THE ST. MARYLEBONE SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Number 333 Registered Charity 274082 Autumn 2011 Work in progress. View of substation from Chapel Street. TRANSFORMATION AT EDGWARE ROAD STATION Rising from the hoardings on Chapel together with TfL and Art on the function. The new structure could Street, the exposed concrete walls of Underground, St Marylebone Society overpower what is already there it’s so the new substation at Edgware Road members attended discussions and large a volume. To fragment it will help Station are taking shape. The workshops with local residents to to integrate it with its neighbours so it machinery will be housed within a contribute their ideas to the project. can contribute to the whole rather than series of three different sized structural The result is a series of patterns derived dominate.” boxes and is part of an essential from elements Jacqui discovered All art is subjective and public art engineering and infrastructure upgrade researching the site’s locality, its history especially has a duty to bring benefits to which will allow the introduction and its people. Colour, symbol, geometry those who will live and work in its of state-of-the-art trains onto the and scale are exploited to create a range presence. Over and above the normal Underground network. This necessarily of decorative enamelled steel panels large, brutal and bulky edifice will planning procedures we have all been which will clad the perimeter walls of eventually be contained, masked and invited to actively contribute and be the substation. The artwork will be seen protected by perhaps the largest public involved in this project from the outset. both close up and at a distance; it will be art commission currently on site in We therefore look forward with great London to ensure that it makes a a constant view for residents and interest to the installation of this major positive contribution to the street workers on Chapel Street but just a artwork in Marylebone, which aims to context. fleeting glimpse when seen at speed reflect us, our environment and our from the Westway. lives. We hope that here at least the At our 2009 AGM, artist Jacqueline Poncelet spoke to us about her ideas for Jacqui explains: Society really does get the art it this exciting but somewhat daunting “My proposal is about people and the deserves. project and her final designs have pleasure of place; how we choose what To see the proposed artwork for recently been submitted for planning we see in a complex and busy the panels in detail visit: approval. Involving the local community environment. Chapel Street has a www.westminster.gov.uk/services/envir and responding to site context are diversity of existing buildings and there onment/planning/searchapplications/ important elements of her work and is no continuity of scale, architecture or and search using Ref: 11/08711/APAD FROM THE CHAIR Memorial Garden Update & Proposal to Commission a Statue of Charles Dickens Following months of discussion we have at Dickens lived opposite the church yard at whether our Society can muster the last received the Faculty from the Diocese of 1 Devonshire Terrace (demolished in 1965) enthusiasm needed to proceed with the London to go ahead with the restoration and was only 27 years old when he moved to proposal. We hope to discuss this further at works at the Wesley Memorial Garden. We Marylebone in 1839 and started work on the AGM on 23rd November. Please put the recently met Westminster Parks Managers some of his most famous novels; The Old date in your diary and return the enclosed and are putting together the details and Curiosity Shop, Dombey & Son, Martin attendance form – I shall look forward to specification to allow them to tender this to Chuzzlewit, A Christmas Carol and David hearing your views then. their approved contractors. To agree the Copperfield. There is an existing relief on final proposals I have put together a sub- Heron House, 15 Marylebone Road, [email protected] committee including: Ian Wylie, Cynthia depicting many of his characters but Thanks to Roger Button for his input. Poole and Roger Button (all architects) and apparently the only figurative statues of also local residents, Mike Sibley and Ted Dickens are in Philadelphia and Sydney. Emerson. The site’s proximity to the school All this is encouraging as an early proposal, requires that the works must take place however, the actual process of during the summer holidays so we are implementation is long and complex. aiming to achieve completion in September Westminster has a list of pre-requirements 2012 with planting following on that Autumn. before even a planning permission can be With the Wesley Memorial moved back to its applied for; these include discussions with rightful place, close to the High Street, an the Public Art Advisory Panel, the ideal place is created for a sculpture or Department of Culture, Media & Sport, monument at the focus of the curved section approval and commissioning of an artist and of railings in the northwest corner of the subsequent maquette. Further information garden. would be needed such as drawings, Society member Roger Button believes that photographs, details of plinth and any Charles Dickens would be an ideal subject inscriptions, arrangement and possibly a for such a work of art in this location and set financial deposit for maintenance in out to investigate the idea. He met Dickens perpetuity. Finally, after more bureaucracy Museum curator, Florian Schwezer, who and draft legal agreements, the application stated that the Dickens Society, in will be considered by Westminster planning conjunction with the family, would certainly committee, with advice from English welcome a monument, preferably of Dickens Heritage.The moderate cost to this Dickens and Little Nell (1890), a statue by Francis Edwin Elwell in Philadelphia, USA. at a young age and that they had been stage would have to be funded by the looking for a suitable London site. He agreed St Marylebone Society, but finally that although it is said that Dickens did not commissioning an artist of standing and THE ST. MARYLEBONE want to have a representation of himself in having a bronze casting of perhaps a bust SOCIETY public, the prevailing opinion is that his on a stone, inscribed plinth would be greatness obliges this to be overridden. In considerable. With the support of the AGM 2011 fact Mary Calvert, one of the few surviving Dickens Society an appeal, possibly 23 November descendants and niece of Monica Dickens, international, would seem likely to raise a The Council House, Marylebone Road has given the idea her blessing. large sum of capital. We would be interested Chair – Colin Amery The Memorial Garden site seems ideal as to know members’ views and to test from 6.00 – Meeting starts 6.30 Refreshments OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY 2011 Patron: Lord Montagu of Beaulieu Vice President: Colin Amery Chair: Gaby Higgs Vice Chairman: Mike Wood Hon.Treasurer: Keith Evans Membership Secretary: Sarah Clark Email: [email protected]. Council Members: Dorian Aroyo (Social Secretary) Cynthia Poole . (Planning Committee Chairman) 0 6 9 Robert McAulay (Newsletter) 1 S Douglas Temple (Events) B R Mike Wood (Local History) F k c Alan Wurtzel (Planning) a l C Ian Wylie (Planning) J t r u o c t s www.stmarylebonesociety.org E 2 PLANNING ROUNDUP - SUMMER 2011 case, such provision is more important than the usual requirement that the developer make a contribution to affordable housing. Finally, there is a project to convert 66 Chiltern Street – the 14 storey, 1960s building with dark pink cladding on the corner with Paddington Street – into a residential tower, with terracotta cladding and a corner restaurant with a canopy replacing the big planting box. There will be a short exhibition of this proposal during October, and we will notify members by email. l i a r s Cynthia Poole for the St Marylebone Society s o r Planning Subcommittee C f o y s e t r u o c ARK OAD 127-129 P R e g a m I The block of 29 flats, called The Atrium, was Cutaway section through the new Paddington Station entrance, from Eastbourne Terrace. designed by PDD Architects and the 95 week contract started in April 2011. It is a Since our last newsletter, we have 1967 Sea Lion building, and part of the old high-end developers' scheme in a style commented on 82 planning applications. sea lion pool will become a new tiger pool. presumably designed to sell from the Most of them were relatively small: during As tigers are extremely proficient at drawing-board. this recession there are many domestic climbing, any unroofed vertical barriers would have to be 5-10metres high, so the Situated at 127-129 Park Road NW8, it projects where people are upgrading their replaces a mixed use development of 23 houses, and there were 22 such applications. Zoo is proposing a stainless steel mesh tent which covers the entire area, supported by a flats, builder's yard, motor repair workshop There were also quite a number of café- and petrol filling station. related proposals, mainly in the Church few tall posts in the middle and some shorter Street/ Edgware Road area; either for chairs ones around the edge. Landscaping and It is a trophy site, the last one vacant on Park and tables on the pavement, and/or for the plants will attempt to mimic the Sumatran Road offering views over Regent's Park to installation of extractor ducts. Nine of these rainforest! This is located near the south the east. Immediately to the north, the block applications were retrospective, and there is perimeter of the zoo, west of the old Casson overlooks Regent's Canal at Chapel Bridge.