Short presentation from the Heritage for London Trust .
Minutes:
Felicity Martin from the Heritage of London Trust spoke about the charity trust which helps restore old historic buildings and monuments to put back into community use.
The presenter talked about the restoration of Concrete House, 549 Lordship Lane a 19th century concrete house which was near to completion and had been a great success because of the achievement of those involved e.g. the council, local community groups and various individuals.
Charles Drake pioneered the design for concrete gothic buildings in 1800s. He initially worked with Joseph Tall who used a method to enable the walls of a building to be cast in concreteusing a modular framework of shuttering and support to construct buildings. Charles established his own company and developed his method of cast features using metal
The House had suffered years of neglect and vandalism, and the previous owner wanted the building demolished hence the reason why it was left derelict for so long. As it was a grade II listed building, the council refused permission for its demolition. In 2010 the council issued a compulsory purchase order (CPO) that forced the owner to sell the property after years of neglect.
The Heritage of London Trust was asked to restore the building in 2012; which meant stabilising metal and bricks, undertaken by specialists involved in this sort of work.
The Heritage of London Trust completed the restoration and arrangements were in place to transfer 549 Lordship Lane over to Hexagon Housing Association for five affordable housing units. The Duke of Gloucester, a patron of the Heritage of London Trust, opened Concrete House on 13 June 2013.
In response to questions, the presenter explained the building adjacent to Concrete House was built illegally by the owner and had been subject to several planning enforcements that were appealed numerous times.
The presenter mentioned that not many of these gothic builds were around so the trust wanted to help organise an open day for Concrete House so people could view the property. For further details visit the Heritage of London Trust’s website.
The chair thanked Felicity for attending the meeting.