A dangerous precedent for future of historic buildings

I AM dismayed to learn that Islington Council officers are going to recommend acceptance of a planning application to convert the post-room and administrative offices of the Beaux Arts Building in Holloway into new residential space. 

I and scores of the other inhabitants of this cherished building have fought a long campaign to prevent the destruction of its character and the defining parts of its historic interior, and now we find ourselves helpless before the vagaries of planning law.

This is a planning application without a plan. The application will convert the administrative offices, handyman’s storeroom, a post-room for 300 residents, a kitchen and even the staff 

toilet into an apartment, yet there is no “plan” about where these essential services will now go. 

The implication is that they may well be forced into our historic entrance hall – and all that after the initial planning application to convert the hall into flats was turned down by the council. So how can it give this the green light?

Approving this planning application will form a dangerous and horrifying precedent for the future of so many of Islington’s historic buildings. 

It will open the floodgates to the unsympathetic alteration of all of Islington’s successful property developments, for the sole purpose of making an extra buck for the freeholders and with no respect for existing residents’ wishes or needs.  

But there is still one more chance for the council to turn it down on Tuesday. Let’s hope it does the right thing and supports not only the history but also the future of Islington’s buildings and residents.

BEN LEWIS
Beaux Arts Building
Manor Gardens, N7

THE proposal by planning officers to approve a scheme for our historic foyer on Tuesday night will have a knock-on impact. We cannot understand how the planning system does not take this into account. 

The quality of the building’s foyer has been recognised by English Heritage and is appreciated by residents at meetings and social events – it’s integral to our sense of community. We’re concerned that some of these qualities will be lost forever. 

LISA MILLAR
Chairwoman of Beaux Arts Association
Manor Gardens, N7 

I HAVE just purchased an apartment in the beautiful Beaux Arts Building. If the freeholder builds new flats in the spare corners, he will increase his income but decrease the value of the building and of each apartment. 

CORINNE-ALEXANDRINE BOBIN
Saint Benoît, France

Published: 8 July, 2011