A piece of heritage returns to Wembley Park

Guest blog by Philip Grant

It may be some time before “staying at home” and restrictions on social gatherings are eased, which would allow us to return to the Civic Centre or Wembley Arena, but when we can there will be something “new” to see.

 

The telephone kiosks being installed
in Arena Square, Engineers Way.
(Photo courtesy of Quintain)

I heard last week that Quintain, the Wembley Park developers, have acquired three of the traditional red telephone boxes, which are being installed in Arena Square, opposite the Civic Centre.

Long-term residents of Wembley may remember a row of three such kiosks, which used to stand in Empire Way, not far from the western end of Wembley Arena. They were the iconic K6 telephone kiosks, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to mark the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935 (the year after the Empire Pool, as it then was, opened). Those boxes were removed by BT about 15 years ago. 

 

The Empire Pool in 1948, with the row of three ‘phone boxes marked. (Based on “Britain from Above” image EAW018319)

Quintain had been looking to recreate the row of three red boxes for some time, and have reintroduced these kiosks to the local scene as part of their "public realm" improvements.  We won't be able to make a call from them (or press button “B” to get our 4d back). I have been told that they will probably be used for art displays and other community events, once “normal” life returns.

It is purely by chance that I received this Wembley Park “heritage” news just in time to share it with you now. My new series of illustrated local history articles, starting this coming weekend, is The Wembley Park Story!

Philip Grant.

Never mind your heritage - get excited by the shops!

Guest blog by local historian Philip Grant

It seems that we are likely to see the last remaining relic of the British Empire Exhibition, the Palace of Industry building in Olympic Way and Fulton Road, demolished within the next couple of weeks.

Quintain Estates advised me on 14 February that they intend to go ahead with the demolition before their planning application for 1350 temporary car parking spaces on the site goes before Brent's Planning Committee on 13 March. They can do this, as Brent gave them permission as part of the overall scheme for Wembley City some years ago. 

I had asked them to allow the east and north external walls to remain standing until the main redevelopment of the site for a shopping centre goes ahead in several years time. This would not stop them from having all of the car parking spaces they require to fulfil their commitments to Wembley Stadium, and would allow visitors coming to Wembley Park for the 90th anniversary of the British Empire Exhibition in 2014 to see the scale and style of the last of these iconic buildings. They claim it would be unsafe to do this, but have ignored my request (four weeks ago) to have sight of their evidence.

It was intended to ask for the retention of the walls to be made a condition of granting planning permission for the temporary car park. It appears that Quintain Estates have decided not to take that risk, so that the demolition will already be a "fait accompli" when the Planning meeting takes place. As a concession to the proposed BEE 90th anniversary exhibition, which it is hoped will be held in the new Civic Centre in the summer of 2014, Quintain have said that they will give Brent the lion's head corbels from the building.

When I suggested to the Quintain representative yesterday that it might be better to co-operate with local people and Brent Museum and Archives on this matter before sending in the demolition team, I was told they 'hope that the excitement about a new cinema for Wembley, with shops and restaurants accessible for all plus 1500 new jobs will outweigh any "bad publicity".'