- 98 - Committee PLANNING COMMITTEE (B) Item No. 5 Report Title HOLLYHEDGE HOUSE, WAT TYLER ROAD SE3 0QZ Ward Blackheath Contributors Jan Mondrzejewski Class PART 1 Date 6 DECEMBER 2007

Reg. No . DC/07/66713

Application dated 22.8. 07

Applicant Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College

Proposal Listed Building Consent for the removal of the Coade stone lion from its present locati on for conservation works. The C oad e stone lion will then be displayed permanently at the Pepys visitor centre, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

Applicant's Plan Nos. 1429/RS/GA/01, 1429/RS/EXH/64, GF001VC/SP , site location pl an & photographs

Background Papers (1) Case File - LE/209/A/TP (2) Adopted Unitary Development Plan ( July 2004) (3) The London Plan (2004) (4) PPG15 Planning and the Historic Environment.

Zoning Adopted UDP – Area of Special Character, Area of Archaeological Priority & Metropolitan Open Land

OBSERVATIONS

1.0 Property/Site Description

1.1 Holl yhedge House is a Territorial Army base located on Blackheath with access from Wat Tyler Road. The buildings on site appear inter -war or post war in date and include a number of utilitarian storage buildings. The main headquarters building, although post war in date, is built on the site of a large Georgian house (the original Hollyhedge House) which was bombed during the Second World War. This is known to contain remnants of a much older building, most notably a staircase of 18th Century date.

1.2 Also within the grounds of Hollyhedge House is a recently extended and refurbished block of flats known as Tyler House.

1.3 The Coade stone Lion sculpture, which is the subject of this listed building application, is located in a landscaped area towards the f ront of Hollyhedge House. It appears to have been designed to be attached to a building rather than as a free standing sculpture. This is evident in rear views of the artefact. Given the material of manufacture, the style and the fact that the Lion hold s a tablet inscribed 'NELSON CXXII BATTLES' an early 19th Century date is likely. The Lion is included on the Council's Statutory List of Buildings of Architectural and Historic Interest as a Grade II - 99 - Listed Building. 1.4 Hollyhedge House is within the Bl ackheath Conservation Area.

2.0 Planning History

2.1 The listing appears to date from before 1973 and there appears to have been no previous planning or listed building applications in respect of the Lion.

3.0 Present Application

3.1 The current appl ication has been submitted by the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College and is for the removal of the Coade stone Lion for conservation work followed by permanent display at the Pepys Visitor Centre of the Old Royal Naval College.

3.2 Plans are provided showing the proposed display within the Pepys Visitor Centre of the Old Royal Naval College. This will be linked to a display on the history of Coade stone which is used in both the Chapel as well as the Nelson Pediment of the colonnade faci ng the courtyard of the King William Building of the former Royal Naval College. The latter features a lion of similar design and scale to the Hollyhedge House Lion, thereby giving rise to the theory that the Hollyhedge House Lion may have been a test pie ce or one which was rejected due to some flaw and subsequently sold on by the factory.

3.3 Submitted with the application is interesting background material on the history of Coade Stone, estimates for the cost of relocation and restoration and several le tters from the Greenwich Foundation to the Planning Conservation Officer, making the case for relocation. The main arguments for relocation are the better conservation and preservation of the artefact and greater accessibility to public view. Display of the lion at eye level would also enable the public to see at close hand detail not easily apparent in the Nelson pediment when viewed from ground level.

4.0 Consultations and Replies

English Heritage

4.1 The Council is authorised to determine the applicati on as it sees fit and English Heritage make no comment on the merits or otherwise of the proposed scheme .

London Borough of Greenwich

4.2 No objection.

The Georgian Group

4.3 No reply.

Neighbours & Local Amenity Societies etc

4.4 Letters of consultation were sen t to the occupiers of Tyler House and Holly Hedge House and n otices were also displayed on site and in the local press . Ward Councillors were also consulted.

Blackheath Society

4.5 The Society supports the removal of the Coade stone lion to Greenwich for th e - 100 - following reasons: - The lion has no known historical connection with Hollyhedge House whereas it does with the Old Royal Naval College (Nelson Pediment)

As a central exhibit in a long term exhibition about the Royal Hospital the lion will be far more ac cessible to the public than in its current location at Hollyhedge House.

The display in an open location has led to deterioration of the listed structure.

Lewisham Local History Society

4.6 The society object to the removal of the listed structure which is part of the Borough's heritage and see parallels with the removal of the old clock tower from the Royal Dockyard at Deptford to Thamesmead.

4.7 One reply from Cllr Sylvia Scott objecting to the proposal on the following grounds: -

Hollyhedge House is a ke y building in the Cadet movement and the Lion has been a feature of the building for many years.

The applicant does not provide adequate justification for removal and is unaware of the reasons why the lion came to be at located on this site.

The TA feel strongly that this symbol should remain at the site.

Greenwich ha d possession of another lion but this was not preserved by them.

Lewisham needs to preserve significant monuments which reflect our past heritage and role in past conflicts.

(All letters a vailable to Members )

Amenity Society Panel

4.8 The Panel had mixed views on this application; whilst its loss to the borough was considered reg rettable, its conservation was agreed to be paramount. If approved, suggest condi ti on that it is repaired and rema ins on public display.

Highways and Transportation

4.9 Unobjectionable in principle

5.0 Policy Context

5.1 Saved Policies of the Unitary Development Plan (July 2004)

URB 17 Demolition in Conservation Areas URB 18 Preserving Listed Buildings

5.2 In view o f recent planning legislation which requires the Council to produce a new set of Planning Policy documents the Preferred Options Report has been prepared as part of the Local Development Framework (LDF) and contains policies that will be used to assess pla nning applications for new development and change of use. This document and also those UDP Policies which have been saved and taken forward for inclusion in the LDF process are thereby now material considerations to be taken into account in the determinat ion of planning applications. - 101 - 5.3 The following LDF policies are considered relevant: -

U1 Demolition in Conservation Areas U20 Preserving Listed Buildings

6.0 Planning Considerations

6.1 The main issue in this case is the removal of the Lion, which has the protection of being a grade II listed building at its present site to one where, aside from some possible connection with the Nelson pediment, it has no known previous connection.

6.2 The Council's Local Studies Section have located a photograph show ing the Lion on its present site in 1943. As the lion in this photograph is very overgrown with vegetation, it had obviously not been recently moved to this location. It is known that the original Hollyhedge House (bombed during the Second World War) was in the 1880s donated to the local militia of the period by the Earl of Dartmouth, thereby beginning the association of this site with the successors to that body, the present TA. It is possible that the Lion with its associations with Nelson may have bee n a gift to the militia. Alternatively, it may have been acquired before this as either a garden ornament or for display on some long lost building on the site. Surviving views of the original Hollyhedge House do not show any sculptural decoration on the building.

6.3 Although the Lion therefore has a strong and long established link with this site, its exact origins are unknown.

6.4 The case for removal of the Lion to the Pepys Visitor Centre of the Old Royal Naval College hinges on the fact that it wo uld be conserved and displayed in a more accessible location. Although Coade stone is reasonably resistant to weathering, a museum environment would afford full protection from the weather. The security of a Museum environment would also afford more prot ection from the possibility of vandalism or accidental mechanical damage of the artefact.

6.5 In it s present location, the Lion cannot readily be appreciated by the public, including Lewisham residents. Although Hollyhedge House has been open for guided tours on Open House Day, this is very infrequent. In terms of the wider dissemination of knowledge about the Lion and the opportunity to view the artefact, officers consider that relocation to the Pepys Visitor Centre of the Old Royal Naval College has co nsiderable advantages over the present location.

7.0 Consultations

7.1 In terms of loss of the Borough's Heritage, the issue of the clock tower of the former Royal Dockyard, taken from Convoy's Wharf in Deptford to Thamesmead by the GLC in the 1980s, has been raised by the Lewisham Local History Society. It is regrettable that the Council were not formally consulted on this proposal by either the GLC or Greenwich. However, at the time Convoy's Wharf was in the London Borough of Greenwich and permission for the redevelopment of the building which hosted the clock tower had been permitted subject to a condition that the clock tower be relocated. Although a relocation in the Deptford area would have obviously been preferable, and there would now be no end of potential sites for this, this was probably not the case in the mid 1980s.

7.2 The applicants have given an assurance that the long standing association of the Lion with Hollyhedge House in the London Borough of Lewisham will be acknowledged when the Lion goes on display in Greenwich. - 102 - 8.0 Conclusion

8.1 In view of the above considerations, officers consider that relocation to the Pepys Visitor Centre in Greenwich would be in the best interests of the long term preservation and display of the artefa ct and would allow it to be appreciated by a much larger number of people, including residents of the London Borough of Lewisham.

9.0 RECOMMENDATION GRANT PERMISSION

Informatives

(1) Following removal and conservation, the Council request that the artefact be permanently displayed in the Pepys Visitor Centre of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, where it shall be accessib le to the public free of charge .

(2) When removed from the Borough, the applicant is requested to notify English Heritage o f the new location of the listed structure so that the schedule of listed buildings for the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham can be appropriately amended.

(3) When placed on display, the Council requests that the provenance and history of the art efact shall be acknowledged.