Comments on: Save The Marquis Of Lansdowne

By: Joelly

Joelly — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 14:49:14 +0000

Hi there,

I am currently looking at the Marquis of Lansdowne for a University Project.
I am particularly interested in memories of the building or the area- if any one has any contributions it would be a brilliant help! Such a loved pub with a deep cultural history
Many thanks
Joelly@gmx.com

By: Paul Trendall

Paul Trendall — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:40:17 +0000

I used to live there as a child: my brothers and sisters were born there. It is a magical place, with quite a lot of interior features still there and capable of being renovated at relatively little cost. We were back in there recently and the squatters – who looked after the place pretty well – have gone.

It’s not beyond repair but it it will require some structural work on the exterior walls at the rear.

Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help to save the old place.

By: John Redpath

John Redpath — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:04:43 +0000

I really feel this should be taken up with HLF whose funding will be used to effectively destroy a heritage building in favour of a modern monstrosity that will look awful after the effects of a few years bad weather.

Good luck to all those campaigning to save this building.

John

By: Sonia Murray

Sonia Murray — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:45:12 +0000

There are too many concrete block buildings in London today. Keep the Marquis of Lansdowne! The Geoffrey Museum has all the space it needs. I find Dewing’s remark callous and insensitive. For shame! All history deserves respect!

By: geraldine snape (mcclelland)

geraldine snape (mcclelland) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:08:28 +0000

community before culture …if the other way round…both will collapse.

By: Peter Holford

Peter Holford — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:03:34 +0000

I received a reply from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It doesn’t make good reading! In the interests of free and open information the contents are copied here. I’m sure Simona Spoglianti will have no objection.

Dear Mr Holford,

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is aware that the Geffrye Museum’s latest proposals for their major project no longer include the retention and re-use of the Marquis of Lansdowne pub which has been derelict and out of use for a number of years.

HLF gave initial support and development funding towards the Geffrye Museum’s ‘Museum of the Home’ project in April 2011. This project is still in its development phase and it is not unusual for changes to occur at this stage of a project. Whilst the Museum originally proposed to retain the pub and considered a range of options for its re-use, it has concluded that it is not feasible to do so without compromising the rest of the wider development scheme.

The scheme has now been amended and submitted for planning and listed building consents. Ultimately the shape of the final proposals must be decided by the Museum and it is the remit of the planning process to determine whether the overall proposals are appropriate. HLF is continuing to encourage the Museum to engage and consult the local community extensively over the coming months and will consider the project again later on this year.

Kind regards,

Simona Spoglianti
Senior Grants Officer
Heritage Lottery Fund
7 Holbein Place
London SW1W 8NR
E-mail: simonas@hlf.org.uk
Website: http://www.hlf.org.uk

By: Grace

Grace — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 13:41:20 +0000

We have had some great parties in this pub, it’s been an amazing venue. It retains that arty east-end feel that is slowly disappearing in the area. One of the last parties if not the last party, we are hosting tomorrow night. See here for ticket details. http://london-calling.eventbrite.co.uk/

Come and check the place out before it’s gone forever. Whilst there aren’t many original features left in the pub, its a unique and interesting place.

By: Save The London Fruit and Wool Exchange

Save The London Fruit and Wool Exchange — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:33:18 +0000

Yes, have been here in the recent past when artists and designers were using the building. So this pub building goes on – and should go on. Why demolition? What justification is there?
It seems we can never stop fighting demolitions in the East End. In Tower Hamlets it is the perfectly preserved ‘The Gun’ public house in the group of three 1920’s Spitalfields Market buildings that is about to be demolished and in Shoreditch, this 1839 public house. Agree with Alan Gilbey that the pub building should be preserved as these (and I have been told, the cinemas, where the heating was on, and the grandmas could sit in comfort, reel after reel), were refuges from cold and cramped homes. Also homes where work went on – the sewing machines of pieceworkers is never relaxing! Why the Geffrye Museum could not incorporate this corner building in their scheme, and re-instate the pub interior, when interiors is their game…this would also surely attract Heritage Lottery Funding, while as you say, GA, flattening heritage is hardly likely to qualify.
So, it’s another fight to save built heritage. At least these heritage assets in a conservation area (just as The Gun, Barclays Bank and the Fruit Exchange at Spitalfields are) are yet to be decided upon by Hackney Council. Those of us in Tower Hamlets must help with this neighbouring pub – and the Museum, which many of us appreciate, too – and object via the petition and support the Facebook page. There was a piece on this in Private Eye’s Nooks and Corners – so the Marquis of Lansdowne demolition is getting national bad press. These developers and architects must stop and think again.

By: Joyce Fenton-Douglas

Joyce Fenton-Douglas — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:26:56 +0000

. . . ultimately, here in East London, and indeed across Britain, we need to decide if we want to live in a sanitised Post Modern Disneyfication of our past or if we are prepared to be bold and make space for the future . . . which sometimes leaves no room for compromise . . .

Far from being cosy centres of the community many East End pubs were sites of misery . . . of men spending money on alcohol while children went hungry . . . drinking spells the precursor to violent late night domestic confrontations . . . This pub most likely closed because it became economically unviable . . . and who knows how many were glad of its passing . . . ?

I do agree with Alan that the museum is lacking in the remit that it has adopted . . . and that of a traditional pub might add depth, but the interior of this one is long gone . . .

By: Vicky

Vicky — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:20:36 +0000

The Geffry Museum should be ashamed of themselves. I hope they read this, and the comments, and reverse their decision soon. We’ll all be watching …