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South Hampstead Girls School headteacher Jenny Stephens with architect Ian Williams |
School’s £30m scheme dismissed
Plan to replace Victorian building is thrown out after opposition from the neighbours
ONE of the borough’s leading private schools is facing an uncertain future after a £30million development scheme was blocked.
South Hampstead Girls School, based in Maresfield Gardens, Belsize Park, had applied for permission to knock down the Victorian school and other connected buildings to make room for a new state-of-the-art college catering for a roll of 700 students.
The school, whose alumni includes actress Helena Bonham Carter, writer Fay Weldon and Rabbi and Lib-Dem peer Julia Neuberger, have vowed to appeal against Thursday’s decision by planning officials.
Headteacher Jenny Stephens said: “We are obviously disappointed by this, but I came out of the meeting very heartened by the support we received from the wider community over our plans. There was only one letter of objection from a resident and nothing from residents associations.”
Mrs Stephens said the school’s governing body would now consider whether to appeal against the decision – but insisted that the school would pursue its plans for site.
She said: “We had thought about moving and the conclusion we came to was the school had grown up here and we are firmly established in the area. There is no other comparable space in the area.”
The plans included green technology including a bio-mass boiler. Other features were a top-floor art department with a roof garden boasting views across London.
Building work was originally intended to begin this summer and was to be undertaken in two phases to avoid disrupting lessons.
Neighbours who protested against the scheme said the plans would inevitably mean extra pupils – and would add to congestion in the already crowded streets of Hampstead, which are notorious for traffic problems.
But the school pledged numbers would remain at their current level.
Neighbour Dr Mayer Hillman,who is also an architect, said: “I don’t see why they should appeal – they will not win. The council decision was welcome and the right one.”
In a lengthy letter to the council’s planning committee, Dr Hillman laid out a number of points against the scheme.
He said the school site was simply too small and this was because of an incremental increase in numbers of pupils over the decades, which he described as trying to “fit a quart into a pint pot”.
Dr Hillman said that the Victorian frontage of the building added to the area.
“It makes a valuable architectural contribution,” he said. |
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