Home >> News >> 2010 >> Jul >> Former workhouse looks set to make way for flats at old Middlesex Hospital site
Former workhouse looks set to make way for flats at old Middlesex Hospital site
Published: 22 July, 2010
A GEORGIAN workhouse where debtors and bankrupts were once banged up looks set to be pulled down after University College London Hospital applied for permission to build nearly 200 homes in its place
The building is the last remaining structure on the site of the old Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia – but if UCLH NHS Trust chiefs gets their way, it will be replaced by shops and flats.
Neighbours have accused the hospital of underhand behaviour, saying they are using the application to fulfil a legal pledge they made to build social housing more than seven years ago in return for permission for their new headquarters on Euston Road.
A UCLH spokesman said: “The site has been identified for redevelopment for a long time now, to provide affordable housing as required through the Trust’s Section 106 obligations. Affordable housing south of the Euston Road is very scarce, and the Trust has focused on the long-term, designing a high-quality mixed-use scheme which delivers over 50 per cent by area as affordable housing.”
Comments
Almost all the facts wrong
Submitted by fitzrovianews on Thu, 2010-07-22 21:24.Jeez, you made a hash of this story. The normally excellent CNJ has erred. You've got nearly all the facts wrong.
For a start, the proposal is to build 142 homes. That's not "nearly 200". The workhouse is more well-known for the reformers associated with it: "Matilda Beeton, a nurse, and Joseph Rogers, who not only served as doctor for 20 years but also helped found the Association for Improvement of Workhouse Infirmaries and became president of the Poor Law Medical Officers’ Association." See http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7633/1312
It's not on the site of the former Middlesex Hospital -- you are mixing it up with the Grade II* listed chapel that still remains there and there are no plans to demolish it. The workhouse building stands on a site across the road and about 100m to the north.
Local people are angry for two reasons "The proposed development is controversial not only because the building is seen as of great historic value but the proposed socially-rented housing on the site falls far short of what local campaigners had hoped for. Much of the socially-rented accommodation proposed on the site has come from a previous planning gain agreement made with Camden Council several years ago. Campaigners have accused the hospital trust of “double counting” the social housing units in order to satisfy a section 106 agreement and other policy requirements." See http://news.fitzrovia.org.uk/2010/07/12/persmission-sought-to-demolish-h...
Linus Rees
assistant editor, Fitzrovia News
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