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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

More thoughts on Harrow Arts Centre, two cinemas, club meeting rooms, are they affordable?

Postscript
After talking to 16 other people about the development of Harrow Arts Centre (see my previous post), I found they raised the following questions:


Where is Harrow Arts Centre?
Behind Morrisons, on the slip road by the roundabout as you drive or take the bus into Hatch End along the Uxbridge Road, just before the road rises to go over Hatch End railway station on the Euston-Watford line.

Who is doing the plan?
Cultura, an organisation set up by but independent of Harrow Council. A member of Harrow council is apparently on the board, if I understand right. Only one of three? I am not sure whether that is reassuring or worrying. Should there be more or fewer members of the council involved in the plan?

Small Meeting Rooms For Societies
1 How many of the existing rooms will be removed to provide a cinema? 

2 Will the library still be in place in the new building?

3 How many rooms will still exist for the community societies which currently meet in the building?

4 If the Harrow civic centre and Harrow Arts Centre are lost or remodelled, how many rooms, and at what cost, will exit for meetings held by the present Harrow residents' and workers' societies?
For example, Harrow Writers' Circle, the French speaking group?

5 We lost the Gilbert's bar to remodelling. What will be done to maintain or restore the history of the area? 

6 What do members of the public want? I would like the added on parts of the building to be in harmony with the shapes and fabric of the present building.

History
(What happened to the bust and paintings of Gilbert and his era from Gilbert's bar? What happened to the items stored by the societies. For example, historical records of Harrow Writers' Circle? Whose property were they? Were they sold off, put into storage, or sent to a tip? Can we now retrieve any property which might be lost in renovations?)

Lawyers
If the redevelopment is a not for profit organisation, how does this differ from a charity? If lawyers in many companies are willing to act for free on a pro bono (Latin for the good) basis, have free lawyers been sought? If not, why not? Can they be used for such projects in future?

What happens if the Cultura plan is not funded? Will the arts centre, which is a listed building, have a change of use, such as a block of flats? Or must it be retained as an arts centre, and/or for use by the public?

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

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