Dear All,
I am asking all of you who read this and agree, to support and sign the petition that was started by the local residents of London’s W2:
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As a Londoner and as an artist I feel very strongly about protecting the cultural heritage of the city I love so much. Now the proposal has been made to demolish historical Whiteleys in the preservation area of London’s Bayswater, W2, retaining the facade, removing the central Milan’s La Scala opera house replica staircase and constructing two 11 floor towers to accommodate a luxury hotel and apartments! The terrible thing is that one billion pound behind it means a lot of powerful people must be pushing for this project to be approved.
Allowing this to happen and for Westminster council to approve this proposal may well create a precedent, which means all of the historical, precious buildings in London would be in danger! Just imagine Harrods or Buckingham Palace being reconstructed with towers sticking up, not to mention ruining the skyline and stealing the light and privacy from the neighbours’ homes! Britain prides itself on its history and the ancient laws and one of them is a person’s right to light.
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Constructing these towers, much much higher buildings than any of the existing structures around is altering the original building into something it isn’t. Of course, everyone is up for improvement and Whiteleys needs it as well, but it has to be done sensibly and with respect to its overall structure, features and neighbours rights to light and quality living. The developers also want to dig down three floors, which creates the risk of subsidence and flooding to the area. Already a huge mistake was made in granting the permission to construct hideous HydeParkOne (how on earth did they get planning permission for this ugly building to stand in the middle of elegant Mandarin Oriental, Knightsbridge?!) , but in our case, Whiteleys is already there and it should be protected beyond Grade II as a beautiful, historical building and the oldest shopping mall in the country, with amazing features and history, for Londoners, visitors and our children’s children to enjoy.
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In addition to signing the petition, you can object / write your comments directly on Westminster Council’s official website:
Let’s not allow billions of pounds and greedy developers to fck up the city we love!
Many thanks & have a great day xXx Lola G.
Many thanks & have a great day xXx Lola G.
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PS. You can also read more about this proposal in the recent article written by Ms Lucy Sherriff:
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“Whiteleys was bought in 2013 by a joint venture between an unnamed Brunei family and Dutch property fund Meyer Bergman with the aim of turning the scruffy street into the ‘Covent Garden of the West’ by 2020.’
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And I totally agree with Lucy when she writes: ‘I do not wish to live in Covent Garden. Covent Garden is an expensive, soulless tourist trap. I wish to live in a community.’
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