Determined and defiant Kensal Rise clears mess left by All Souls College

My National Libraries Day visit to the three events organised by campaigners fighting to reopen libraries closed by Brent Council turned out to be an emotional roller coaster. Common to all of them was determination to carry on the struggle and the immense value they place on books and community.

The wind and rain did not deter early arrivals at Kensal Rise intent on clearing up the mess left by All Souls College

Kensal Rise after the events of this week deserves a posting of its own. I arrived in the rain  this morning  to find people already working at clearing up the mess left by security guards hired by All Souls College.  They were under orders to clear the pop up library so that that All Souls could hand over the site to developer Andrew Gillick on the completion of the sale. The sale went through despite the on/off police investigation into fraudulent emails that supported Gillick's planning application for the site..

A large number of books ruined by exposure to the rain were being thrown into a skip bag while volunteers were sorting through others. The pop up's piano was also ruined beyond repair. Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt has arranged with the Campaign to get the books removed to a safe and dry place this coming Monday. Unfortunately too late for some of the books.

The ruined books and pianos ended up in a skip

By the late afternoon the surviving books and shelves had been neatly packaged ready for transfer

Campaigners remain defiant as sun replaces the rain

All Souls shouldn't complete Kensal Rise sale before investigation complete

Guest Post from Meg Howarth

A crucial question now is whether All Souls College (ASC) will proceed to complete its ‘binding agreement to sell’ the historic Kensal Rise Library (KRL) site to Andrew Gillick’s Kensal Properties Ltd (Platinum Revolver in another guise?). Completion of sale was conditional on vacant possession, so once ASC was told the police investigation was off, it appears to have wasted no time in sending in its heavies to demolish the pop-up - thus securing the necessary vacant possession and enabling the sale contract with Mr Gillick to be completed. 

The embarrassment to ASC that will be caused by any re-opening of the fraudulent email inquiry is incalculable, particularly if completion has taken place over the last two days. Already on the defensive because of the adverse publicity surrounding events last Friday, ASC has tried to blame the council for its barbarity, citing a seven-months-old enforcement letter 27 June 2013 to justify its action. LINK

And here’s the text of an even-earlier letter - May 2012 - this time from ASC’s bursar to a horrified newspaper reader who’d contacted the college on hearing of Brent’s own now-notorious dawn raid on the KRL site:

Yes, the College became aware of what happened yesterday and we find it distressing.  We had told the Council that we would have been happy for them to have kept the Library open, possibly through cooperation with the Friends of Kensal Rise Library, who had developed an interesting business plan.

This was not to be however.

The law by which we originally donated the land dictates that the site now reverts to the College’s freehold.  This is not something we ever wanted to see happen, but because it is the law, is something we cannot change either’.

Does this once-prestigious institution, noted for its famous Codrington library, really want to go down in history as the wealthiest of Oxford’s colleges that couldn’t wait to gain vacant possession in a civilised fashion before sealing a deal with its chosen developer who’s not yet been cleared of involvement in the fraudulent email affair? 

‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread’ inevitably springs to mind.