‘Protect Bloomsbury from the developers’ - says actor and comedian Griff Rhys Jones
Published: 28 April 2011
by KARINA WHALLEY
ACTOR and comedian Griff Rhys Jones has warned that Camden’s urban landscape is under threat from overdevelopment and has opposed government plans to transform Bloomsbury.
Speaking yesterday (Wednesday) at the unveiling of a plaque at 60 Marchmont Street for the actor and playwright Emlyn Williams, Mr Rhys Jones also recalled how former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone had threatened to build skyscrapers in Fitzrovia.
Without protest action from dedicated conservation groups such as the Marchmont Street Association, he said, inappropriate buildings would spring up.
Mr Rhys Jones, who lives in Fitzrovia, told the New Journal: “There are government plans to increase the density of Bloomsbury and other parts of London by making it more work-orientated.
“I think these areas have a good work and life balance with all of these people intermingling.
“You’d be surprised what plans are being made while we remain unaware and, without anyone protesting, these things merely go ahead. At one point, Ken Livingstone wanted to raze Fitzrovia to the ground and put up skyscrapers.
“I’m president of Civic Voice, a trust that preserves the fabric of the urban landscape so it’s just great to see Marchmont Street so lively, so lived in.”
Welsh playwright Emlyn Williams lived in Marchmont Street between 1930 and 1934.
Mr Rhys Jones said: “How wonderful it is to be celebrating one of London’s Welsh. He was in a way the first of those great Welsh actors to take Hollywood by storm.
“He was a cosmopolitan Welshman who was as much at home with Charles Dickens as with Dylan Thomas. He deserves a blue plaque for being a great actor and film actor.”
The street is already home to a number of blue plaques. Kenneth Williams lived across the road from Williams, and the two were friends.
Frankenstein author Mary Shelley also lived in the street and was celebrated with a blue plaque in 2009.
Marchmont Street Association chairman Ricci de Freitas said: “This is our fifth plaque now, and we’ve just published a third edition of The Story of Marchmont Street.”