Brian Coleman – ‘Electric Ballroom reprieve was big mistake’

BRIAN Coleman be­lieves the historic Electric Ballroom should have been sacrificed to ease congestion at Camden Town tube station.

In an interview with the New Journal as he pressed ahead with his campaign to be re-elected as Barnet and Camden’s London Assembly member, Mr Coleman warned that the area had been doomed by the failure to sort out the creaking station.

He said Camden Town had been badly treated because tourists had been prioritised over residents. And he warned that the new development at Camden Lock, where there are plans for a new block of shops on the market site wrecked by the Camden Fire should hold “good commercial businesses”.

Tory Mr Coleman said: “What we must not have there is more stalls selling cheap studded leather goods. It’s the old problem of where do you buy a pint of milk for the residents. 

“We hear all of this about tourists in Camden Town, but I’m concerned about my constituents – not tourists. There needs to be shops that are useful to people living here, that’s not the case at the moment.”

Former Mayor Ken Livingstone warned last year that the overcrowded station might not be upgraded in his lifetime.

Mr Coleman said: “Sadly, I think that’s an accurate estimation. You have to look at the bonkers campaigners who fought to stop the redevelopment of the station.”

Transport for London (TfL) had grand improvement plans for the station in 2004 but their scheme to knock down the station and rebuild it with a block of shops and offices was thrown out by former deputy prime minister John Prescott after a planning inspector advised it should not go ahead. 

A major obstacle was that it needed compulsory purchase of the Buck Street market area and the Electric Ballroom, which would have been demolished to make room for the redevelopment. 

Musicians and music fans were distraught at the prospect of one of the capital’s best-loved venues, which has played hosts to the likes of Paul McCartney, The Clash and The Killers, being sacrificed.

But Mr Coleman said: “We talk about the club there but was it worth stopping the whole redevelopment that would have had so much benefits for Camden Town? The same thing was said about the Astoria in Tottenham Court Road, but that was knocked down because of Crossrail plans.”

TfL have no concrete alternative plans and no funding is committed to an upgrade.

Mr Coleman said he was not worried about his chances of being re-elected, despite new hope in the Labour ranks that candidate Andrew Dismore, the former Hendon MP, will at the very least run him close at next May’s elections.

“The trouble with Andrew is that the London Assembly is not a resting home for failed MPs,” he said. 

“He doesn’t want to be a London Assembly Member, he wants to be an MP and he should stick to trying to do that again.”

Mr Coleman warned that the Assembly was already full of “mediocre” members who had offered no challenge to London Mayor Boris Johnson.

He said that he agreed with “99 per cent” of the Mayor’s decisions but disagreed with Mr Johnson’s objections to capping housing benefit. Mr Coleman will also campaign against the High Speed 2 rail link.

Published: 14th July, 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY