Comedian backs college campaign
EX-STUDENT WANTS TO SAVE IT FROM DEMOLITION
COMEDIAN Marcus Brigstocke has joined a campaign against plans to demolish and rebuild Hammersmith & Fulham College, following reports of its financial woes.
The site, beside Giddon Road and the A4, is run by the cashstrapped West London College group, which had a deficit of £2.9 million in 2018/19.
The group has up to 20,000 students across campuses in Ealing, Southall, Park Royal and Hammersmith and Fulham, and was taken over in September last year by a new principal, Karen Redhead.
Two months into the job, she was quoted by FE Week as saying: “I could see the college was about to run out of money in early October
and I was only five minutes into the job.”
Proposals to demolish the college campus have been around since 2016, but local campaigners recently reignited the issue with a petition calling for the building, completed in 1980, to be listed by Historic England.
It has gained 300 signatures, including from former students, comedian Marcus Brigstocke and Black Mirror and Star Trek actor David Ajala.
Mr Brigstocke said: “The education I got there set me on a great path and I’m not alone in that. Don’t assume you can close it and the young people in the borough will somehow find their way. They may well not manage to do so.”
West London College was asked to comment about the financial problems and the redevelopment plans, but there was no response.
John Bridges, 77, chairman of the West London College Action Group, said: “What I’m concerned with is the preservation of a beautiful building.”
Hans Haenlein, chairman of the Hammersmith Society, said: “It’s a great example of Scandinavian architecture. It’s a huge building but manages to be so unimposing from the outside. It’s a very human environment.
“If it came to giving planning permission to the redevelopment, it would be a loss to the area.”
Two sets of documents were uploaded to Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s planning register in May 2018, and suggest it would be demolished to make way for a new campus.
One set is summarised as “a proposed educational-led, mixed use redevelopment of the Hammersmith & Fulham College site, comprising two elements and involving demolition of all the existing buildings and creation of a new college building over seven levels.”
A full planning application has not yet been submitted. However, there are fears the college may seek to build flats on the Hammersmith & Fulham campus, which is likely to be more profitable.
Mr Haenlein added: “These wouldn’t be the right flats. They wouldn’t be affordable for normal people. Losing a further education college would be terrible.”
The Hammersmith & Fulham College was designed by Robert Giles, a former vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
The campaigners say that because of its unique modernist style, it should become one of a small collection of 1980s buildings to be listed by Historic England.
Mr Bridges, who works in banking, made an application to Historic England to get the building listed. His application was turned down initially, but he has launched an appeal, which will be decided by the Department of Digital, Culture Media and Sport.