Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Max on September 13, 2012 at 22:49

Survey done! Let's hope this time it's for good!

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Permalink Reply by Lindsey Berthoud on September 14, 2012 at 13:55

Yep done. Really hope something comes of it. 

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Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on January 31, 2013 at 19:27

So the saga sadly continues - news this afternoon that the community backed bid to save Broomfield House has failed to get the lottery funding money that's needed to restore the bulding.

After so many attempts over several years - and in the current financial climate - it is difficult to know what else can be done.

What do you think should happen to the house now?

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Permalink Reply by Colin Younger on February 3, 2013 at 18:19

Having spent the best part of a year working intensively with LBE and its consultants, and having had a positive response from the Heritage Lottery Fund on the community drafted pre-application, naysayers will not be surprised that the Working Group take a different view.

The professional advice is that over half the historic value of the House can be re-instated. We have looked at the earnings from other such Houses (for example Clissold House) and made a case which we accepted needed refining and testing, but on deliberately pessimistic assumptions looked reasonable. LBE proposed as part of the hoped for next stage to engage further expertise to develop fund raising, heritage/presentational/educational and management ideas.

Of course there are other views about the benefits of a rebuilt Broomfield House, but we remain convinced that the heritage, educational and community benefits of our scheme are clear. Look at the plans and arguments on the working group website as a first step

(www.broomfieldhouse.org).

LBE and the working group have not yet seen the HLF report, and they have offered to talk to us about it to consider a way ahead. There is so much to say which is positive in community terms about the bid, not least that for the first time LBE, the Broomfield House Trust, the Friends of Broomfield Park and individuals from many other groups  are united, that we are not willing to give up on our vision.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Dawson on February 1, 2013 at 12:38

I absolutely agree with Tom.  Not all old buildings are worth preserving, and this one was ugly and of limited historical interest or architectural merit even before it was burned down.  In the current economic climate, it is fanciful to think that money will be found for a complete refurbishment when the refurbished building will not generate anything like the income to repay the costs.  Sadly, I suspect that the pub solution, which was a realistic one at the time, will also no longer fly.  A very narrow-minded outlook at the time meant that this idea was rejected when it could have worked. 

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Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on December 6, 2013 at 14:17

The long -running discussions about the restoration of Broomfield is in the news again with the broadcast last night of a BBC documentary about the threat to London's historic buldings- the programme includes a sequence filmed in Broomfield park with contributions from local campaigners and councillors.

You can view the programme over the next week on the BBC iPlayer

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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Kemball-Cook on December 6, 2013 at 16:20

The section on Broomfield House starts at 21mins 40secs - although the rest of the programme is worth watching to put things in context.

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