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£20m plan for 'tent in the park' to become art gallery
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Affairs Editor06.02.08
The building formerly occupied by the Commonwealth Institute, one of London's most distinctive buildings, is to be restored to its former glory.
The Kensington building, known for its swooping copper roof, has been empty since 2004 when the institute closed its exhibition of Commonwealth culture.
At one stage "the tent in the park" was under threat of demolition while the Government considered lifting its grade 2* listed status.
Earlier this year, it was occupied by 20 squatters for three months.
Under a £20million, three-year plan to secure its future, developer Chelsfield and site freeholder the Ilchester Estate want to turn the 45-year-old building into an art gallery or museum or a centre for a corporate foundation.
Sir Stuart Lipton, Chelsfield's deputy chairman, said: "We bought it in May with the Ilchester Estate. We knew it was interesting before but we have all fallen in love with the tent building."
He hopes a single tenant can be found to create a 70,000 sq ft "civic space" spread over three gallery floors.
More than 30 organisations have expressed an interest but none has decided to take it any further.
Sir Stuart said: "It is not an easy space but you could easily see it as a gallery or a foundation like the Cartier foundation in Paris or the former IBM gallery in New York. Could it be that someone like Microsoft could create a new centre where children could come?
"Many people would like to turn it into a casino or a conference centre but we have said no to that."
The project would involve the demolition of two Sixties office blocks adjacent to the original exhibition building. These would be replaced by apartments. The high brick wall at the back of the site would be knocked down to create a continuous view from Holland Park.
The 53 flag poles, from which the flags of all the Commonwealth members once fluttered, would also be removed.
An architectural competition to choose a design is to be launched in February.
The building, designed by Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners, has always attracted comment, good and bad. The distinctive roof, one of only a handful in the world in the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid, was an inspiration for Sydney Opera House.
In 2005, former Foreign Office permanent secretary Lord Kerr wrote: "It's a dreadful building, built on the cheap, a nightmare for decades, costly to maintain, not fit for purpose. It leaks and does not comply with building regulations and disabled access rules."
Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon wanted it knocked down.
Reader views (4)
The Commonwealth Institute in the predecessor to this building was an annual trip from my primary School. Where have all the exhibition items gone? I suppose children are no longer excited by exotic countries now so many of them come from those countries.
Perhaps it should be made an Institute of Indigenous Culture?
- Rs, London
"It's a dreadful building, built on the cheap, a nightmare for decades, costly to maintain, not fit for purpose". A shrine for New Labour's New Britain!
- Philip, London, England
What is the Museum of London if not a museum of London?
- Dave, London
Turn it into a museum of London. From Roman to the future times. It's within the museum district. Do it.
Be the first city in the world to have its own musuem.
- A.Winsor, Hants. England
