Morland Gardens – Why no progress? An Open Email to Brent Council

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

  

The photograph above, showing the secured entrance to the former Brent Start college at 1 Morland Gardens in Stonebridge, was taken on 30 October 2023, the day the planning consent for the flawed 2020 Brent Council redevelopment proposals for the site expired. In a guest post a month later, “Morland Gardens – now there is a real chance to save the Victorian villa!”, I wrote about the opportunity which the review of future plans for the site, which the Council had just begun, gave for Brent to come forward with much better proposals, learning from their mistakes in the past (which I also referred to in that article). 

 

Now, nearly three years later, the Council has yet to come up with any plans, other than an agreement by Cabinet in 2025 that the site should be redeveloped for affordable housing and youth facilities, both of which are much needed. After years of “reviewing the situation”, they have yet to disclose whether they still intend to seek the demolition of the beautiful and locally listed heritage building on the site (but if they do, “I think they better think it out again!”).

 

To try and get some answers on what is happening, I sent this open email to Brent’s Chief Executive and Head of Capital Projects (and copied to Stonebridge Ward councillors and the Cabinet Lead Member for Regeneration) on 15 September:

 

‘Request for update on plans for 1 Morland Gardens

 

This is an open email

Dear Ms Wright and Mr Martin,

 

It is a year since I presented the Willesden Local History Society petition to Full Council, calling for the heritage Victorian villa "Altamira" to be retained as part of Brent's redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens. At that meeting, councillors from all three of the then parties on the Council spoke in support of the petition, and I had a positive conversation with the then Lead Member for Regeneration, Cllr. Teo Benea, straight after the meeting.

 

Council Officers started a review of future plans for the former Brent Start site in November 2023. A year later, that review was combined with the wider proposals for Bridge Park and the Hillside Corridor, and a consultation held during which I submitted detailed comments in December 2024, including this draft proposal showing how the heritage building could be retained as part of a youth/community facility, with a pocket park including the Harlesden City Challenge Community Garden outside the site, and still provide room for at least 27 affordable Council homes:

 

 

The Bridge Park report to the July 2026 Cabinet meeting still gave no details of what is proposed for the Morland Gardens site, so the public are still no wiser about the outline of "affordable housing + a youth facility" which was agreed by Cabinet a year earlier, and there is nothing in the Forward Plan to indicate when any further decision on the future of this vacant Council-owned asset will be made.

 

Although you have heard these arguments before, I will summarise them for the benefit of Councillors Blackman and Kelcher.

 

·      Brent's own Local Plan historic environment supporting document says this about the value of heritage assets:

 

 

·      In addition to Willesden Local History Society and many local residents, The Victorian Society also opposed the demolition of "Altamira" when Brent sought permission for that in 2020.

·      A Professor of Architecture, also opposing demolition in 2020, finished his detailed reasons by writing: ' 1 Morland Gardens is not just any nineteenth-century villa, but a characteristic work by an architect of genuine and lasting significance. Its destruction would be a terrible loss, not only to the local environment, but also to the architectural heritage of Victorian Britain.'

·      This beautiful 150 year-old landmark building is one of only two Locally Listed heritage assets in Stonebridge Ward, at the gateway to a small development which saw the birth of, and gave its name to, Stonebridge Park.

 

Council Officers have surely by now decided whether or not to recommend the retention of the Victorian villa as part of the Morland Gardens redevelopment. It is well past time that this decision should be made public, and real progress made on plans to make use of a vacant site which needs to be developed for affordable housing and a youth club. Please let me, and the people of Brent as a whole, know whether the Council proposes to retain "Altamira" as part of that development, or not.

 

If the proposal is to retain the heritage Victorian villa (which was sympathetically restored by the Council in the 1990s, to provide an inspiring home for its adult education college, now known as Brent Start), then please carry out the necessary work to make good the damaged slates around the roof, so that the condition of the building does not deteriorate.

 

I believe that I sent you, in the past, a copy of an article by architectural historian Mark Sabolch, about Italianate-style buildings, of which "Altamira" was an excellent example (and probably the best surviving one in our borough). Mark will be leading a tour in this country for the Historic Houses of Australia Association in May 2027, looking at heritage buildings here which inspired the designs of Australian architects in the 19th and 20th centuries. It would be great if he could include "Altamira" in the London leg of the tour, seeing it at its best, rather than in the state of neglect which the Council has sadly allowed to happen!

 

I look forward to receiving a positive response to this email (which I would ask that you make "reply all", please, so that the Lead Member and Ward councillors are kept informed), rather than another "no decision has been made yet", which is wearing thin after nearly three years since the start of the "urgent review" which was meant to take place. Thank you. Yours sincerely,

 

Philip Grant.’

 

    

“Altamira” in a 1907 Stonebridge Park postcard, and a similar view in 2023.

 

I have received a generic response email from Brent Council to “[My] Service Request”, and will ask Martin to share their “full response” with you once it is received, so that it is available to everyone who may be interested.

I fully believe that this landmark Victorian heritage building is too valuable for the past, present and future of Stonebridge Park to be destroyed through a lack of understanding and care by Brent Council. The sooner they bring it back into community use, and build genuinely affordable Council homes on the land behind it, the better!

 

Philip Grant.

Altamira and the Morland Gardens delay – Brent Council’s response.

Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

From Brent Council’s adopted Local Plan Historic Environment Strategy.

 

Last week Martin published a guest post with the text of an open email I had sent to Brent’s Director of Property and Assets (Morland Gardens – (Happy?) Anniversary Brent! Why the delay?). I promised to let readers know what the Council said in reply, and here is the full text of the email I received on 18 November, with the names of Council Officers replaced by their job titles.

 

‘Dear Mr Grant,

 

RE: New Service Request: 1 Morland Gardens, NW10 - What are Council Officers' recommendations and when will they be published?  

 

Thank you for your open letter dated 10 November 2025, and note that [the Director of Property and Assets] has asked me to respond on the queries raised:

 

1. Please let me know the date by which Council Officers intend to make their detailed recommendations to Cabinet for the redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens.

 

As you state in your open letter dated 10 November 2025, Cabinet approved the facility mix at Morland Gardens for affordable homes and youth facilities in June 2025. Please note that establishing the youth provisions/requirements is a crucial enabler to bringing forward a vision for the site that aligns with the Cabinet approved facility mix. The Council has therefore been liaising with a range of youth service providers to better understand what/how they would seek to use the building/site to meet the needs of young people living in Stonebridge and across the borough.

 

In relation to affordable housing, the Council is currently unable to deliver 100% social rent tenure due to the economic climate we are now operating in with regards to increased borrowing costs, construction inflation, and compliance with new/enhanced building safety standards. The Greater London Authority (GLA) has recently issued its new Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) 2026 – 2036 and the Council will be reviewing this funding prospectus to see if it can provide the Council a viable route to bring forward affordable housing schemes on sites such as Morland Gardens. The SAHP funding window opens in February 2026 and closes in April 2026, so the Council will be able to confirm after this date if a grant bid for Morland Gardens has been included.

 

With the work currently being undertaken, the Council cannot confirm a date by which officers intend to make detailed recommendations to Cabinet for the redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens until we are able to lock in the proposed youth service provisions for the site and the affordable homes funding opportunities through the SAHP.

 

2. Please also let me know (as some decision on this point must surely have been reached after two years of review) whether those recommendations will include retaining the heritage Victorian villa building, Altamira, as requested in the Willesden Local History Society petition which was presented to September's Full Council meeting, and supported then by councillors from across all three political parties.

 

As per the response to the petition from the Willesden Local History Society, no decision has been made on the retention or not of the Altamira building. Any decision will be based on the outcome of the above (youth provision identification, housing scheme requirements) for Cabinet to make a considered decision.

 

Thank you once again for your open letter, should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Regards

 

Head of Capital Delivery’

 

The response says why Brent is not currently building many new homes, and these words in the answer to point 1 are of more general interest: ‘In relation to affordable housing, the Council is currently unable to deliver 100% social rent tenure due to the economic climate we are now operating in ….’ The reference to ‘social rent tenure’ is another example of the misrepresentation of “social housing” terms frequently coming from the Council’s Officers and members.

 

The only new genuine Social Rent level homes which Brent Council provides go to existing tenants who are moved to new homes because the Council wants to demolish their existing home. If you want to understand the different types of affordable housing, please read my November 2022 guest post Brent’s Affordable Council Housing – figuring out Cllr. Butt’s reply.

 

Illustration from Brent’s March 2025 Council Tax leaflet.

 

While I’m on the subject of the Council’s misleading information about affordable housing, you may remember my guest post from last April: How many affordable homes did Brent Council deliver in 2024/25? - Was it 530, or 434, or just 26? It was in a leaflet sent to every Council Taxpayer in the borough, including a letter to residents from the Council Leader saying how well they had done. And the answer to the question of how many affordable homes Brent Council had actually delivered itself in 2024/25 was 26, not the 530 they wanted us to believe!

 

You will also notice from the response above that the proposed affordable housing at Morland Gardens may well depend on Brent getting financial help from the GLA’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026-2036. But I can’t help wondering - what happened to the £107m of funding which Brent trumpeted that it had been promised from the GLA’s Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026? 

 

From the GLA’s affordable homes website.

 

How much of that promised £107m was spent by Brent Council, and how many new affordable homes were built with that money? Wasn’t it meant to be helping to fund the regeneration of St Raphael’s Estate (see this June 2021 post: Cllr Butt addresses St Raphael's residents on the delays in fill-in/rebuild development of the estate. Is it the full story?)? How many new homes have been built so far as part of the long-promised St Raphael’s regeneration? (I don’t know – perhaps someone can give the answer in a comment below, please.)

 

Brent’s original 2020 Morland Gardens scheme was meant to use £6.5m in funding from the GLA’s Affordable Homes Programme 2016-2021 (extended to 2023, because of Covid). That money was lost, but it could have been used instead for a Council redevelopment at Twybridge Way, which received planning consent before Morland Gardens in 2020, and would have provided 67 affordable homes. That project could not go ahead because of the flawed Cabinet decision to move Brent Start to a “temporary home” in the former Stonebridge School Annexe on that site. You can read the details in my October 2021 guest post: 1 Morland Gardens and Twybridge Way – Brent’s response challenged.

 

It was hard not to get distracted by some of the contents of the Council’s response above, but I must get back to the main point of this guest post. Should I just accept what the Council Officer was saying, or should I reply? I chose the second option, and this is what I wrote:

 

‘Dear [Head of Capital Delivery},

 

Thank you for your email, in response to my open email of 10 November to [the Director of Property and Assets]. As the text of my open email was made public, both online and in the "Brent & Kilburn Times" (see below), I will seek to make the text of your reply, on behalf of Brent Council, publicly available.

 

The information given at point 1 is helpful in understanding the continuing delay, although this will mean another winter when the empty property can suffer further weather damage. That is not good stewardship of a valuable heritage building!

 

I am disappointed with the response to point 2, because it suggests that the only factors which will be taken into account in deciding whether Officers should recommend either retaining or demolishing the heritage building will be what is required for the proposed youth provision and housing scheme. That approach ignores the requirements of Brent Council's heritage planning policy BHC1, and its adopted Historic Environment Strategy, which both signal the importance of sustaining and enhancing the significance of heritage assets in proposed developments affecting them.

 

I have referred to the section on "Valuing Brent's Heritage" before, but these words from it need repeating:

 

'Once a heritage asset is demolished it cannot be replaced. Its historic value is lost forever to the community and future generations and it cannot be used for regeneration and place-making purposes.'

 

The historic value of "Altamira" is huge. This was the landmark building at the entrance to an 1870s estate named Stonebridge Park. It was in at the birth of that district of our borough, and with its distinctive belvedere tower, it was one of the few original Victorian villas left standing when most of the street called Stonebridge Park was demolished to make way for the 1970s Stonebridge Park Brent Council estate.

 

Many of those 1970s buildings were demolished after less than 30 years, but "Altamira" is now 150 years old, and still in good structural condition, as well as being a beautiful example of Italianate architecture. It will be part of the Morland Gardens regeneration site, and it can be used for place-making purposes, helping to share the story of Stonebridge Park with young people, and the wider community, now and for future generations. That is why it should be retained, and why you and other Council Officers involved should decide to recommend its retention as part of your detailed submission to Cabinet.

 

Please keep me updated on progress with your review, and let me know if you need support from me (and the wider local history community) for an SAHP funding bid which includes retaining the heritage building. Best wishes,’

 

 

Philip Grant.

 

Morland Gardens – (Happy?) Anniversary Brent! Why the delay?

My redevelopment proposal, submitted during the December 2024 consultation.

 

It is two years since Brent Council began an “urgent review” of its plans for the former Brent Start college site at 1 Morland Gardens in Stonebridge, after its ill-conceived and ill-fated 2020 project for the site failed, because its planning consent expired without construction having commenced. I was led to believe at the time, by the Council Officer leading the review, that new recommendations for the site’s development would be put to Brent’s Cabinet for approval by the early summer of 2024 at the latest.

 

Monday 10 November 2025 was the second anniversary of the letter sent to me by Brent’s Director of Property and Assets, telling me about the review. As there is still no sign of any definite proposals for the site, and its landmark heritage Victorian villa, I thought it time to send him a reminder. This is the text of my open email (with the personal names of Council Officers removed):

 

‘Dear [Director of Property and Assts]

 

Proposed Morland Gardens Development

 

Two years ago, on 10 November 2023, you wrote to me in response to an open letter on this subject which I had sent to Brent's Chief Executive on 31 October 2023. Brent Council's original scheme for the redevelopment of the Brent Start college on this site, which had been given the go ahead (as subsequently shown, without proper consideration) by Brent's Cabinet in January 2020, had failed when its planning consent expired at the end of October 2023, without construction having commenced.

 

Paragraph 2 of your letter, headed "An urgent rethink on original proposals", stated:

 

'We are always reviewing and updating schemes across the board as part of our usual governance arrangements, and we are doing that with even more rigour given the underlying economic conditions. Following the expiration of the planning permission, the Council is reviewing its options for the Morland Gardens site, including the Altamira building.'

 

[The Head of Capital Delivery] began that urgent review in November 2023. A year later, as part of the Bridge Park consultation, it had concluded that the site should be used for "affordable housing and community facilities". After further consultation, this had been refined to "affordable housing and youth facilities", an outline for the future redevelopment which Cabinet approved in June 2025. 

 

Despite two years of review, there is still nothing in the Forward Plan to say when detailed recommendations for the Morland Gardens site will be put to Brent's Cabinet for a decision. During all that time, an architecturally and historically important local heritage building has been sitting empty, and the land behind it which could provide 25-30 much needed affordable Council homes is being left unused. That is a waste of two valuable Council-owned property assets!

 

Please let me know the date by which Council Officers intend to make their detailed recommendations to Cabinet for the redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens.

 

Please also let me know (as some decision on this point must surely have been reached after two years of review) whether those recommendations will include retaining the heritage Victorian villa building, Altamira, as requested in the Willesden Local History Society petition which was presented to September's Full Council meeting, and supported then by councillors from across all three political parties.

 

I look forward to receiving your clear replies on both of those points. Thank you.’

 

I can’t help wondering why it should take Council Officers so long to come up with detailed proposals. Are they deliberately allowing the empty heritage building (which the Council restored in the 1990s to provide an inspiring home for the borough’s adult education students) to deteriorate, so they can claim that it can’t be saved, and must be demolished? Or could it be that they plan to recommend demolition, but their political masters don't want to make that unpopular decision in the run up to the local elections?

 

Whatever the reason, the delay is costing Brent Council (and therefore Council taxpayers) further money (on top of an estimated £4m for the failed 2020 project!), as well as further delaying the much needed affordable homes and youth facilities which they say they want to provide at Morland Gardens.

 

I’ve received an automated response to my “Service Request”, and a short email from an unidentified Officer signing themselves as “Brent Council”, advising that they hope to provide a reply by 21 November, so I will let you know what they say!

 

Philip Grant.

1 Morland Gardens – Councillor Benea’s reply to my open letter – why are the Council dithering over the heritage Victorian villa?

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

The Italianate-style belvedere tower of “Altamira”, beyond the community garden.
(Photo by Margaret Pratt, May 2023)

 

Earlier this month, Martin published an open letter, “Brent’s Morland Gardens development, and the future of the heritage Victorian villa”, which I had sent to two key Cabinet members, ahead of a decision which is due to be made on 16 June. On 21 May, I received this reply from Councillor Teo Benea, the Lead Member for Regeneration:

 

‘Dear Mr Grant,

 

Thank you for your open letter to myself and Cllr Donnelly-Jackson dated 8 May 2025.

 

I have spoken to officers regarding 1 Morland Gardens and a decision on the site use options will be proposed for Cabinet’s consideration at the meeting on Monday 16 June 2025. No decision has been made on retaining the locally listed Altamira building and Cabinet will only be asked to consider the proposed site use(s) for Morland Gardens as part of developing a complementary vision for the Hillside Corridor.

 

I will ensure that officers consider your letter and content as part of ongoing work to progress the Cabinet approved site use option.

 

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Teo Benea
Cllr for Sudbury ward
Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning & Property’

 

It was in January 2020 that Brent’s Cabinet approved a recommendation for the redevelopment of their 1 Morland Gardens site, to provide updated facilities for the Brent Start college (which had been there since 1995) and Council homes. Planning Committee approved the plans (by five votes to two) later that year, including the demolition of the locally-listed Victorian villa at the heart of the college. But the scheme was so flawed, and so many mistakes were made in trying to implement it, that the planning consent expired at the end of October 2023, without construction having begun.

 

I was told in a letter from Brent’s Director of Property and Assets in November 2023, under the heading “An urgent rethink on original proposals”, that:

 

‘We are always reviewing and updating schemes across the board as part of our usual governance arrangements, and we are doing that with even more rigour given the underlying economic conditions. Following the expiration of the planning permission, the Council is reviewing its options for the Morland Gardens site, including the Altamira building.’

 

Despite the supposed urgency, nothing further was heard, until I sent an open letter to Brent’s Chief Executive at the end of March 2024, which I shared in a post - Is Brent Council “busy doing nothing”? In response, Brent’s Head of Capital Delivery said: ‘the Council is continuing to review its options and proposals for the Morland Gardens site. As soon as the Council has completed the review, it will place the item for decision onto the Council’s Forward Plan and seek Cabinet’s consideration of the same.’

 

This is a Council-owned site, which has been vacant since early 2022 (apart from six months when it was occupied by Live-in Guardians). At least they were providing some security for the building, but ever since they left, nearly two and a half years ago, Brent Council has been paying a security firm to guard the empty building. 

 

Notice on the security fence around 1 Morland Gardens. (Photo by Margaret Pratt, May 2023)

 

 

As part of their long-running review, Brent have been given plenty of evidence of the high historic and architectural value of the Victorian villa, and how retaining this locally-listed heritage asset as part of their redevelopment plans is both a practical proposition and in line with the Council’s adopted planning policy and historic environment strategy. How can Officers not yet recommend to Cabinet that this landmark building, part of the original estate that gave Stonebridge Park its name 150 years ago, should be retained? I expressed that view in my “open email” reply to the Lead Member for Regeneration:

 

‘Dear Councillor Benea,

 

Thank you for your email, and for updating me on what will be put to Cabinet on 16 June in respect of Morland Gardens.

 

I have to say that I am surprised that 'Cabinet will only be asked to consider the proposed site use(s) for Morland Gardens.'

 

Council Officers started to consider proposals for the future of the former Brent Start college site at 1 Morland Gardens in November 2023. I understood then that they expected to put their recommendations to Cabinet by around this time in 2024.

 

By November 2024, they had already decided to recommend that the site should be used for new Council homes and community facilities, and they put this out for consultation then, as part of the Bridge Park and Hillside Corridor exercise:

 

 

By March this year, as a result of that consultation, the proposal had been refined to be 'new Council homes and youth facilities'. I find it hard to believe that all Brent's Officers can submit to Cabinet, another three months further on, and more than eighteen months after they started their review, is a recommendation to confirm that the proposed site use should be new Council homes and youth facilities!

 

Given all of the information and views put forward since November 2023, including as part of the December 2024 consultation exercise, where there was clear support from community members for the heritage Victorian villa at 1 Morland Gardens to be retained, I would hope that Council Officers could also recommend that the future redevelopment plans for this Council-owned site should include retaining the locally-listed building.

 

A decision on such a recommendation, by Cabinet on 16 June, would give Officers clearer guidance to progress their Hillside Corridor plans as they move forward. I hope that you, as Cabinet Member for Regeneration, will ask Officers to include that in their Report. Thank you.

 

I am copying this email to Kim Wright, Chief Executive, who could also ask the relevant Officers to do that, in order to help avoid further unnecessary delay over this site. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.’

 

If you agree that the Victorian villa, “Altamira”, should be retained, there is still time (until 26 May 2025) to sign the Willesden Local History Society petition calling on Brent Council and its Cabinet to do that. You can add your signature, if you have not already done that, HERE. Thank you!

Philip Grant.

Please sign the petition to retain Stonebridge’s heritage Victorian villa

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

“Altamira”, 1 Morland Gardens, at the corner of Hillside and Brentfield Road.

 

Willesden Local History Society has been campaigning to save the locally-listed Victorian villa, known as “Altamira”, since Brent Council “consulted” on its original plans to demolish it as part of its Morland Gardens redevelopment plans in 2019. I joined the fight in February 2020, with a guest post on “Housing or heritage? Or both?”

 

The battle has been long and hard, but the planning consent which Brent’s Planning Committee gave in 2020 expired at the end of October 2023, without construction beginning on the project. The following month, the Council started a review of its future plans for the former Brent Start site (the college having been moved to a “temporary” home in the former Stonebridge School annexe in 2022, at a cost of around £1.5m).

 

That review was due to last a few months, with proposals then being put to Brent’s Cabinet by Spring or early Summer 2024. Instead, it eventually got tagged onto the redevelopment proposals for Bridge Park, as part of what Brent then started calling its Hillside Corridor project. At the exhibition in November 2024, which began another consultation, this was the conclusion after one year of the Council’s Morland Gardens review:

 

 

By March 2025, a new consultation was launched, asking whether residents agreed that the Morland Gardens site should comprise new Council homes and youth facilities. It did not give any indication of whether Brent intended to retain the heritage Victorian villa as part of that scheme, even though I’m aware that many people had asked for that in their comments as part of the earlier consultation (including me, with detailed proposals on how this could be done!).

 

Now we have found out that the long-awaited new proposals will be put to Brent’s Cabinet at its meeting on 16 June 2025, not as a separate item, but tucked away as part of a report about the future of Bridge Park. In response to this, Willesden Local History Society have launched a petition on the Council’s website:

 

We the undersigned petition the council and its Cabinet, when considering the regeneration of 1 Morland Gardens, as part of the Hillside Corridor proposals, to retain the beautiful and historic locally listed Victorian villa, Altamira, as part of the redevelopment of that site for affordable housing and youth facilities. The 150-year-old landmark building is part of the original estate which gave Stonebridge Park its name, and its sense of place can be an inspiration to local young people who would use it, while there is plenty of space behind the Victorian villa to build a good number of genuinely affordable homes.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

As I write this, more than 150 people have already signed this online petition, more than enough to ensure that the Society can present its views in support of retaining this important local heritage building at the Cabinet meeting. We can hope that this view adds weight to a recommendation already made by Council Officers, but we won’t know that until the report is published about 10 days before the meeting!

 

From Brent’s Historic Environment Place-making Strategy (Part of the Council’s adopted Local Plan!)

 

At this stage, it is important that as many people as possible from the Brent community sign the petition, to show the strength of feeling that this beautiful and historic building is too valuable to be demolished. The Council’s own planning policies tell them that, but there are some people at the Civic Centre who don’t seem to care about that! If you agree with the petition’s aims, then please sign it, if you haven’t already done so. You can do that here. Thank you.

Philip Grant.