Ed Vaizey visits HOLT projects
July 2nd, 2009
On July 2nd, 2009, new HOLT Trustee Ed Vaizey, MP for Wantage and Didcot and Shadow Minister for Culture, joined fellow members of the HOLT and HOLT Ops boards for a visit to some of HOLT's most worrying projects. HOLT Director Diana Beattie arranged visits to the Concrete House 549 Lordship Lane (Southwark), St George's Chapel Woolwich (Greenwich), the Spotted Dog Upton Lane (Newham) and St John on Bethnal Green. It was an opportunity not only for Mr Vaizey to learn more about the work HOLT is doing, but also for a chance to meet up with partners from English Heritage and the boroughs with whom HOLT and HOLT Ops are working to find long-term solutions for these projects.
HOLT Ops director Laura Norris was also in attendance for the visit to the Concrete House, which has recently been the subject of a compulsory purchase order by Southwark Council after the owner vandalised the building in an attempt to get it demolished for re-development. The Grade II listed house was possibly designed by Charles Barry junior and built in 1873 by Charles Drake's pioneering Patent Concrete Building Company. It is one of the earliest surviving concrete structures. HOLT Ops hope to be able to restore the house and return it to residential use in partnership with the Council and the GLA.
Despite the heat, the group intrepidly journeyed around south and north-east London, and stopped for luncheon at Woolwich Barracks where they stopped to see St. George's Chapel, Grand Depot Road, Woolwich (pictured, right; Ed Vaizey MP is in the centre). This roofless ruin was built in 1863 to an Italianate design by T.H. Wyatt. Wyatt made his reputation on his designs for Wilton Parish Church in 1845 and St. George's was based on these designs. St. George's was bombed by enemy action in 1944 and retains beautiful mosaics commemorating members of The Royal Artillery awarded the Victoria Cross. HOLT is currently working with Defence Estates and Greenwich Council to formulate a long-term plan for the building, which could be used for receptions during the Olympics.
After lunch Mr Vaizey, Diana Beattie and others continued north of the river to see the Spotted Dog, 212 Upton Lane, Newham (pictured, top). A 16th Century timber framed public house, said to be the oldest secular building in the Borough of Newham, it is another HOLT Ops project, which HOLT is also supporting. The building is currently boarded up, awaiting restoration. The final visit was to St. John on Bethnal Green, where the congregation continues its struggle to make ends meet and to find the money to restore this handsome Grade I church by Sir John Soane. English Heritage is helping to renew the leaking roofs at the East End of the building but many more repairs are urgently needed. Ed Vaizey said before the visit: "I am much looking forward to seeing the work of the two Heritage of London Trusts close up. The Trust has been working for nearly 30 years and is still the only building preservation trust covering the whole of London".