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Save our Listed Town Hall I would like to add to your coverage of Brent buildings in the recent Open House weekend (‘Doors open wide,’ Times, Sept 25), with some reference to contemporary use and heritage. In Neasden, we were provided with a tour of a 1940 bunker commissioned by Churchill, the only cabinet bunker of its kind beyond Whitehall. It goes to two floors and was used as recently as 1970, not for shelter but for table tennis and recreation. Perhaps some of the bunker could be brought back into youth and community use today? Brent Town Hall itself also rightly featured in the showcase. Completed by Clifford Strange in 1940, this purpose-built facility was inspired by Dutch modernism, and, recently dubbed “the best of pre-war modern town halls around London”, now carries Grade II listing. Unfortunately, the future use of this building is uncertain. In June, Brent Council’s Executive agreed to a proposal for a new civic centre elsewhere in Wembley. But there has been no public consultation on this. Shouldn’t the arguments for and against the proposal be put to the public and properly debated? The current Town Hall enjoys a prime location, and moreover, houses a library which is always busy. The programme note for the tour of Brent Town Hall said, “Few of Wembley’s planned municipal schemes met with as much opposition as the [1937] Town Hall proposal. Arguments raged at the Public Inquiry held into the application for loan sanction for the £160,000 necessary to build it”. If he were alive today, what might Strange have had to say to see his hard-fought building made redundant for its purpose? In 2008, why are Brent residents and tax payers being bypassed? The residents of Brent must be consulted on the preservation of their local heritage, which forms a vital part of our collective memory and the glue which helps bind society together. Shahrar Ali Spokesperson for Environment and Planning Brent Green Party PO Box 54785 London NW9 1FL |
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