Should any squatters be interested, the side gate at Carlton Mansions is very much open. It's fucking criminal that the building has been left empty for over 2 years.
I took a look around Carlton Mansions water leak gets bodged up as Lambeth continue to ignore the problem
Surely if this goes on there is the danger that it will go the way of the Walton Lodge Laundry or Eurolink Centre. In other words there may be pressure to demolish the building, but retain the facade. Anyone heard any more about Somerleyton Road (apart from Brixton Green consultation meetings)? They had a time line for development once. They must be about 3 years behind by now. Why?
In several of the flats, it's not a tiny amount of dust (I thought I might have done myself some damage having spent a small amount of time in one of the flats).
Well firstly, that's the hyper local Effra blog's website, so nothing to do with BG, but I'm sure you know that. The EA stuff is common nowadays - the level of scrutiny / independent examination for smaller orgs is being lowered.
Thing is, to have any say with Brixton Green you have to buy one of their shares - and doing so gifts them the opportunity to go around claiming that they have 1,000 members who support whatever their latest scheme is. I've seen them make this claim, despite the fact that they have no justification whatsoever for assuming that every member supports their ever shifting agenda.
Yup, I can understand those concerns. Proposed elected officials are: Brixton Green Election 2017 | Brixton Green
I got an email today about that. The annual report is a bit weird isn't it? The scanning on the P & L seems faulty, and the companies assets appear to be over £10,000 negative. And they are seeking permission from the members not to appoint an auditor (as not legally required they say). There really isn't enough information there for a company auditor to say this is a going concern. Still if they had community and council backing there might be scope for a revival. My doubt is actually about the council. I think since the departure of Neil Vokes to Estate Regeneration the council have taken their eye off the ball - and as Brixton Green are riding on the council's coat tails they are currently up the creek without a paddle.
Re the leak. I called TW yesterday to see how things were progressing as they had given me a reference number. Apparently they have established that the leak is on the customer side and it has been passed over to another team. I was given a new number to call and a reference, but after being on hold for 10 mins gave up.
I have been in touch with one of the Lambeth project team who have actually been dealing with this. They have a clear communication trail with Thames Water from since before Christmas, and have been down on site with the TW technical officer in early January, but LBL are still no nearer knowing when TW will be able to do the work. 'It's in the pipeline' doesn't seem quite the right expression....
Perhaps they'll be happy when the building gets condemned from five months relentless water damage. Then they won't have to bother ensuring that sightlines have to be established for that troublesome mural, and they can put up whatever suits them best. If they were on the site in January as they claimed, why didn't they do what the fire brigade staff did and just stick a couple of sandbags to stop the water flow going into the street? It's all bullshit or laziness or incompetence. Or all three.
It's a slightly less aggressive tactic than the northern tradition of unwanted, but protected, structures "going on fire"
See this thread: The Destruction of Empty Buildings Betting Game Although it would be interesting if Carlton Mansions went up in flame - it was meant to be a fire hazard!!
Given that the West Pier managed to go up in flames when it was physically disconnected from the mainland and had no electricity supply, don't rule anything out here!
Didn't Dennis Wheatley's old house in Christchurch Road go up in flames - to make way for a bijou development of little boxes?
This has just opened: For What We Are About To Lose – Clapham Film Unit hosts an exhibition on Carlton Mansions at Brixton Tate Library this month
Afraid I missed the exhibition last month, though I did see the Clapham Film unit film last year. The "book of the film" is still available free upstairs in the Brixton Library. Although not indexed "for what we are about to lose" is about 50 printed pages - mainly reminiscences of former Carlton Mansions residents and a bit about the barrier block.