Tragic Yuri’s tennis school in Regent's Park is set to be bulldozed
Abandoned sports complex where man was found hanged could be parkland
Published: 24 June 2010
by JOSIE HINTON
A FORMER golf and tennis centre in Regent’s Park finally looks set to be bulldozed after lying derelict for more than three years.
Royal Parks bosses this week confirmed an application to turn the Golf and Tennis School, near London Zoo, back into parkland was “imminent”.
If approved, the abandoned buildings and tennis courts will be transformed into a public meadow and protected area aimed at attracting a wide variety of birds and animals.
But the move has been criticised by the daughter of Russian tennis coach Yuri Ouvarov, who tragically committed suicide in 2007 after the Royal Parks decided to close the 100-year-old Golf and Tennis School where he taught.
Alla Ouvarova, 28, said: “It’s been over three years since it’s closed and nothing has happened, the site is exactly the same as it was. People’s livelihoods and my dad’s life were taken away and it could have stayed open all the time.
“But setting aside what happened to my dad, I still think the school should be re-opened for the community because it was so popular. It hasn’t been parkland for 100 years and it’s already a huge park with loads of space. Sports facilities are limited in central London and there is nowhere you can play golf.”
Mr Ouvarov was found hanged close to the tennis courts – a coroner’s inquest concluded that the school’s closure had contributed to his decision to take his own life.
A planning application submitted by Goals Ltd for a five-a-side football complex and licensed bar on the site of the school was rejected by Westminster Council planners in the months after its closure.
Park bosses claimed this week the latest application, expected to be considered this month, remains the best way to “bring the land back into use as soon as possible”.
Mark Camley, chief executive of The Royal Parks, said that until April last year the site was under contract with Goals Ltd, adding: “It was always the plan to turn the site back into parkland. A good deal of consultation has been done on the site to give the application the best possible chance, and the decision is now in Westminster Council’s hands.”
Assistant park manager Andy William added: “To the untrained eye it may look like a bit scruffy and overgrown, but we’ve got some interesting habitats developing naturally and spontaneously. We plan to add to this by planting some British native species.
“For a third of the site, the intention would be to secure it with managed access to allow us to support those habitats. By supporting the spontaneous vegetation that has developed we hope to attract a wide variety of birds and vertebrates.”