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Dame Liz Forgan at the Burgh House celebration. Right, Gerald Isaaman |
House party for Burgh rescue!
Arts Council boss praises the successful campaign to save building, 30 years on
ARTS Council chairwoman Dame Liz Forgan praised the fighting spirit of the Hampstead community at an event to celebrate the successful campaign to save Burgh House.
Dame Liz was guest of honour at a sparkling gala dinner at the Grade I-listed Queen Anne house, to mark the 30th anniversary of the renaissance of Burgh House, thanks largely to a £600,000 grant she awarded when chairwoman of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The house was closed by Camden Council in 1977. Riddled with dry rot, the Town Hall decided to sell it off.
But they did not account for the campaign that their sell-off plans would kickstart. Led by the indefatigable Hampstead activist Peggy Jay, a charitable trust was formed to keep Burgh House in public hands and in 1979, after a long campaign and after raising thousands of pounds, the house was handed over to the trust and opened as a Hampstead museum, gallery and meeting place.
“Burgh House stands for me as a symbol of a community with an energetic belief that nothing is a lost cause if determined people don’t wait for providence to come to the rescue, but roll their own sleeves up and get stuck in,” said Dame Liz.
“We should never preserve inert matter for its own sake. The past is not some sacred place to be locked away for ever. It is the deep reservoir from which modern life can draw energy, solace, inspiration and a sense of continuity and purpose.
“We keep our heritage because it enriches our present and our future.”
She said the story of Burgh House was “a perfect example of the never-say-die attitude” she found in Hampstead when she began her career as a reporter on the Ham & High before joining the Evening Standard, the Guardian, Channel 4 and the BBC.
“The world may think of Hampstead as inhabited by shopaholic socialists, movie brats and yummy mummies,” said Dame Liz. “But those of us who have lived here know that while there may be a scintilla of truth in some of the above – only as applied to the most recent arrivals, of course – there is something much more important underneath. Underneath is the shared love of the heritage of beauty we have in the Heath, the buildings and the streets of Hampstead. Underneath is the sense of collective purpose and refusal to accept defeat.
“Underneath is a shared and genuine love of creative talent and the understanding that it needs patronage and encouragement and inspiring places for its exhibition.
All in all, Burgh House seems to me to epitomise everything that is truly special about Hampstead.”
Three of the “magnificent seven”, named by Burgh House Trust chairman Matthew Lewin as the saviours of the building, were present at the dinner – David Sullivan, Christopher Wade and myself, retired editor of the Ham & High, along with Tony Hillier, Helen Marcus and Martin Humphery, present and past chairs of the Heath and Hampstead Society.
Also present was Catherine Boyd, daughter of the late doyenne campaigner Peggy Jay, former Heath society and Burgh House Trust chair, after whom a new gallery section of the renovated house is named.
Matthew Lewin revealed that the self-financing Trust, which itself raised £215,000 to refurbish the house, is facing a £13,500 revenue deficit because of a dramatic fall in bookings for wedding receptions and other events.
“This recession has hit us hard,” he said.
The dinner, which included a recital by Lucy Jeal and Min-Jung Kym and a charity auction conducted by TV auctioneer James Rylands, raised £6,300. |
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