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.

1 Morland Gardens – Is Brent Council “busy doing nothing”?

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

The Victorian villa, “Altamira”, at Hillside, Stonebridge, in October 2023.

 

When I was growing up in the 1950s, there was a song by Bing Crosby that I often heard on the BBC Light Programme (now Radio 2). It was fun to listen to, and the words have stuck in my brain: ‘We’re busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do ….’

 

I’m beginning to wonder whether the Council are singing that tune over 1 Morland Gardens. It is now more than four months since I wrote that Brent was reviewing its plans for this site in Stonebridge, after the 2020 planning consent for its proposed development there had expired. A report was supposed to be prepared, for submission to Brent’s Cabinet, with new proposals for the site. No report has yet emerged, and there is nothing on the Council’s Forward Plan for such a report to go to Cabinet in April or May 2024.

 

Although the original plans were flawed, including as they did the demolition of a locally listed heritage building and the construction of flats over a community garden, causing air quality problems, the site could still be used for a sensible development. This could include an updated college facility for Brent Start (currently stuck in a temporary home that the Council moved it out to, at a cost of £1.5m), or other community use, and some much needed affordable housing, while retaining and re-using the 150-year old Victorian villa, which was, until recently, in excellent condition.

 

Doing nothing with the now vacant Council-owned building would be worse than doing something. And damage caused to the building, while it was in the hands of contractors last year, is in urgent need of repair. So, what is Brent Council planning to do? 

 

In order to find out, I sent this open email to Brent’s Chief Executive and Head of Capital Projects on 25 March, headed: 1 Morland Gardens, NW10 - its future, and the protection of this Victorian heritage building.

 

This is an Open Email

 

Dear Ms Wright and Mr Martin,

 

1. I was told last November that, following the expiry of the Council's planning consent for its proposed 1 Morland Gardens development, a review of future plans for the property was being carried out, headed by Mr Martin, and that this would report back with proposals to Brent's Cabinet for a decision.

 

I submitted a paper to that review on 20 November 2023, but four months later, the report of that review has not yet been published or submitted to Cabinet, and it is not shown as an item for decision during the next two months on the Forward Plan.

 

Please let me know whether the review has been completed. If it has, when will the report be submitted to Cabinet, and made publicly available? If the review has not yet been finalised, please let me know the reason for the delay, and the date by which the report and recommendations on the future of 1 Morland Gardens are expected to be ready.

 

2. In my open letter of 30 October to you, Ms Wright, I finished by including a photograph of damage to the slates on the roof of the Victorian villa (which had been carefully restored by Brent Council in the mid-1990s, to provide a permanent home for its adult education college). I wrote: 'please ensure that urgent action is taken to replace the missing slates on the roof of 1 Morland Gardens, so that the condition of the empty property is not allowed to deteriorate further.'

 

Following the unsatisfactory reply to that point by Mr Ghani, on your behalf, I wrote again on 20 November, saying: 'There have been further strong winds and heavy rain since I saw the heritage building three weeks ago, so that point is even more urgent now, if expensive damage to the fabric of the property is to be avoided.'

 

It appears that nothing has been done to address this damage to the property, and it has got worse during the winter weather. Here are three photographs, taken yesterday (24 March) by a fellow "Friend of Altamira", with arrows indicating the damaged areas:-

 

Front view of 1 Morland Gardens, showing missing slates, 24 March 2024.

 

 

1 Morland Gardens from corner of Hillside, showing missing slates on south wing of Victorian villa.

 

 

1 Morland Gardens, showing serious damage to slate roof on north wing of Victorian villa.

 

The initial damage was not present when the building was occupied by "Live-in Guardians" up until January 2023, so was probably caused by contractors during the time that 1 Morland Gardens was under the control of the Hill Group (possibly during asbestos survey work). I realise that those removing slates at the edge of the roof thought at the time that the building would be demolished, so that failing to put them back in place did not matter. 

 

However, this locally listed heritage asset (one of only two in Stonebridge Ward) is not currently due for demolition. It would be a travesty if its condition was allowed to deteriorate further, particularly if this was deliberate neglect by Brent Council, to use as an excuse for further proposals to demolish this much-loved, beautiful and still eminently usable Victorian building. 

 

As a reminder, if any were needed, Brent's own adopted Historic Environment policy on "Valuing Brent's Heritage" states:

 

'The effective preservation of historic buildings, places and landscapes and their stewardship is therefore fundamental to the Council's role.'

 

I am copying this email to the Lead Member for Customers, Community and Culture, and to the councillors for Stonebridge Ward, for their information.

 

I look forward to receiving an update on the situation over the review of the future of 1 Morland Gardens, and to hearing that the necessary repairs to the roof of the Victorian building are being carried out. Thank you. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.