Plan to create a family home at Charles Rowan House is a ‘slap in the face’ for tenants
Rooms provide vital tenant services and are ‘totally unsuitable’ for conversion
Published: 18th March, 2011
by PETER GRUNER
LEADING Finsbury activist Barb Jacobson is spearheading a fight against plans to take away rooms on her Grade II-listed estate which are used for tenant activities.
Ms Jacobson, a member of the Save Finsbury Health Centre campaign, believes that plans to make the rooms into a home for a family are misguided and would result in “substandard” accommodation.
The plan for the rooms, at Charles Rowan House in Margery Street, would also take away much-needed storage for the estate’s caretaker and communal meeting and activity space for the local tenants and residents association.
Furthermore, the tenants claim that the half-underground flat is plagued with periodic sewage backwash and odour from the junction of three waste water pipes serving 30 flats.
It has not been lived in for 45 years.
Ms Jacobson said: “The estate’s plumbing is outdated and needs to be completely overhauled. We have been saying this for over 25 years. I can’t imagine housing agency Homes for Islington [HfI] – which took six months last year to repair a simple leak which ran from the balcony into the kitchen – making this flat liveable in a few weeks. The thought of children having to live here fills me with horror.“
Ms Jacobson added that residents were planning to form a tenants’ management organisation, but without communal space it will be difficult.
She said the rooms not only provide a meeting space close enough for the participation of young families, but in recent years they have been used to organise courtyard parties and an award-winning community archaeology project.
Nigel Blondel, vice-chair of the estate’s tenants association, said: “Of course we sympathise with the need to expand social housing, but this space is unlikely to yield a living unit of suitable quality for the investment.
“We have requested to know the costs of conversion but are still waiting to hear from HfI.
“This is a real slap in the face for those residents who have worked continuously to improve the community in which we live and for those residents who have benefitted.”
Labour Councillor James Murray, Executive Member for Housing, said: “We desperately need more family-sized accommodation in Islington to tackle overcrowding and reduce the number of people on our housing waiting list.
“That’s why we are considering the feasibility of converting properties like this one for family use. Before any decision is made, the council and HfI are working with the tenants and residents association to explore alternative meeting rooms and find a suitable location where the caretaker can store his equipment and the residents can store their gardening tools.”
• Charles Rowan House was built in 1929 to house Metropolitan Police families. It was designed by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench, who also designed the Police Box later made famous as Dr Who’s Tardis.
Islington Council took it over in 1971 and argued with residents about knocking it down until it was listed Grade II* in 1994. The formerly derelict courtyard was redesigned with full resident participation in 2001-02, at a cost of £350,000.