Fulham Gasworks Community Fights Back Against Demolition

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Letter sent to Prince Charles calls redevelopment plans 'baffling'

The community of over 300 individuals and small businesses based at Fulham's Old Gasworks is fighting back against plans to demolish their premises to create luxury apartments.

Their battle includes an appeal to Prince Charles for support.

As we reported last month, St William LLP - a joint venture between National Grid and property developers the Berkeley Group - has submitted a planning application for the comprehensive redevelopment of the site to create 1,375 new homes in buildings up to 27 storeys high, plus new community and leisure space.

You can see the full planning application and over 200 associated documents here.

The tenants based at what is described as "affordable studio and office space" with the Old Gasworks include artists, craftspeople and fashion designers.

If the redevelopment goes ahead, the tenants will be evicted and say they have not been offered any alternative accommodation.

The creative enterprise committee opposing the scheme have now written to Berkeley calling the demolition plans "baffling".

In the letter, also sent to the Prince of Wales, whose support they are hoping to win as at least two of the tenants are backed by the Prince’s Trust, they say: "The array of British heritage brands and crafts housed here are not only a vital asset to the neighbourhood and London more broadly, but also a very obvious goldmine for any future development."

" We are trying to convince them to keep us as part of the development because this could be a huge asset," Johnny de Ath, a musician and composer who has been based at the complex for 12 years told The Guardian. "Once you have the arts scene, the rest follows. If this doing and making is all pushed out we have a big problem for the creative industries in this city."

Hammersmith and Fulham Council is still considering the planning application for the site. However planners at neighbouring Kensington and Chelsea Council have expressed concerns about the impact of the "alien and oversized" towers and the Chelsea Society and Lots Village Residents Association have also objected to the proposals.

St George plc, another part of the Berkeley Group, is currently building the Chelsea Creek development on the adjoining land to the south of the gasworks, where property currently for sale is priced from £5,999,950 and rising to £16,950,000 for the penthouse.

St George is also the developer behind Imperial Wharf further south.

As the application acknowledges, there are a number of historic buildings on the site which are excluded from the plans, including two war memorials and the No 2 Gasholder, which is a Grade II listed building dating back to the 1830s.

The gasworks themselves are even older, dating back 1824 when the Imperial Gas Company began their constuction, and as well as the ornately decorated number 2 gasholder - reputed to be the oldest in the World - the neoclassical office building, completed in 1857 and a laboratory designed by the architect Sir Walter Tapper added in 1927 are also Grade II listed.

 

November 4, 2016