Brady's, Brixton (Railway Hotel): history, chat and plans

[IntoStella]

An FOI request would work but iirc my first one (submitted January) on what property Lambeth owns on CH lane was lost.

Is there any end to Lambeth's bloody cheek? Do they honestly expect you to believe that?

Note to self: make sure any FoI requests are sent recorded delivery.

Thanks for asking your friend.

 

[editor]

Of course, the even bigger disgrace is Cooltan.

Oh yes - far better to kick out the squatters who had created a thriving, much-loved and wel used community arts centre and replace them with a rotting crack den of an eyesore for the best part of a decade.

 

[Bob]

Is there any end to Lambeth's bloody cheek? Do they honestly expect you to believe that?

Note to self: make sure any FoI requests are sent recorded delivery.

Thanks for asking your friend.

Lost in the sense of they never bothered replying.... let alone saying sorry for not replying - I just haven't got round to resubmitting it!

A pleasure.

 

[Bob]

Of course, the even bigger disgrace is Cooltan.

Oh yes - far better to kick out the squatters who had created a thriving, much-loved and wel used community arts centre and replace them with a rotting crack den of an eyesore for the best part of a decade.

To be fair the developers have been busy trying to get it demolished!

Hopefully they won't appeal to John Prescott (or whoever the planning inspector above Lameth is - Kea?). If they do we can expect a) even more delays, b) Prescott to approve the 12 storey stuff on the grounds that he loves big buildings...

 

[editor]

Wasn't the Cooltan replacement turned down on grounds of it being of poor construction?
Not sure if Brixton needs a big 12 storey building built on the cheap.

Couldn't see much wrong with the original building when it was first evicted, come to think of it.

 

[Bob]

Wasn't the Cooltan replacement turned down on grounds of it being of poor construction?
Not sure if Brixton needs a big 12 storey building built on the cheap.

Couldn't see much wrong with the original building when it was first evicted, come to think of it.

Poor construction plus about 10 other reasons to do with it being not in tune with the character of the area... I think they're appealing to the council - though tbh I've slightly lost track.

Incidentally I'm trying to get that rubbish strewn bit in front cleared up. Strangely the council can force the private owners to do this...

 

[Giles]

Did the council compulsorily-purchase it with a view to doing something big and probably awful with the site? Or what?

How did it end up being bought and then left closed by Lambeth? Does anyone know who owned it before the council did? A brewery? The landlord?

It seems wrong to me that they can use the taxpayer's money to buy a place like this and then just sit on it for years.

What a waste.

Giles..

 

[citydreams]

There wasn't much information on the title documents from the land-registry. Where it should have said the purchase price was "Price Stated : Not Available"

There had been an ammendment to the lease on one of the properties covered in this title on the 16th Feb this year.

If anyone wants a copy to peruse and make sense of then PM me your addy and I'll wing them across.

 

[Giles]

There wasn't much information on the title documents from the land-registry. Where it should have said the purchase price was "Price Stated : Not Available"

There had been an ammendment to the lease on one of the properties covered in this title on the 16th Feb this year.

If anyone wants a copy to peruse and make sense of then PM me your addy and I'll wing them across.

I think the Land Registry only started keeping price information quite recently (last year or two). There was a flurry of articles in the papers about it, because it meant that nosey people could find out what their neighbours house just got sold for.

Giles..

 

[lang rabbie]

It seems Swan Hill Properties were to have been Lambeth's development partner

Proctor and Matthews Architects would have been the architects

The design extends the urban morphology of Brixton - the distinctive network of streets, arcades and alleyways - by introducing a new pedestrian link at ground level, which bisects the site from Electric Lane to Atlantic Road. This forms an `interchange' connection between the London Underground Station to the west and the overland railway station to the North-East. The proposed route provides a continuation of the Brixton Arcade across Electric Lane, into a new space at the centre of the scheme (and marked by the `circus `of residential apartments above) and discharging onto Atlantic Road at the foot of the railway platform stairs and entrance into the station.

Brixton Central Site - site plan

Brixton Central Site - Perspective

 

[IntoStella]

It seems Swan Hill Properties were to have been Lambeth's development partner

Proctor and Matthews Architects would have been the architects



Brixton Central Site - site plan

Brixton Central Site - Perspective

So have all these plans been completely scuppered now?

 

[Giles]

So have all these plans been completely scuppered now?

I hope so. Why not just do up the pub and venue?

You could probably make a few flats out of the upper floors (it was a hotel previously after all).

Giles..

 

[citydreams]

It might be a long (cheap) shot, but could we obtain a list of famous artists that have played at Brady's?

I know Hendrix was known to be a regular, and, well, the Hendrix family have just won their case against Purple Haze Records ltd link and may be up for extending his memorial after Jimi's Woodstock CD is released.

 

[Dubversion]

the best person to ask for recent years would be twisted, who used to run the Twisted AM lounge down there. i saw dozens of bands over the years, most of whom i can't bloody remember

definitely The Cardiacs, definitely Alabama 3 and various incarnations..

as for the distant past, i really don't know

 

[citydreams]

Just been going over an old Brady thread. It's got some great links to community projects such as Shoreditch Our Way and the Community Gateway Association

This is the stripped down version which I think could be expanded on, carefully. . .

(a) The first and main Object of the Charity is to promote urban regeneration by bringing neglected properties back into use primarily in Lambeth but not excluding deprived neighbourhoods elsewhere in South London.

(b) The second Object of the Charity is to encourage community utilisation and control of land and property and to facilitate the use thereof in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the condition of life of the local community.

(c) The third Object of the Charity is to support businesses in the social enterprise sector or local groups whose structure incorporates the principles of co-operation and community or social inclusion and ownership.

(d) The fourth Object of the Charity is to use any such other means to use property to promote regeneration and local sustainable economic development as may from time to time be determined subject to the prior consent of the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales.

Did a charity ever get set up?

nice photo

 

[Bob]

This is proving to be a bit of voyage of discovery.

The plans for the site apparently were shorlisted for the Property Week Retail Property Awards in 2000 for high density development - as far as I can see these are the abandoned plans.

Random bit of trivia: The property adviser for Lambeth was somebody who disciplined his Kings Charles Spaniels by biting them on the ears.

But nothing else in the public domain at all I can find. However my contact at the council is turning up interesting stuff so I should be able to report more in the next 24 hours...

 

[lang rabbie]

The plans for the site apparently were shorlisted for the Property Week Retail Property Awards in 2000 for high density development - as far as I can see these are the abandoned plans.

http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/intradoc/groups/public/documents/pressrelease/002936.htm

No, that was Phase 1 - also developed in "partnership" with Swan Hill. It's the building containing the Sainsbury's Local, WH Smith, Argos and Carphone Warehouse and the desolate Sainsbury's stockroom occupying the glazed first floor.

 

[IntoStella]

Just been going over an old Brady thread. It's got some great links to community projects such as Shoreditch Our Way and the Community Gateway Association



Did a charity ever get set up?

nice photo

Yes. I was a founder member. Unfortunately it got taken over by fuckwits, one of whom threw me out of my home last Christmas because I didn't agree with their anti-democratic, self serving and extremely dodgy schemes. The poster you quote is one of them. You live and learn.

Incidentally, the charity was originally anna key's idea and he did all the legwork towards setting it up. I only wish we had been more careful who we invited to be involved in it. There was an excellent steering committee in the early days but they too got told to fuck off, depite their expertise and commitment.

It was all quite an unvelievable state of affairs, really.

 

[Bob]

http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/intradoc/groups/public/documents/pressrelease/002936.htm

No, that was Phase 1 - also developed in "partnership" with Swan Hill. It's the building containing the Sainsbury's Local, WH Smith, Argos and Carphone Warehouse and the desolate Sainsbury's stockroom occupying the glazed first floor.

Is the agreement with Swan Hill anywhere on the website?

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Apols if someone has posted this already, but if you go to the Lambeth Planning Database and enter the application number 00/00237/FUL you can view the planning application - which was approved in 2001 - to demolish the building except from the Brady's frontage.

WHatever happens, they may have to get their skates on - interestingly, the planning permission runs out on 09/10/2006.

 

[citydreams]

If there was a new planning application on this property, say for flats, would we be able to find that out from the planning office on acre lane?

 

[citydreams]

I've trawled through the planning.lambeth.gov.uk as far back as jul-2003 and can't see any planning request for the change in lease that was made in Jan this year

 

[lang rabbie]

IIRC the (very sketchy) plans were determined by the need to leave space for the proposed lifts/escalators to new platforms on the high level railway - now dropped by TfL.

Actually, I may have got this the wrong way around - the previous council had signed up to the Swan Hill scheme, which got full planning consent, but apparently doesn't include any provision for a link to the high level railway.

Then, when the East London Line extension got switched from the Peckham-Streatham-Wimbledon route to Peckham-Clapham Junction via LJ and Brixton, Lambeth started lobbying to get the high level platforms funded as part of the project - it was probably a very sketchy drawing for that which I saw.
I assume that the "Central Site" scheme was put on hold until TfL's full needs had been identified.

Since then TfL has refused to fund the high level platforms as part of ELL phase II, because they claim the engineering costs would be so high.

 

[pooka]

Perhaps the upper floors could be used for the drug rehab that the Brighton Tce residents are up in arms about?

 

[lang rabbie]

Perhaps the upper floors could be used for the drug rehab that the Brighton Tce residents are up in arms about?

Unforunately, the PCT (health trust) seem to be have ruled out any site that doesn't have space for a ground floor reception as not complying with the Disability Discrimination Act.

 

[pooka]

There's some sense in that, I guess.

 

[IntoStella]

Perhaps the upper floors could be used for the drug rehab that the Brighton Tce residents are up in arms about?

Perhaps residents in Brighton Terrace shouldn't be such NIMBYs.

I mostly agree with the editor (rather than AK, shock horror), that the orignal vision set out last year was perhaps too all-encompassing and insufficiently focused, including as it did a music school, rehab facilities, careers training, theatre space and gawd alone knows what else. But I think it is too early to be prescriptive about what the space should be. That should be a matter of public consultation.

 

[editor]

But I think it is too early to be prescriptive about what the space should be. That should be a matter of public consultation.

I'm a complete stranger to these things, but wouldn't it be better to mine the collective knowledge of long term Brixtonites to forge an exciting, fired-with-enthusiasm, cohesive, working plan of what the place might be and then present that to the community for their feedback rather than starting from a blank sheet?

Or is that just my impatient get on with it punk rock nature rearing its head?

 

[oryx]

Just to say this is a really interesting & worthwhile thread. I used to go to Brady's a lot in the mid-late 90s & it was a fantastic venue, with that great big room in the middle. Lots of happy memories of good nights including being served once at 7.30 a.m. (should that be , , or ?) - how did they manage those hours?!

I just hope it can be turned into a decent venue again as it's being left to rot is shameful.

 

[netbob]

Why doesnt soemone set something up on Pledgebank.com to lobby the council to do something with it?