Monday, 7 January 2019

Mark Amies visits the Railway Hotel in Edgware - Environment Monday Special

Regular listeners of The Robert Elms show on BBC Radio London will have been enjoying the series on a Thursday Lunchtime at 12:30 featuring local historian Mark Amies, talking about our Industrial Heritage. Mark is also a passionate campaigner for the preservation of our local pubs. These are an integral part of our community. Sadly, the Railway Hotel in Edgware has fallen into a state of complete disrepair, following two fires and some extremely shoddy bodge jobs. Mark contacted me and suggested we investigate. Watch this short film to see what we found

Make sure you follow Mark on Twitter for all the updates on what is going on at The Railway Hotel in Edgware and lots of other great stuff.

Here's a few of his tweets in the last few months about the Railway






Every Monday, The Barnet Eye focuses on one aspect of our local environment. The total lack of enforcement of the law in respect to this Grade II listed building is absolutely clear from what myself and Mark saw. It is nothing short of a disgrace. If Barnet Council can't be bothered enforcing the law when a building has Grade II listing status, what hope is there for anything in the Borough of worth and value?


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4 comments:

  1. Mark Amies7 January 2019 at 11:40

    Thank you for your support and encouragement Roger. It's great to get an opportunity and platform to expose this situation. One can only hope the organisations involved will resolve the issues and secure this wonderful building.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pint7 January 2019 at 15:42

    Utterly disgraceful.

    Barnet Council is not only lazy but criminally negligent in their duties to protect the borough's heritage.

    There is no excuse - this problem has been an ongoing for years.

    Thank you to all who are bringing this again and again before Barnet Council and Historic England - bloggers,pub supporters, Mark and Roger.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paul Gale1 February 2020 at 18:11

    Hi Mark I have been reading your various comments regarding Edgware, particularly relating to the Railway Hotel site. I live in Edgware also and I'm a chartered surveyor dealing with mixed use development / investment throughout the uk. I can understand your frustration with this site which continues to sit there deteriorating , and a real wasted opportunity. However, the issue lies purely with the planners, and English Heritage because it is Grade 2 Listed as you say and the planners won't budge. They would rather have a vacant building than make exceptions to their policy for the good of commun. ity and to enhance life and vibrancy. Planners are a certain breed, the commercial and real world aspects mean nothing to them, they cut off their noses to spite their faces in the name of preserving architecture, history and design. There is no question the buildings are are of architectural merit, but the fact is they are not fit for purpose , not just in terms of their state of repair and condition but their physical configuration, ceiling heights etc etc. The fact is that no substantial / quality operator can make use of this building whether it be hotel, retail, leisure restaurant, even residential . I say substantial as they are the only parties which would pay the necessary rent and spend the funds required to invest in the building a fit -out to make a difference . They will simply not be interested in a building of this configuration. Then there is the landlord, for them to gain interest from such major occupiers , the building needs millions of £ to put the property into repair / reconfigure in the 1st place, and any commercial landlord simply won't commit to that cost without an end user/ occupier lined up as a pre let; it would be financial suicide to do so on spec. So there lies the conundrum, a vicious circle of planning rigidity leading to frustrated development and further deterioration. No other landlord will do any different. If the Councilr is concerned then they should buy the building. The fact is, unfortunately the building needs to be totally redeveloped or demolished which has not been possible because of the Listing. The building could be sympathetically re designed and vitality injected here. Landlords are not charities and whilst you and I dont appreciate or like what we see, we can't expect the landlords to make it better at the cost of millions so you and i then like it but with no commercial return! Its not the fault of the landlord its down to planning stupidity in my opinion. If you are sitting therefore on an empty building with costs running up/ empty rates for years whats the most obvious way of generating a return ... a car park. I cannot buy into your conspiracy theories, I think its just a product of the market. High rise buildings here would not be such a bad thing depending on design and sensitivity - Edgware needs to develop and move on! Much of Station rd and High St looks tatty and need an injection of capital.I agree also the views from the cemetery look very nice but in all honesty i doubt many people will want to walk through a cemetery even if you do. Its an interesting debate - one could also ask why the current landlord didnt do his homework with the planning before he purchased it? Thanks Paul Gale IMPRO IM www.impro-im.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark Amies2 February 2020 at 10:44

      Thanks for replying Paul. I assume you read the more recent blogs and videos? I only say this, because you are replying to a post from a year ago. The current owner, Milegate, had spent money in 2018/19. Work had been done. It was due to open as a eating place and venue in April 2019. I had also recently contacted Mitchell & Butlers who had shown interest. The building is simply not being effectively safaguarded. I appreciate your professional insights, however, I am not about to give up.

      Delete

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