The Vauxhall Society |

Viva NLE?

10 February 2012

The Viva Vauxhall community group holds a general meeting on Thursday 23 February, one point on the agenda being whether VV should oppose the Northern Line Extension to Wandsworth as ‘swallowing up the lion’s share of planning gain generated by developments in Vauxhall’. There’ll be presentation by VNEB Development And Transport Action (DATA), followed by a discussion and vote. It’s at 8pm at St Anne’s Settlement Hall, Vauxhall Grove.

Skyscraper stampede: what does Leeds incident say about the lustre of Vauxhall’s cluster?

10 February 2012

A man was crushed to death by a lorry which “floated through the air like a hot-air balloon” in strong winds and landed on him, an inquest in Leeds has heard. Edward Slaney, 35, was killed and a 22-year-old woman seriously injured as high winds hit Leeds city centre last March. The lorry, which was doing 20 mph, was driving past the city’s tallest building, Bridgewater Place. Bridgewater Place, completed five years ago, is 360 ft high but a...

What damage can skyscraper air turbulence do?

7 February 2012

Collapse of cooling tower at Ferrybridge

The answer may be written in the wind, but here in Vauxhall wouldn’t you rather read it on paper? Are the Mayor and Lambeth/Wandsworth council planners too happy to take developers’ word for it that clustering tall buildings at Vauxhall Cross/Nine Elms poses no wind turbulence risk? The district’s unusual, Thames-induced wind conditions are ripe for international academic study, not least because tall buildings may pose a security risk to the new US Embassy at Nine Elms, suggests a...

Libraries Campaign: Lambeth’s guide to how you can take part

6 February 2012

Thanks to The Friends of the Tate South Lambeth, the Durning and other Vauxhall libraries and community groups such as The Vauxhall Society, Lambeth’s politicos and officials at last seem to have got the message that closing libraries is both a legal minefield and an election-loser. Jo Cleary, who runs Lambeth’s Adults and Community Services, has now put together a useful guide on how you make yourself heard on the libraries issue between now and when consultation ends on...

Beaufoy Institute: sold by Lambeth to Buddhists and Bellway Homes in £9 million deal

3 February 2012

After letting the historic Beaufoy Institute building in Black Prince Road rot for 14 years, Lambeth has cashed in and sold to a developer and a Buddhist centre. Turned down: a rival community bid that would have put three colleges on the site; ditto interest from Prince Charles in starting a craft academy here, once the centre of the 19th/early 20th century Lambeth arts and crafts quarter. In what are described as separate deals, Lambeth has sold the Beaufoy...

Vauxhall Society guided walks: no, not the riots, but when the Luftwaffe came calling

2 February 2012

Montford Place KenningtonRoad 8 July 1944

8 July 1944: Fifteen fire engines fight the blaze as a V1 pilotless flying bomb scores a direct hit on a gasholder at Montford Place, Kennington Oval. Eight houses are demolished. Other properties damaged include Hayward’s Pickle Factory (now the Beefeater Distillery). Miraculously, nobody is killed, but it was not to be so on many other days and nights in wartime Lambeth. See and hear more of that terrifying time in local history by joining us on the Vauxhall...

Blitz photo quest: help Sylvia find a pre-war photo of the home blown away when she was 12

1 February 2012

Can anybody help Sylvia Pargeter find a Pre-Blitz photograph of her childhood home at No 10 Kennington Lane? Miss Pargeter was 12 when in 1939 she became one of the thousands of children evacuated from London to safety in the countryside. The next time she saw her family home, which was above the family business, Pargeter and Harvey, Bedding Manufacturers, it was a hole in the ground. In 1941 No 10 Kennington Lane was hit by a mine and...

That Thames Tunnel ‘super sewer’: 10th Feb deadline to have your say

1 February 2012

What is it with Lambeth Councillors? Why is it that, on anything beyond their own obsessive social engineering, they seem to know so little and care even less? Take the ‘Thames Tunnel’ (or Thames Tideway Tunnel), a vastly expensive 20-mile sewer that the EU wants built through Vauxhall from Acton to Becton but does not want to pay for. Thames Water’s current consultation period ends on 10 February. The sewer is be built by Thames Water, to whom ‘consultation’...

Cash for community groups

31 January 2012

Department of Communities and Local Government Minister Andrew Stunell is inviting community and voluntary groups to apply for a share of the £100 million DCLG is to spend to ‘help revitalise communities and bring the empty homes blighting their areas back into use’. Applications close 17 April 2012. Details : www.communities.gov.uk

Kylun Towers Public Inquiry: Two skyscrapers too many? Time to speak up

27 January 2012

Kylun: there’ll be a site visit by the public inquiry to the ‘handkerchief of green’ in the week beginning 27 February. The Kylun Inquiry opens on 6 March, is scheduled to close on 21 March and the Inspector is due to report to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government by 25 May. After that, it’s politics.

Cricket: is skyscraper-generated turbulence putting the wind up Surrey CC at the Kia Oval?

26 January 2012

Already beset by corrupt players and match-fixing, could cricket be in for another buffeting? Surrey County Cricket Club is reported as asking its planning consultants Savills for advice on whether, as well as stopping play at The Kia Oval at Kennington, wind turbulence generated by massing skyscrapers at Vauxhall Cross could pose a greater health and safety risk to players and spectators than local planning officers may realise. Cricket administrators already want to know if the Mayor, Boris Johnson,...

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