I am please to publish this guest post by local historian Philip Grant
Conservation Areas were introduced in England by the Civic Amenities Act
1967, as a way of preserving the character of areas in towns or villages which
had special architectural or historic interest. They are meant to provide a
level of protection for those areas when planning decisions are made.
The Victorian commercial character of the Willesden Green Conservation
Area helped campaigners in 2012 to save the remaining Victorian section of the
Willesden Green Library building, despite the plans of Brent Council and their
development partner, Galliford Try, to demolish it. The façade of the 1893
library now forms the High Road frontage of the modern Willesden Green Library.
The distinctive late-Victorian and Edwardian suburban villas which
characterise the residential Mapesbury Conservation Area have, so far, managed
to save “The Queensbury” in that area from demolition, and from an
inappropriate development of flats on its site.
The inter-war planned garden suburb of the Sudbury Court Conservation
Area, has relatively narrow tree-lined streets with grass verges, which form an
essential part of its character. However, this did not prevent Brent Council
pushing through its plans in 2016 to expand Byron Court Primary School, built
in the early 1930’s as a two-form entry school for the children of this Comben
& Wakeling estate, to five-form entry, generating traffic that the areas
roads will not be able to cope with.
Anyone interested in Conservation Areas and their history will be very
welcome at a Wembley History Society talk on this subject, on the evening of
Friday 8th June:-
Brent’s first Conservation Area, designated in 1968, was the Roe Green
Village Conservation Area in Kingsbury (whose proud sign is shown on the poster
above). As well as marking 50 years as a Conservation Area, the village is also
celebrating its centenary this year. It was specially planned by the
Government’s Office of Works during the First World War, as housing for workers
at an aircraft factory (“AIRCO”) on the opposite side of Stag Lane.
The Roe Green Village Residents’ Association is holding a number of events
during June 2018 as part of the village’s centenary celebrations:-
If
you don’t know Roe Green Village, why not treat yourself, and come along to the
Village Day on Saturday 30th June! As well as lots of other
attractions on offer that afternoon, on the Village Green in Roe Lane (yes, the
WW1 plans included a village green, although the village pub that was meant to
stand beside it was not built!) Wembley History Society will be putting on a
display of pictures, telling the story of AIRCO and how the village came about.
I look forward to seeing you there.
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