Appeal for lower allotment price

Published: 2 April 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

THE woman spearheading the drive to turn the former Middlesex Hospital site into a community allotment has called on its owners to lower the asking price and help break the deadlock, writes Jamie Welham.

Conservative ward councillor and Bloomsbury art dealer Rebecca Hossack, said residents were “playing a waiting game” after their dreams of tending vegetables in the heart of London were dealt a massive blow when owners Kaupthing, an Icelandic bank, put the site up for sale. But three weeks on Kaupthing have not managed to secure a buyer for the prized site. 

Cllr Hossack has already called in favours to keep 800 grow-bags in storage. 

“We’re in a sort of stake-out situation and have to play a waiting game, but that doesn’t help us really, he said. “I think they need to lower the asking price.”

The commercial property company CB Richard Ellis is handling the sale. Previously it said it would not disclose the guide price.