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Middlesex Hospital site |
NoHo allotments are the smartest in town
Veg to be grown on land worth £4,000 per square ft
THE desolate site of the former Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia will become home to the most expensive allotments in the world following a year-long campaign for community access.
The Mortimer Street site’s current developer, Stanhope, formally agreed yesterday (Wednesday) to allow “community schemes”, including growbag vegetable plots, on part of the three-acre site. This follows a campaign by residents that began in the New Journal in October last year.
Bloomsbury Tory councillor Rebecca Hossack, who led the negotiations, said: “This idea has had an incredible response from the community. More than 500 people have signed up and there has been an amazing spirit of generosity.
“People said to me ‘as if you’re going to be allowed to grow vegetables on land worth £4,000 per square foot’, but if this works it could be a paradigm for unused building land across the country.”
The developer has agreed to make the site safe for residents’ access and to seek temporary planning approval for “community use” of 100 plots in a narrow strip of the site. Camden and Westminster councils have been consulted, the New Journal understands.
Community groups will be expected to fund and maintain any new allotments themselves.
Stanhope chief executive David Camp said: “This is an important site that, once developed, will enhance the vitality of this vibrant area. While we take forward the preparatory work to enable development to begin, we have a fantastic opportunity to work with the community and provide school pupils with the chance to learn about the health benefits of eating freshly grown fruit and vegetables – as well as how much fun it can be to grow your own.”
The part of the site being used for the project is limited because of health and safety issues, according to Stanhope.
The developer took control of the site after Candy and Candy ditched plans to build 273 flats in the wake of last year’s credit crunch. Middlesex Hospital had already been demolished, apart from the listed chapel at the centre of the site and the hospital facade on Nassau Street.
Cllr Hossack believes the new use could rebuild residents’ affection for the site. She said: “When the Middlesex was pulled down there was real hatred for the act of vandalism, and it left a real scar. Now the community will get to know the new developers and they will get to know the community.”
The announcement by Stanhope follows months of rumours and is a tacit admission that there will be no movement on the site for at least a year, allowing time for a full-scale new planning application.
Among schemes that have been suggested for the site are a new campus for the University of the Arts, a less ambitious housing project or a hotel.
Nationalised Icelandic bank Kaupthing, originally partner and backer to the Candy brothers, continues to hold a large stake in the project.
Charlotte Street Association chairman Max Neufeld, who once dubbed the “NoHo” project a “horrible behemoth scheme”, said residents continued to want to see a mixed development with affordable housing on the site. |
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Your comments:
WE had been dismayed by the destruction of the Middlesex Hospital. The proposed name Noho for the vacant site is preposterous. It should be named Middlesex square or Middlesex Hospital square to commemorate a historical institution which had served the community for centuries.
Dr Labh Mehta
WHAT a terrible name - the NoHo! Who dreamt that up??? This was a great hospital and needs to be retained in memory with the use of its name. What is wrong with Middlesex Square or some such equivalent?
Annette Lawson
DR Labh Mehta is so right. To name this square NoHo rather than Middlesex Hospital Square is to deny credit to the care that great institution gave to many people for many years. Please rethink.
Dr. P Kay
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