Latest news with #BridgePark
The Guardian
22-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Campaigners look to Historic England to save Black British site Bridge Park in London
The future of London's Bridge Park complex, a prominent location for Britain's Windrush generation, hangs in the balance as campaigners hope Historic England will save it from councillors' decision to close it within weeks. Bridge Park community leisure centre in Stonebridge, north-west London, was Europe's largest Black-led community enterprise when it opened in the 1980s and is cherished for its part in Black British history. But last Monday, days before Windrush Day on Sunday, which celebrates the postwar history of UK Black communities, Brent council, which took over the day-to-day running of Bridge Park in the mid-90s, decided it would close on 31 July as part of proposals to 'radically transform' the area. Lawrence Fearon, one of Bridge Park's founders, said: 'Bridge Park is not just a building. It's a testament to the dreams of the Caribbean diaspora and the legacy of my generation, who dared to build a better future against the odds.' Campaigners are looking to Historic England for a lifeline. The Save Bridge Park campaign applied to the heritage body earlier this year to have the building listed to save it from development, a move backed by the Labour MP Dawn Butler, Paul Boateng, the UK's first Black cabinet minister, and the broadcaster Trevor Phillips. In the years since Bridge Park was taken over by the local authority, the focus has shifted from enterprise to sports, leisure and events, but it remains well used, with a powerful legacy. Until 1981 it was the Stonebridge bus depot, where staff from the Windrush generation worked. When the site became disused, local young people formed a cooperative – the Harlesden People's Community Council – to transform it into a space for Black-owned businesses, with funding from Brent council and the former Greater London Council, amid high unemployment and discrimination in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. Founders included the community leader Leonard Johnson, whose philosophy – 'let's build and not destroy' – prevented disorder from spreading to Harlesden on the night of Brixton's uprising in 1981. Bridge Park was inaugurated by King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, in 1988. At its peak it had 32 business units, a sports hall, theatre, training centre, recording studio, restaurant and bar. The Royal Shakespeare Company's Ray Fearon, 51, and the Premier League footballer Raheem Sterling, 30, spent formative years there, and are backing plans to save it. Brent council said it acknowledged 'the part Bridge Park had in an important chapter in Black British history', but spending £1.5m to bring it up to 'suitable safe standard' was 'not a good use for public funds'. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion Muhammed Butt, the leader of Brent council said: 'I understand the deep affection that local people have for Bridge Park, but … it's simply not financially sustainable to keep it open. Instead, we want to get on with building a brand new leisure centre for the community, which will be more than double the size and purpose-built. 'Our plans are all about transforming the area for the benefit of local people – much-needed new homes, more green spaces and new jobs.' Rebecca Markus, a researcher and co-lead of Save Bridge Park, said: 'It's a really amazing, early example of adaptive reuse. There's an idea that for a building to be of architectural merit it needs to be designed by a star architect and subscribe to a specific style, but if our heritage is actually going to reflect the nation then we have to be inclusive in the way we think about these things. 'Buildings hold a tangible connection to the past that can't be captured by words or photographs.' Historic England is expected to make a decision this summer. It was approached for comment.
BBC News
18-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
London Roller Derby faces homelessness as community venue to shut
A north-west London roller derby team could be left without a base after Brent Council approved plans to close a community Park Community Centre in Stonebridge is due to shut on 31 July, pending final approval from the centre was once the largest Black-led community enterprise in Europe. It currently hosts several community groups, including the London Roller Derby team, which has trained there twice weekly for the past 20 site is set to be redeveloped as part of a £600m investment in the area, which will include housing, a hotel, park, and a new leisure facility. The council said the decision was taken "with regret", but claimed the cost of repairing the building was too high and its condition posed a "high risk of failure of vital equipment".The cabinet acknowledged the option to keep the centre open longer, but said the risks and costs were too great. In 2024/25, it generated nearly £500,000 less than expected. Roller derby is a high-speed, full-contact sport played on roller skates, typically involving two teams racing and blocking around an oval the council's cabinet meeting where the decision was taken, a London Roller Derby member, who spoke under her alter-ego Vengeance, said they would be left "homeless" if the centre closes, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported. "This is how fantastic our skaters are. We are going to be training our hearts out until the World Cup in July. Until you shut the doors, we are going to be training our hearts out in Bridge Park," she added. Neil Nerva, the council's cabinet member for leisure, said the repair option was not good value and it was "also questionable whether it could even be achieved."The Harlesden People's Community Council (HPCC), which launched the Save Bridge Park campaign, is seeking to preserve the site as a vital community resource and cultural landmark. Historic England is reviewing the application, the meeting heard, with a final decision expected this council said it wanted to work with the roller derby team to find an alternative venue. The new leisure centre is not expected to open until 2030.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bridge Park expansion plan for condos, offices inches forward
DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) — Plans are inching forward to expand Bridge Park in Dublin with additional offices, condominiums and public green space. Dublin-developer Crawford Hoying's proposal would build the expansion along Dale Drive and Bridge Park Avenue, a five-acre block occupied by parking lots and a former preschool. The proposal, which would represent one of the final phases in the original build-up of Bridge Park, was reviewed by Dublin's Planning and Zoning Commission on May 1. Columbus Tesla building under new ownership after $17 million sale Members approved Crawford Hoying's preliminary development plan, but expressed concern for Green Street, a proposed road connecting Banker Drive to Bridge Park Avenue. Commissioner Jamie Chinnock emphasized walkability, and said Green Street should be replaced with a wide sidewalk closed off to cars, but accessible for emergency vehicles. 'We keep going back to the road, we've gotta figure it out,' said Chinnock. 'We can use college campuses as examples, they do this all the time where they have sidewalks that are accessible by service vehicles, that aren't accessible for any other public transportation. It's a simple model, I'm having a hard time understanding why it's that complicated to comprehend.' Commissioner Jason Deschler said he would vote 'no' against the proposal's final development plan later on if the issue of Green Street isn't resolved. Dublin eyeing German-inspired holiday market for Bridge Park in 2026 Crawford Hoying's proposal calls for the 5.37-acre development to include two phases of condos, a parking garage and a more than 100,000-square-foot office building. A majority of the office is expected to be occupied by oil and gas producer Cenovus Energy, who announced in 2024 it plans to relocate to Bridge Park in 2027. 'Despite everything that's happening, in the macro-economic environment, we continue to see office interest at Bridge Park,' said Russ Hunter, Crawford Hoying executive vice president of design and development, during the meeting. A five-story building to the east of the office would mark the expansion's first condo phase, spanning 160,000 square feet with 89 units. The second five-story condo building would be built at a later date, given Crawford Hoying needs to buy this land from COTA who operates a 'Park-and-Ride' lot on the site. Hunter said the two companies are nearing a deal. The parking garage, also standing five stories, would be home to 508 parking spaces across 200,000 square feet and include electric-vehicle charging stations. An extensive green space would anchor the expansion between the office and the second condo building. After weapons go undetected, nurses union at Ohio State hospitals asks for security updates Crawford Hoying will return to the commission for review and approval of the final development plan for the block. The company also submitted a proposal last September to construct townhomes at the intersection of John Shields Parkway and Mooney Street in Bridge Park. While Crawford Hoying initially received city approval in 2016 to build the townhomes, changing market conditions forced the company to re-evaluate the development before construction began. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BBC News
11-03-2025
- BBC News
Harlesden campaigners alarmed at council plan for community hub
A north London campaign group has expressed alarm at a council's proposal to close a leisure and community centre, with a replacement not expected to open until 2030. Brent Council said a centre to take over from Bridge Park Community Centre in Stonebridge could take up to five years to Park was once the largest black-led community enterprise in Europe – housing business units, workshops, a sports hall and a theatre. Last year, the council announced the site would be developed as part of a wider £600m investment, and would include homes, a hotel, park, and the new leisure centre. Following a consultation late last year, residents highlighted the need for improvements to the leisure centre and community spaces but the council said the poor condition of the existing building would require at least £1.5m to restore it – which was "not a sensible use of limited funding". Residents have now been asked to take part in a new consultation, which proposes to shut the community centre as early as July 2025. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the Harlesden People's Community Council (HPCC) said they were "concerned that the consultation process may not have reached those most impacted". The group has urged Brent's black community to participate in the Phase 2 survey "to ensure your voices are heard". A brief history of Stonebridge Intended as a post-war utopia, Harlesden's Stonebridge was a high-rise, high-density housing estate. By 1981, the unemployment rate for young people on the estate was estimated to be over 50% and with no community facilities to help meet residents' needs, many turned to a life of a 25-year-old Leonard Johnson returned home from prison with a message for his community: "Let's build, not destroy".He was the driving force setting up Bridge Park, then the largest black community project in Europe. The objective was to develop self-help and community empowerment strategies to tackle deprivation in Stonebridge.A community action group was established, made up of young black people from the estate. Early activities included maths, English, drama, electronics and black history classes, all run from a small garage on the the disused Stonebridge bus garage came up for sale, Mr Johnson saw the potential of the site to provide a sports hall, cafe, workshops, IT facilities and childcare – all to be run by local was bought on behalf of the HPCC for £1.8m by Brent Council, in conjunction with the Greater London Council and the Department of the Environment. The new space contained Brent's first IT centre, a creche for working mothers on the estate, many of whom were single parents, and changing rooms to service the nearby Stonebridge Recreation third of the main shed was dedicated to providing units for local businesses. In 1996 Brent Council took over management of Bridge Park but it remained an community 2017, the site was provisionally sold to an offshore developer, sparking a legal battle over ownership between the council and the community. In 2020, the High Court declared Brent Council the "sole legal and beneficial owner of Bridge Park".In 2024, Save Bridge Park was launched, with an attempt to have the site added to the National Heritage list for HPCC HPCC listed concerns about the plans, including the lack of an IT centre, managed workspace, theatre, and music studio, all of which are currently offered at Bridge Park."These are key resources that support local youth and help steer them away from crime. To exclude these facilities is to neglect the fundamental needs of the community."The group is now campaigning to have Bridge Park included on the National Heritage List for England to "help secure the necessary funding to preserve the facility and keep it as 'a vital resource for our community". Brent Council leader, Muhammed Butt, said: "Bridge Park Leisure Centre is so much more than a building and we want to honour its history and build on its legacy for the next generation of residents."He added that the next phase of consultation was "about gathering feedback on the proposed closure, and transition arrangements for residents".
