Heritage defenders, Charlotte Street Association, mark 40th anniversary

Published: 18th November, 2010
by JOSH LOEB

VETERANS of past battles to preserve the heritage of Fitzrovia made a historic building disappear at a party last week.

The gathering at Fitzrovia Neigh­bourhood Centre marked 40 years of Charlotte Street Association (CSA). 

As Max Neufeld, the association’s chairman, unveiled a chocolate cake in the shape of an early 1800s building, he declared: “I’m sure there will be many developers who will be envious as we destroy this Georgian house.” 

The association was created as a response to the destruction of historic buildings in Rathbone Street in the late 1960s. It has commented on an estimated 5,000 planning applications in its time.

Recalling its formation in 1970, Mr Neufeld said people had been outraged by the plans of steely-eyed developers and had banded together “to be taken seriously” by the authorities. 

He said: “We defined our aim at that time as wishing to maintain the character, scale and mix of uses of the area. That’s an aim that is as valid today as it was 40 years ago.” Mr Neufeld recalled how, in the late 1960s, the site where the Rathbone Hotel now stands was full of shops, tailors, hairdressers and “sundry men whose goods were popular with the rats of the area”, while round the back was The Bamboo Club “from which bleary eyed hippies used to emerge into daylight after a night of hallucination”.

“In other words, a typical Fitzrovia mix,” he concluded.   

Holborn and St Pancras Labour MP Frank Dobson, who joined the toast to the association’s past successes, said the group had done much good work for the area.

“There have been times when my phone’s gone and it’s Max and I’ve thought: Oh my god what’s wrong now,” he said. “But he menaces people in a very good cause and I’m sure all his colleagues would agree we owe a vast amount to him.”

The CSA has about 350 members but is always looking for more. Details at www.charlottestreetassociation.yolasite.com