The way forward for London’s Bridge Park advanced, a distinguished location for Britain’s Windrush technology, hangs within the stability as campaigners hope Historic England will put it aside from councillors’ determination to shut it inside weeks.
Bridge Park neighborhood leisure centre in Stonebridge, north-west London, was Europe’s largest Black-led neighborhood enterprise when it opened within the Eighties and is cherished for its half in Black British historical past.
However final Monday, days earlier than Windrush Day on Sunday, which celebrates the postwar historical past of UK Black communities, Brent council, which took over the day-to-day operating of Bridge Park within the mid-90s, determined it will shut on 31 July as a part of proposals to “radically transform” the realm.
Lawrence Fearon, one in all Bridge Park’s founders, mentioned: “Bridge Park is not just a building. It’s a testament to the dreams of the Caribbean diaspora and the legacy of my generation, who dared to build a better future against the odds.”
Campaigners need to Historic England for a lifeline. The Save Bridge Park marketing campaign utilized to the heritage physique earlier this 12 months to have the constructing listed to reserve it from improvement, a transfer backed by the Labour MP Daybreak Butler, Paul Boateng, the UK’s first Black cupboard minister, and the broadcaster Trevor Phillips.
Within the years since Bridge Park was taken over by the native authority, the main target has shifted from enterprise to sports activities, leisure and occasions, however it stays effectively used, with a strong legacy.
Till 1981 it was the Stonebridge bus depot, the place employees from the Windrush technology labored. When the positioning grew to become disused, native younger folks fashioned a cooperative – the Harlesden Individuals’s Neighborhood Council – to remodel it into an area for Black-owned companies, with funding from Brent council and the previous Larger London Council, amid excessive unemployment and discrimination in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.
Founders included the neighborhood chief Leonard Johnson, whose philosophy – “let’s build and not destroy” – prevented dysfunction from spreading to Harlesden on the evening of Brixton’s rebellion in 1981.
Bridge Park was inaugurated by King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, in 1988. At its peak it had 32 enterprise models, a sports activities corridor, theatre, coaching centre, recording studio, restaurant and bar.
The Royal Shakespeare Firm’s Ray Fearon, 51, and the Premier League footballer Raheem Sterling, 30, spent childhood there, and are backing plans to reserve it.
Brent council mentioned it acknowledged “the part Bridge Park had in an important chapter in Black British history”, however spending £1.5m to convey it as much as “suitable safe standard” was “not a good use for public funds”.
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Muhammed Butt, the chief of Brent council mentioned: “I understand the deep affection that local people have for Bridge Park, but … it’s simply not financially sustainable to keep it open. Instead, we want to get on with building a brand new leisure centre for the community, which will be more than double the size and purpose-built.
“Our plans are all about transforming the area for the benefit of local people – much-needed new homes, more green spaces and new jobs.”
Rebecca Markus, a researcher and co-lead of Save Bridge Park, mentioned: “It’s a really amazing, early example of adaptive reuse. There’s an idea that for a building to be of architectural merit it needs to be designed by a star architect and subscribe to a specific style, but if our heritage is actually going to reflect the nation then we have to be inclusive in the way we think about these things.
“Buildings hold a tangible connection to the past that can’t be captured by words or photographs.”
Historic England is predicted to decide this summer season. It was approached for remark.
