Rampant greed is poisoning the whole of London

The demolition of the existing building is a grotesque waste of viable fabric and embodied energy, and completely unnecessary – illustrating the worst kind of retrogressive thinking  of the 1960s/70s. 

At least then developers might have been able to claim ignorance of the environmental ramifications of such wastage – but not now. It flies in the face of every article of good practice that the City as a socially responsible authority ought to be promoting. 

Unfortunately however the civic values that previously informed the creation of Golden Lane and Barbican have been superseded by the same rampant greed that is poisoning the whole of London. In the absence of any sense of urban propriety on the part of the City and the developers, resort to the law would appear to be the only remaining weapon in the struggle.

John Allan, Consultant Architect and author of the Golden Lane Estate Listed Building Management Guidelines

'Environmental ramifications' also includes the appalling pollution created by the toxic dust which Taylor Wimpey failed to contain during the demolition process, read about it here in this great Mirror On-line article

Unfortunately resorting to the law does seem to be the only weapon in the struggle to stop TW building this wasteful polluting unnecessary building. We have lost Bernard Morgan House but we can make sure it's replaced with real homes and not luxury cash boxes. Many of you have given generously already, but if you can, and no matter how small the amount, please make a donation on the Crowd Justice fundraising page.

Bernard Morgan House, now demolished
A police section house which provided accommodation for 110 police officers

For 55 years the City of London provided accommodation for Police Officers. Not any more. Now only an empty plot ready for property speculators to build unneeded luxury apartments.

The site where Bernard Morgan House stood

How times have changed.

The first picture was taken in 1956 when Bowater House was just being finished,
before work on Bernard Morgan House and the Jewin Church had begun.
The second picture taken in 2018 after Taylor Wimpey had demolished Bernard Morgan House

Post-war City of London town planners had the vision to transform the area bombed in the blitz into an exemplar of urban living. Incorporating the Golden Lane Estate and the Barbican. The dream of an urban village was realised. This is a close supportive community and we are fighting this battle together.

An original drawing for the Golden Lane Estate

Plans for the Barbican, note this drawing included Bernard Morgan House

The City of London needs to work out what is best for its community. There is just no need for more luxury ghost flats. The socially rented tower block accommodation crammed into the north site could be spread over both areas to provide decent social housing and key worker homes. Or even accommodation for police officers and nurses. Read about the CoLPAI planning application here

The proposed tower block north of the Golden Lane Estate

There have been 140 objections to the CoLPAI proposal. Objections based on official planning policies. The CoLPAI planning application goes before the Islington Planning Committee on 1st March at 7.30pm at Islington Town Hall. It will then go before the City of London Planning and Transportation Committee at a later date.

Please sign the petition to Save Golden Lane Estate AND Build Decent Homes

This 14 storey tower block is planned for the north of the estate.
The block is a fire risk with only one stairwell and open walkways and has no communal gardens. 

This has already been a long expensive legal battle and we now need more funds to enable our barrister to present our case at the forthcoming Court hearing where we are seeking permission to pursue our judicial review. The Court hearing was due to take place on 1st March, but Taylor Wimpey and the City have asked for more time than is available on that day, so we are waiting to hear if another date will be set.

Since we started the Crowd Justice page last year people have been extraordinarily generous. We have used the money raised to challenge the City’s grant of planning permission to Taylor Wimpey which is to redevelop Bernard Morgan Police Section House in a way which causes damage to our local homes, our school and our park, which fails to provide for adequate affordable housing and which damages our local architectural heritage.

All our objections are based on official planning policies and all have been overridden in favour of the developer, Taylor Wimpey.

The harm Taylor Wimpey's 'Denizen' will do can be seen in this picture.

Funds raised have paid for independent expert analysis of Taylor Wimpey’s overshadowing report which has revealed some extraordinary inaccuracies.

We have paid for our legal team to obtain and scrutinise all the documents relating to the sale of Bernard Morgan House to Taylor Wimpey and its planning application; to write the required pre-action protocol letter to the City of London setting out our concerns; to responding to the City and Taylor Wimpey’s replies; to preparing and issuing the Court claim for judicial review claim with all the supporting documents; to adding to the claim when the errors in Taylor Wimpey’s overshadowing report were revealed and to applying for a Court hearing of the issues.

There are complicated legal arguments which the City and Taylor Wimpey have been fighting us tooth and nail all along the way.

The legal process is long and complex but we must continue with our campaign. We believe we have an arguable case which should be heard in public. A national housing charity has recently written to the Court asking to join the claim if we are given permission at the Court hearing to pursue our claim regarding developers’ obligations to provide for affordable housing.

 We rely on the generosity of people in our community as well as people in the wider community who believe that the public need to be listened to and that public assets should be used for public benefit, and not for private commercial exploitation. We don't need any more luxury homes - there are hundreds left empty and unsold in the area. We want a new development  built on this site which has some public benefit, not just public detriment.

Many of you have given generously already, but if you can and no matter how small the amount, please make a donation on the Crowd Justice fundraising page

Together we can stop the Denizen