Bug bears with parking on Wembley Event days

The new Wembley Stadium was marketed as a 'public transport' destination with limited private car access.  This letter is reproduced with permission of the Wembley resident who has written to councillors and council officers about some of the current issues to do with Event Day parking in the local :

 

Dear All,

 

First of all I must state that I have no objections to Wembley Stadium increasing the number of events, having lived in the HA9 area for almost 40 years I have learned to adapt and deal with it and experience little disruption to daily life. 

 

It would seem that one of the biggest bug bears to Residents in the area is Parking, so I would ask the council to do a complete overhaul of the Parking Permits and Event Day permits being issued in all wards within the HA9 area, not only for event days, as many now living in what is supposed to be “Car Free” properties have gained permits in CPZ’s and Event Day Permits which renders the system useless.

 

Work with Transport for London, to ensure that reduction of service (206 & 92) and diversion of buses (83,182, etc) that use Empire Way and Wembley Hill Road/High Road is kept to a minimum and if they have to be diverted for a limited time that proper signage is erected along with Traffic Marshals to help people affected to be able to connect with the relevant bus stop, further along the route.

 

Exemptions on closed roads, for Supermarket Delivery, Parcel Deliveries, Medicines, Residents with clear mobility issues for access especially at weekends when people who are working have no other options but to have them when they are at home.

 

Make Parking Enforcement Officers aware of the regulations with regard to Event Day permits etc.

 

I recently queried with Parking Enforcement Officer why they had not ticketed 2 vehicles parked in the CPZ and was told “they have Event Day Permits” I informed him that this did not entitle them to park in a CPZ/Resident Bay and he told me that was not what he had been told and would therefore not issue a ticket.  I can also confirm that these vehicles belong to residents of the “Car Free” flats of Wembley Place.

 

Recently at the Taylor Swift concerts 3 vehicles parked in the CPZ on the street, all were Chauffeurs/Uber Drivers who sat in their vehicles, engine ticking over for over an hour waiting to collect their customers. We never saw anyone from Enforcement and not one was ticketed or told to move.

 

Event Day Permits Abuse of ….

I suggest Brent Council Parking Service looked at websites such as:-

Just Park, Park on my Drive, Your Parking Space,  Parkopedia.

 

As they are valid for 3 years for £15.00! not yearly you missed a valuable revenue stream there!

 

I know of several people who have moved and no longer live in the area, who have retained and renewed their permits, who on Event Days to park in the area when visiting relatives who live in the zone, or who have given their permits to people who would not normally entitled to one, to use over the next few years!

 

The issuing of Event Day Permits to the Residents who live outside the CPZ’s in Tokyngton, Wembley Park, Wembley Hill, and Wembley Central has allowed anyone with a Driveway some with spaces of up to 3 cars, the ability to exacerbate the problem to epic proportions as many now put the permit in their cars park them on the road and rent out their driveway.  Some even park extra vehicles on the actual dropped kerb and block the footpath on to their drive.  In Tokyngton this clearly demonstrates that blocking the road at the Arches/Harrow Road has no effect whatsoever, as most vehicles enter from St Michaels Avenue.  This renders the road closure a complete waste of time and does nothing to alleviate the congestion at the end of an event.

 

I suggest for clarification and entertainment someone from the relevant Parking department put in the dates of the upcoming concerts for Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift, see how many are on offer and how many have actually sold out!  The sheer volume of adverts, all outside the CPZs to discover how widespread this is, even Asda Wembley Park advertise on Just Park you can reserve a space for £24 for up to 11 hours.

 

Blocking vehicles from entering the Wembley Stadium area i.e at Ecclestone Place, Triangle/Wembley Hill Road whilst the Traffic Marshalls employed by Wembley are doing a fantastic job of reducing the issues for residents parking and accessing their homes, this has caused an even bigger problem which no one has addressed not Parking Enforcement or the Police, which is the……….

 

Designated Pick Up Points, or rigorous enforcement of…..

 

Allowing Chauffeurs, Black Taxi’s and Ubers waiting to collect their customers from parking on both sides of the street on double yellow lines between Ecclestone Place and the Triangle where the road is blocked, along Harrow Road and Wembley High Road.  Some Ubers and Black Taxi’s were witnessed “Touting”  for business.

 

This was the case on all 3 dates of previous Taylor Swift Concerts.  The 18 bus could not pick up at the bus stop, Ambulances were stuck in gridlock and nobody was going anywhere as 2 cars could barely pass on the road.  Sainsbury’s have their delivery at 10.30 pm every night and park in the Bus Lane, which normally is not an issue but on Event day added to the problem. 

 

 

I am able to supply video should anyone from Parking Enforcement wish to view the mayhem this caused and was still causing problems up until 11.30pm over an hour and fifteen minutes after the concert finished.  I will state this is not typical concert behaviour as certain concerts do not attract the fans that use these options, i.e Green Day, and AC/DC.  I have no doubt that the up and coming Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, and Boxing Events will have a same scenario unless serious thought is given as to how to prevent this.

 

I look forward to receiving a response on my comments.

 

Regards

Wembley Central Resident

The Wembley Park Story – Part 2

The second of Philip Grant's series on the history of Wembley Park

 

The first part of this story took us from Saxon times up to the “birth” of Wembley Park in 1793. If you missed it, “click” here.

1. Repton's sketch of his proposed mansion, in its parkland setting. (Extract from a copy at Brent Archives)

Humphry Repton was landscaping the grounds of Wembley Park for Richard Page, but they disagreed over Repton’s proposed “Gothic” designs for the mansion, which were never carried out. By 1795, Page had moved to Flambards, another mansion on Harrow Hill, that he inherited from Mary Herne. This had mature grounds, which had been laid out by Capability Brown around 1770.

When Richard Page died in 1803, his estate was valued at £400,000 (worth over £25 million now). He had never married, and his will left a “life interest” in his estate to his next eldest brother, Francis, and then down the male line. Francis Page did not marry either, nor had the next youngest of the five brothers, John, who died in 1801. The family seemed unaware of the “truth” which Jane Austen was writing about at that time!

2. The opening line from an early edition of Jane Austen’s "Pride and Prejudice". (Image from the internet)

By 1809, Francis Page had sold Wembley Park to John Gray, a wealthy brandy merchant who was a Freeman of the City of London. However, as the Page family’s Wembley Park legacy was to continue into the 20^th century, I need to finish their story. Francis died in 1810, and as he had no children, the Page estate passed to the fourth brother, William. In 1813, he and his surviving brother Henry put the management of their affairs into the hands of their solicitor, Francis Fladgate. 

William Page died, without marrying, in 1824, so Henry Page inherited the estate. He had married in 1813, aged 55, but his wife died five years later, without leaving any children. Henry Young, who as a 14-year old clerk had witnessed William Page’s will, had since married Fladgate’s daughter and taken over the solicitor’s business. Henry Page, who appears to have been feeble minded, and often drunk, allowed Young to draw up his will in 1825. When Henry Page died, four years later, the entire Page family fortune had been left to their solicitor!

3. Wembley Park mansion, "The White House", photographed c.1880. (Brent Archives – W.H.S. Colln,)

From 1811 onwards, John Gray did have the Wembley Park mansion modernised and enlarged, spending around £14,000 in the process. His home became known as the White House, because of its pale stucco finish, and he lived there until his death in 1828. Wembley Park passed to his son, Rev. John Edward Gray, although his father’s will had said that the estate must be put up for sale. It was advertised for auction in 1834, as ‘a beautiful demesne with 272 acres of rich meadow land and pasturage, including plantations’, but it was not sold, and Rev. Gray and his family remained living there for the rest of his life.

4. Wembley Park, from an 1865 Ordnance Survey map. (from Brent Archives – maps collection)

The map above shows Wembley Park and its surrounding area in 1865. Apart from the small community around Wembley Hill, it was mainly farms, with two large Victorian houses along the Harrow Road. These had been built for wealthy men who liked to live in the country, but could take a train to the City from the London & Birmingham Railway’s nearby Sudbury (for Wembley) Station [now Wembley Central], which had opened in 1844.

Wembley Park’s farmland was managed for the Gray family by a bailiff, but there were no public paths across their estate, and they appear to have lived a quiet life. The area did attract some visitors, however. An 1837 guide described the “Green Man” as ‘a favourite Sunday resort for a respectable class of people.’ This popularity continued during Victoria’s reign, with its ‘panoramic view of the surrounding countryside, including the Metropolis and Windsor Castle.’ The picture of the inn below is the earliest known photograph of Wembley, taken in June 1862.

 

5. The "Green Man", Wembley Hill, 1862. (Wembley History Society Colln., Brent Archives online image 714)

In 1879, the Metropolitan Railway from Baker Street had reached Willesden Green, and the company wanted to extend their line. Rev. John Gray had little choice but to sell them a 47- acre strip of land across his estate, and the railway opened to Harrow in August 1880. Seven years later, Gray died, and as he had fathered nine children, his executors sold the Wembley Park estate in 1889, so the proceeds could be shared. It was bought by the Metropolitan Railway’s Chairman, Sir Edward Watkin, for £32,929 18s 7d.

Watkin’s dream was to build a railway from Manchester to Paris - one of his schemes managed to start building a tunnel under the English Channel in 1880! He had seen Eiffel’s new Tower in the French capital, and proposed to build an even taller one in London. His Tower Company leased 124 acres of Wembley Park in late 1889, for use as a pleasure ground, and a competition was organised to design the Wembley Tower that would be its centrepiece.

6. Some of the tower designs from the 1890 competition. (Brent Archives online image 4081)

The tower had to be at least 1200 feet tall, and the first prize of 500 guineas attracted dozens of entries from Britain, Europe and North America. Although the prize was awarded to a British design, the judges thought that it needed some modification, to reduce its construction costs. When work began in 1892, the “winning” octagonal tower design ended up with just four legs, looking a lot like Monsieur Eiffel’s, but planned to be 150 feet higher.

While construction was underway on the tower, the rest of the pleasure ground was being laid out, including a large boating lake, a sports area and gardens. Watkin wanted those coming to enjoy the attractions to use his Metropolitan Railway, so a new station for Wembley Park was built. It was ready for when the pleasure ground opened in May 1894. The map below shows how Wembley Park looked then (compare it with thirty years earlier, above).

7. A map showing Wembley Park and its surrounding area in 1895. (from Brent Archives – maps collection)

It was May 1896 before the first stage of the tower, with a platform 155 feet above the hilltop, was opened to the public. That was as far as it got, owing to a shortage of funds and its feet starting to sink into the underlying clay. Other events to attract visitors included a cricket match against the Australian touring side in 1896, athletics and horse trotting races, and shows in the wooden variety hall, but attendances (120,000 in the 1895 season) were fewer than hoped.

Figure 8. Postcard of the lake and tower, c.1900. (Brent Archives online image 1662)

9. “Benny C”, winning a 10-mile trotting race at Wembley Park in 1902. (Brent Archives online image 7384)

10. A mandolin band at Wembley Park in 1904. (Brent Archives online image 9217)

Wembley Park received some unwelcome visitors in 1900, when a group of protestors tried to claim possession of the land. A Mrs Davey had read about the wealthy family who once owned it, and had persuaded “subscribers” to back her plan to recover “The Page Millions”, in return for a share of the reward that would be due. 

In 1905, a court case, in the name of James Page, distantly related to Richard Page of Wembley Park, was filed against the Metropolitan Railway and Tower Company. It claimed he was the rightful heir, denied his inheritance because of fraud by Henry Young. The case was dismissed in 1906, as anyone who felt they should have inherited the Page estate could have claimed it in 1829, or soon after. The claim would also have failed because Francis Page had sold Wembley Park to John Gray, so that it was not part of the alleged fraud by the solicitor.

The viewing platform of the Tower remained open to the public until 1902, when the lifts were deemed to be unsafe. It had already been nicknamed “Watkin’s Folly”. Sir Edward had died the previous year, but not before one of his other railway companies, the Great Central, had built a line alongside the Metropolitan, and planned a branch line from Neasden to Northolt. The photograph shows it being constructed, past the disused Tower.

11. The Great Central Railway branch line under construction, c.1903. (Brent Archives online image 9253)

The short life of the Wembley Park pleasure grounds was effectively over by 1906. The company running them even had to pay £1,200 to have the Tower dismantled, by Messrs Heenan and Froude who had built it. So what next for Wembley Park? The story will continue in Part 3, next weekend.

If you have any questions, or information on Wembley Park that you would like to share, please use the comments section below.

Philip Grant.