Athlone House saved from demolition by Whitehall planning inspectors - Owners’ wanted to pull down Victorian mansion

Published: 28 April 2011
by DAN CARRIER

THE Victorian mansion that overlooks Kenwood House has been saved from demolition – for the time being.

Whitehall planning inspectors have rejected an appeal from the owners of Athlone House, built in 1871, to pull the property down and replace it with their own design, after an earlier application to Camden Council was also thrown out. 

Following a two-week hearing and a site visit, the appeal was rejected on Thursday on the grounds that the proposed development would infringe on Metropolitan Open Land – the urban equivalent of the Green Belt.

But the owners have said they believe the outcome represents a partial victory as the inspectors have said that many of the reasons for refusal given by the Town Hall’s planning committee have been dismissed. These include whether the proposals would preserve or enhance the conservation area. 

Following a Section 106 agreement, Camden previously gave the owners permission to build apartments in the grounds if they restored the mansion. But while the new homes have been completed, officials say there has been insufficient work carried out on the main house.

In the past the terracotta brick building has been a home for a chemical industrialist, a training centre for RAF intelligence officers and, more recently, a hos­pital.

Representing the owner, planning lawyer David Cooper said classical architect Robert Adam would now go back to the drawing board and produce a similar design on a smaller footprint. 

“We are not celebrating but we are actually happy with the decision, despite the appeal being dismissed,” said Mr Cooper. “We will now put together a marginally smaller scheme to meet the inspector’s conclusions. The only thing he was concerned about was the size of the scheme, and so we will go in with a smaller plan, but we do not know by how much.”

He added: “They are not walking away from this, and they want to live in a home there. They are more Hampstead than Belgravia.”

The battle to save the house has been spearheaded by an umbrella organisation of civic groups called the Athlone House Working Group. Member Jeremy Wright, who has helped produce a dossier of evidence against the scheme, said: “We await now with interest what they will do to restore the house. We know they have virtually unlimited money. It is almost obscene that having entered into a legal agreement to restore the house and having not done so, they then forced Camden to spend large amounts of money – and the City of London to do so too – to defend the entirely appropriate decision of the council’s planning committee.”

In a statement, the Athlone House Working Group added: “We have been fighting against the demolition of this fine and much-loved house and its replacement by a much larger and very ostentatious building, which would have dominated the northern slopes of the Heath and spoiled the pleasing views from the Heath.

“We were delighted to hear the inspector upheld Camden’s refusal of planning permission.”