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Splendour: The Regent Palace Hotel in the 1920s |
Bulldozer threat to future of historic Regent Palace
Fantastic listed building must be saved, say campaigners
A HISTORIC landmark in Piccadilly could be bulldozed and replaced with a luxury offices and shopping complex.
Campaigners in Soho and Mayfair are mobilising heritage groups against plans to demolish The Regent Palace Hotel.
The plans, submitted to City Hall earlier this month, include moving two Art Deco restaurants into the basement demolishing everything above it including the majority of the historic façade.
The 100-year-old masterpiece of the Art Deco era, a fully functional hotel until December 2006 when operators Travelodge decided the hotel was no longer sustainable, is owned by the Crown Estate. It has already tried to demolish the building – successfully listed as Grade II last year.
But earlier plans to build offices there were thrown out by the council in 2004.
It says demolition, part of a £500-million regeneration of Regent Street, is essential because its ceilings are too low for modern-day office use.
The Crown Estate’s head of strategy David Shaw said: “For modern offices you need more headroom than the hotel has. The Regent Palace Hotel’s problem is that you cannot transform it into a modern space. We have a good record at retention, we have nothing to hide with this development.”
But Richard Lester, who has launched the campaign to save the hotel, said that was “rubbish”.
He said: “They are simply chipping away at the old plans.
“It is a fantastic building and this must be stopped.
He added: “The building is Grade II listed so why pull down listed facades to replace them with unlisted ones?”
Adam Wilkinson, secretary of the lobby group SAVE Britain’s Heritage, said: “The Crown Estate should know better than this.
“We got this building listed two years ago and are really angry about the plans. The Oliver Bernard Art Deco interior is spectacular. The idea that they cannot use the existing building is bizarre.”
He added: “The hotel was a significant chapter in the women’s liberation movement.
“The Lyon’s tea room there was the first place where women could meet in safety and without harassment.”
Eva Branscone, the case worker for the Twentieth Century Society that campaigned successfully for the building to be listed, said: “I am very concerned. They are talking about substantial changes to a listed building. We are most concerned about the original restaurant being moved into the basement.”
A Downing Street petition has been launched and community leaders have united in protest against the plans, out for consultation until next week. |
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