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Kensington makeover falls foul of heritage police
24 Jul 2009Radical proposals to revamp the former Commonwealth Institute building off Kensington High Street are set to be vetoed by English Heritage.
The plans, officially unveiled in May, involve converting the landmark Sixties building at Holland Park into a new home for the Design Museum, renaming it the Parabola and adding three new housing blocks on the site.
But following a crucial meeting last week, English Heritage's powerful London Advisory Committee will call on the heritage body to advise Kensington and Chelsea council against granting approval, according to Building Design magazine.
Because the Commonwealth Institute is Grade II star-listed - the second highest category of listing -English Heritage has the power not only to recommend refusal but to direct it in the event that Kensington and Chelsea council gives it the green light this autumn.
The news will come as a blow to developer Chelsfield Partners and to the Design Museum, which has long wanted to expand and move out of its current home near Tower Bridge.
An inside source said: "If [the council] decides to refuse the scheme, it's up to [Chelsfield deputy chairman] Sir Stuart Lipton if he wants to appeal. If they decide to grant, it's up to English Heritage whether they instruct the council to refuse planning."
Jon Wright, caseworker at post-war heritage group the Twentieth Century Society, which opposes the plans, said EH had little choice but to come out against it. "It would be unprecedented for EH to agree to a scheme which trashes 90 per cent of a Grade II star-listed building and landscape," he said. "It would look extremely silly if it backed a scheme like this."
The news will come as a boost to a rival scheme by developer Hammer Holdings, which is drawing up plans based on a more traditional restoration of the building.
Reader views (1)
Perhaps the Design Museum should have chosen a developer who was less likely to describe English Heritage as 'heritage police'. Our heritage might mean nothing to Chelsfield but it means a lot to people whose heritage is English.
- Marie Dixie, Kensington, UK, 24/07/2009 10:33
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