated that they
were minded to refuse the application, it was agreed to defer a
final decision to a future Committee meeting in order to enable a
further report to be provided addressing the indicative reasons
outlined as the basis for refusal, including:
i)
insufficient provision of affordable housing;
ii)
insufficient parking provision on site and impact of congestion on
surrounding streets;
iii)
lack of community space;
iv)
lack of on-site play space for older children;
v)
insufficient provision of family sized housing;
vi)
harm to neighbouring amenity including loss of daylight; and
vii)
impact on non-designated heritage asset and character to the
streetscene.
Voting on the above decision was unanimous and
accordingly, the application was deferred to allow for further
assessment and consideration of the matters identified by the
Committee.
THANET LODGE GARAGES, BRONDESBURY
Recorded Decision
Decision:
RESOLVED to defer the decision for the
following reason(s):
·
To allow the ownership certificates relating to the application to
be evaluated prior to determination and to clarify whether the
scheme would fall within the definition of self-build.
A positive aspect of the meeting was the incisive questions posed by Cllr Suzanne Gallagher and Cllr Anton Georgiou who had clearly done their homework and showed they would not be fobbed off. This makes a refreshing change. Cllr Gallagher's contribution regarding the applicant's claim that the Thanet Lodge application was self-build was particularly effective.
Oh, and despite polite representations made by two Roe Green Village residents, the application by Kingsbury High School for a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) in the school grounds was finally approved. Changes in where the MUGA was situated, a curtailment of the use of lighting, and assurances about the ecological status of the materials used for the MUGA were the background to the decision.
A topical one-off “special” local
history article by Philip Grant.
As part of Brent’s London Borough of Culture 2020,
and “Brent Biennial”, a 9-metre high mural by the artist Dawn Mellor is due to
be unveiled in Kingsbury Road on Saturday 19 September. It will celebrate the
life of the singer George Michael, who lived and went to school in the area. Many
people may not know much about his early life, and this seems a good time to
share what I know about his Kingsbury connections. As George said himself, in a
line from a song he wrote about growing up “Round Here”: ‘So come with me, let me show you where
I've lived.’
1. Three images of work in progress on the
George Michael mural, and its location, 13 September 2020.
It was not just people from the Caribbean (“the
Windrush Generation”) who came to live and work in this country following the
British Nationality Act, 1948. Britain’s labour shortage in the post-war years
meant that anyone with the newly created status of ‘citizen of the United
Kingdom and Colonies’ could do the same. In 1953, young Kyriacos Panayiotou and his cousin left their village
in Cyprus, and came to London for a better life. He worked as a waiter in a
restaurant, and through a shared love of dancing, married Lesley in 1957. Some
people thought it was wrong for an English girl to marry a Greek Cypriot, but
love is stronger than prejudice.
2. Holmstall Parade, Edgware Road, 2019.
Kyriacos and Lesley
already had two daughters before their son, Georgios, was born at their flat in
East Finchley in June 1963. Within a year they had moved to a larger home at 3a
Holmstall Parade, above shops on the Edgware Road, close to Burnt Oak, in what
was then still the Borough of Wembley. Kyriacos Panayiotou, commonly known as
Jack Panos, worked in a Greek Restaurant in Edgware, becoming a partner in the
business. Although Holmstall Parade looks similar now to what it did in the
1960s, the Asda superstore and Capitol Way just down the road were then a
Frigidaire factory, on a site first used by the Aircraft Manufacturing Company,
“Airco”, during World War One.
3. The Redhill Drive street sign, at the corner with
Holmstall Avenue.
By 1967, the
Panayiotou family had their own semi-detached suburban home, nearby in Redhill
Drive, then part of the recently formed London Borough of Brent. No.57 was
where Georgios (or George as he would become known) lived for about ten years.
He soon had friends to play with, and his best friend was David, who lived just
up the road, and was a year older than him.
4. 57 Redhill Drive, Burnt Oak, in 2019.
When it was time for George to start school, he
went to Roe Green Infants, then the Juniors, in Princes Avenue, the same as his
sisters (and David), as that was the local state school. In those days, that
was what most children did. They probably walked to school.
Figure 5. Roe Green Infants and Junior Schools,
Princes Avenue, Kingsbury, in 2019.
Years later, George wrote in a song: ‘And I remember my, my first day at
school. And I remember trouble and thinkin' I was so cool.’ Whether this was
about his very first day at school at Roe Green, or when he went on to
secondary school, I’m not sure. You wouldn’t think this young Georgios would
get into trouble, would you? Or perhaps you would.
6. Georgios Panayiotou, at primary school
age. (Image from the internet)
Trouble or not, he must have been
quite a bright student, although having encouragement from a good creative
writing teacher at school (probably Ian Greenwood then) must have helped. Only
just eleven years old, two of his poems were included in Roe Green Junior
School’s end of year magazine in July 1974. How these came to light, shortly
after George’s death in 2016, is a story in itself. A girl who knew him at the
school had kept her school magazines. Years later, her older sister met a
former classmate, Melanie, at an awards ceremony – and Melanie was with her
brother, Georgios, better known by then as George Michael. The sisters had
never guessed that the music star was the quiet boy they knew at Roe Green
Juniors!
7. The cover of the Roe Green Junior School
magazine, July 1974. (Image from the internet)
The first of the poems, ‘The Story of
a Horse’, appears above the name Georgios Panayiotou, 4S, but the second
reveals his nickname. Whether this was one he invented for himself, or what his
friends decided to call him (because he was brainy?), Professor Whatsisname
(alias G. Panayiotou, 4S) was the author of this imaginative piece, ‘Sounds in
the Night’.
8. "Sounds in the Night" by
Professor Whatsisname, from "The Junior", July 1974. (Image from the
internet)
From junior school, George moved on to the local
secondary school in September 1974, again just as most eleven-year olds would
have done then. Kingsbury High School had become a comprehensive in 1967, when
the grammar school in Princes Avenue merged with the Tyler’s Croft Boys and
Girls secondary modern schools in Bacon Lane. The lower years of the High School
were housed in the Tyler’s Croft buildings, which had opened in 1952.
Twenty-two years before George walked through that school’s gates, the first
boys to start at the school when it opened had included a young Charlie Watts, from Fryent Junior School, who also went on to
become a famous pop musician.
9. Kingsbury High School's Tyler's Croft
buildings, beside Roe Green Park, 2019.
The photo above shows that Kingsbury
High’s Lower School is next to Roe Green Park, and there’s no doubt that George
spent some time there after school. In one verse of his song about growing up,
he sings:
‘I hear my mama call
in Kingsbury Park Just me and David and a football that glowed in
the dark Waitin' patiently to make my mark, round here.’
10. Roe Green Park, towards the school, and a wild flower
meadow that wasn't there in George's time!
Life sometimes takes an unexpected
turn, and it was not in Kingsbury that George made his mark. His father’s
restaurant business was doing well, so he decided to move upmarket. He found a
house he liked in Radlett, and around 1976 the Panayiotou family moved out of
Redhill Drive. As their new home was not quite ready, they lived above the
restaurant in Edgware for several months, before George left Kingsbury High
School, looking something like this.
11. Georgios Panayiotou in the mid-1970's. (Image
from the internet)
The move to Radlett meant changing to a new school,
Bushey Meads School, which took students from much of the western side of
Hertsmere District, just north of London. One of his new classmates was Andrew
Ridgeley, and they were soon friends. The two teenagers shared a love of pop
music, and a desire to make a that their career. The result, in 1981, was Wham!
12. Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael as the
duo, Wham!, mid-1980's. (Image from the internet)
From then on, Georgios Panayiotou would be known as
George Michael, and you can read about his musical career, his generosity and his
sometimes troubled private life, online, or by borrowing a
copy of the biography “George”, by Sean Smith, from your local Brent Library
(ref. no. 782.421 on the adult
non-fiction shelves).
Although no longer
living in Brent, George’s career brought him to Wembley on a number of
occasions. Wham! played several concerts at the Arena in 1984, and their
“Final” concert together at the Stadium in 1986, before the duo went their
separate ways. George Michael was one of the stars who performed at the 1985
Live Aid concert at Wembley, and at the 70th birthday concert for
Nelson Mandela in 1988. George’s singing of “Somebody to Love” with Queen, at
the Stadium’s Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert to raise money for AIDS research
in 1992, was highly rated, and the live recording featured on a follow-up EP.
13. George Michael, with Brian May of Queen,
at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. (Image from internet)
George Michael was a prolific songwriter, and in 2004
he recorded a song about his memories of growing up. Called “Round Here”, it
wasn’t a big hit for him, but it came from his heart and tells his story before
he became famous. There is an online video of him singing and recording the
song, with brief clips of film included that show various scenes from
Kingsbury, and London more generally. If you watch carefully, you’ll spot
glimpses of 57 Redhill Drive (at 0:05), the flats at Holmstall Parade (0:25),
Roe Green Park (1:17) and Roe Green Junior School (1:35) and Kingsbury High
[Lower] School (1:41), plus other places you’ll recognise.
14. The CD cover for "Round Here", 2004. (Image from the
internet)
George
Michael, who sadly died in 2016, aged just 53, is not the only famous person
who has lived “Round Here”, in the north of Brent, but he is fondly remembered
by many for his music and his humanity. That is why he was chosen as the
subject for a mural in Kingsbury, which celebrates his life. I hope you’ve
enjoyed finding out about his local connections.
15. Kingsbury Station signs, including for
the London Borough of Culture 2020.
Next time you come out of Kingsbury Station, turn
right, and after walking about 60 metres you will find the mural, on the end
wall of a block of shops with flats above. You can’t miss it – it is 9 metres
high!
Philip Grant.
Next weekend, we welcome a new member to the “local history in lockdown” team.
Don’t forget to join us, to discover what part of the borough her weekly series
will cover!
You can't afford to miss the performance of the summer on Friday August 21st when 'Motown comes to London Town' takes to the stage at Kingsbury High School.
You may not have seen the version above before but the words will be familiar. Young people have been attending workshops to develop their show which will feature many Motown classics incorporated into a love story. Proceeds will go to Five Loaves a charity set up to raise awareness of sexually abused children in Jamaica. People were turned away last year due to the popularity of the show so get their early.
