April 1 was not just April Fool’s Day but the day Mayor Boris Johnson slapped extra taxes on all planning consents that developers get on or after that date. The new tax could sink some developments in Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea, says the Royal Mail. But Royal Mail, a developer as well as a post-carrier, would say that wouldn’t they? Developers could also use Boris’s new tax to justify asking for their skyscrapers to be even taller and...
Gabriel Gabadmosi is delivering an oral history project for Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre on behalf of The Vauxhall Society. Part of the project is a Monica Alcazar film short in which VGCC’s over-60s recall memorable meals. The film, Vauxhall Memories, is now on YouTube, and there are plans to show it on a loop out of doors in and around Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. A DVD and book are to follow. The Vauxhall Memories project was made possible by Covent...
David Coke, acclaimed co-author of 2011’s prize-winning Vauxhall Gardens: A History (Yale/Paul Mellon) leads The Vauxhall Society’s 1½ hour guided walk ‘All About Vauxhall Gardens’ on Tuesday 3 April, setting off at 2.30pm from outside Starbuck’s opposite Vauxhall rail/Tube station. Everyone welcome, donation of £3 to TVS funds appreciated. David is also curating the Vauxhall Gardens Exhibition that runs between 11 May and 9 September at the Foundling Museum 11 May-9 September. Visit our Walks page for more local...
DATA, a new umbrella body for Vauxhall area community groups interested in the transport implications of VNEB, has just issued its first newsletter. DATA springs from dissatisfaction expressed at the AGM of The Vauxhall Society last October and then at a meeting of the Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall Forum with Lambeth’s seemingly unquestioning financial support for the Northern Line Extension, and the questionable consultation exercise carried out in the name of Transport for London. DATA is not against ‘development’...
Who, what and where you vote for is about to change, and you have less than three weeks to have your say about it. If the Boundary Commission has its way, 31 English MPs are to go (including, it seems, yours) as the number of English constituencies is cut from 533 to 502 in the General Election that must be held in 2015. Today’s Vauxhall constituency would be junked, and the pieces bolted onto bits of Battersea, Clapham and...
Vauxhall is to become a must-go destination for lovers of modern art, as Damien Hirst announces that in 2014 he will ‘do a Saatchi’ and open his personal collection to the public. This will be at Hirst’s Newport Street premises opposite the Beaconsfield gallery.The Hirst collection is said to number about 2,000 pieces, including works by Bacon, Banksy and Koons. It’s not yet clear whether there’ll be any diamond-encrusted skulls or sharks in formaldehyde on show. More at BBC
Steve Reed, leader of Lambeth Council, has joined the ranks of politicians who throughout the ages who have said Vauxhall Cross’s one-way six-lane traffic system must go, without saying how and when. It’s something to do with yet another plan, a Supplementary Planning Document for Vauxhall and the Albert Embankment, which will tell developers what kind of schemes will be welcome – even though Lambeth is already dishing out approvals in the area that will generate yet more traffic...
The Kylun Public Inquiry opened this week (6 March-21 March). Its remit is the developer’s appeal against Lambeth’s rejection of the scheme which would take away the last vestige of green space at Vauxhall Cross by burying it under two skyscrapers, one of 41 and the other of 32 storeys. The twin-tower Kylun scheme is higher than the 356ft Bridgewater Tower in Leeds, now the subject of an inquest and Crown Prosecution Service corporate manslaughter inquiry after wind turbulence...
The Vauxhall Society is hosting a web page for a Stockwell affiliate Wayland Action Group to help launch a petition opposing plans to demolish a 15-storey block of flats and replace it with a higher and larger 19-storey building. Enlarging Wayland House in Robsart Street would spoil views and overshadow gardens and other green spaces, especially Slade Gardens, WAG says. The WAG petition presses the developer to think again.
Vauxhall businesspeople have voted with their wallets to establish a Business Improvement District, Vauxhall One, to ginger up business services and environmental standards. Green spaces in the BID area include Vauxhall Park and Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The to-be-or-not-to-be ballot of businesses with a rateable value of over £20,000 returned a strong ‘Yes’ from those voting – with 83% in favour by number and 91% by rateable value. The post-ballot Vauxhall One held its first management committee meeting on Monday...
