If this plan comes to pass Barbican residents will lose access to the parking which they have used since the estate was built and the students will lose access to daylight.
Here is a letter from the chair of the Barbican Association on the topic. If you have a child or a car which might be affected by these plans you need to act soon to make your views known.
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As you probably know, the City of London School for Girls is planning to take over Thomas More car park and turn it into a preparatory school for 240 girls. The board of governors – in effect, a council committee – will meet at 11am on Monday 26 February 2018 to decide whether to go ahead with this plan and send it to the City for approval.
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As you probably know, the City of London School for Girls is planning to take over Thomas More car park and turn it into a preparatory school for 240 girls. The board of governors – in effect, a council committee – will meet at 11am on Monday 26 February 2018 to decide whether to go ahead with this plan and send it to the City for approval.
This is our last chance to persuade the governors to think again. We urge all house groups to support the blocks most directly affected by helping with the lobbying effort, which means writing as soon as possible to the governors using the ready-made email list below.
Here is some background information:
The board of governors
There are 20 governors. Of these, 15 are elected members of the City of London and five are external members (a mix of former CLSG pupils and academics). Only two of the governors, Randall Anderson and David Graves, are Barbican residents – many others will have little or no knowledge of the Barbican Estate or its lay-out. We understand that no site visit has been conducted.
The plan
Thomas More car park lies beneath the CLSG all-weather pitch/tennis courts. It has 150 parking bays and serves a cluster of three connected blocks: Thomas More House, Seddon House and Mountjoy House. It is connected by an access road with Lauderdale Tower car park.
CLSG, which is run by the City of London, wants to take over the whole of the covered car park and install a new preparatory school inside it. The school would house 240 girls aged 4 to 11, of whom 90 would come from CLSG's existing preparatory school inside the main school. The cars, baggage stores and bicycles currently occupying the site would be moved to other car parks on the estate; a few spaces would remain for disabled residents – but none for visitors or contractors - plus a very small area for rubbish.
The existing covered car park would be encased in a double-glazed wall and an entire preparatory school would be built within. There would be two small outdoor play spaces, one immediately next to Seddon House, but the rest of the school would be inside a sealed underground chamber with artificial lighting and ventilation.
In addition, a separate dining hall with kitchens would be built under Mountjoy House – into an area of the Grade II* listed landscape.
Plans: https://cityoflondon.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c35cdd534cf3fa196e129f541&id=f3eb5599f0&e=cf7fc2ffca
Information provided by school: https://cityoflondon.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c35cdd534cf3fa196e129f541&id=f0950308c6&e=cf7fc2ffca
What we are up against
Proponents of the plan will argue that the Barbican Estate is over-supplied with car parking space. They will argue that it would be irresponsible of the City not to make better use of this redundant space, and since the school badly needs to expand, and since the Thomas More car park is ideally located next to the main school, the plan makes perfect sense. All that's needed, the proponents will say, is for a few residents to move their cars to other nearby car parks.
What to say
House groups and residents will write what they like and the more variety, the better – we want to avoid anything that looks like a standard letter. But for those who aren't sure where to start, here's a reminder of some of the concerns that have been raised:
The governors' email addresses
Here are the governors' email addresses. Please just copy and paste them into the address field of an email: Clare James is the chairman
Here is some background information:
The board of governors
There are 20 governors. Of these, 15 are elected members of the City of London and five are external members (a mix of former CLSG pupils and academics). Only two of the governors, Randall Anderson and David Graves, are Barbican residents – many others will have little or no knowledge of the Barbican Estate or its lay-out. We understand that no site visit has been conducted.
The plan
Thomas More car park lies beneath the CLSG all-weather pitch/tennis courts. It has 150 parking bays and serves a cluster of three connected blocks: Thomas More House, Seddon House and Mountjoy House. It is connected by an access road with Lauderdale Tower car park.
CLSG, which is run by the City of London, wants to take over the whole of the covered car park and install a new preparatory school inside it. The school would house 240 girls aged 4 to 11, of whom 90 would come from CLSG's existing preparatory school inside the main school. The cars, baggage stores and bicycles currently occupying the site would be moved to other car parks on the estate; a few spaces would remain for disabled residents – but none for visitors or contractors - plus a very small area for rubbish.
The existing covered car park would be encased in a double-glazed wall and an entire preparatory school would be built within. There would be two small outdoor play spaces, one immediately next to Seddon House, but the rest of the school would be inside a sealed underground chamber with artificial lighting and ventilation.
In addition, a separate dining hall with kitchens would be built under Mountjoy House – into an area of the Grade II* listed landscape.
Plans: https://cityoflondon.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c35cdd534cf3fa196e129f541&id=f3eb5599f0&e=cf7fc2ffca
Information provided by school: https://cityoflondon.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c35cdd534cf3fa196e129f541&id=f0950308c6&e=cf7fc2ffca
What we are up against
Proponents of the plan will argue that the Barbican Estate is over-supplied with car parking space. They will argue that it would be irresponsible of the City not to make better use of this redundant space, and since the school badly needs to expand, and since the Thomas More car park is ideally located next to the main school, the plan makes perfect sense. All that's needed, the proponents will say, is for a few residents to move their cars to other nearby car parks.
What to say
House groups and residents will write what they like and the more variety, the better – we want to avoid anything that looks like a standard letter. But for those who aren't sure where to start, here's a reminder of some of the concerns that have been raised:
- Whether an underground car park is a suitable location for a school (for example, lack of natural light or ventilation, lack of playground space, traffic fumes).
- Traffic generated by the school run (although this will be a problem whatever site is chosen).
- Land currently in community use would be handed over to a private school catering mainly for children in other boroughs. There is nothing in this for the displaced residents.
- Encroachment into a Listed Grade II estate.
- The loss of a highly-valued residential amenity. Thomas More car is not redundant – it contains 80 odd residents' cars, 62 walk-in storage rooms, 80 bicycles, 12 cycle storage lockers, several motorcycles and motor scooters and a recycling area, and visitor and contractor parking. It would not be acceptable for residents to be deprived of such an important amenity and even if it were, there would not be enough room for the vehicles and baggage stores in the nearest car parks – many would end up on the other side of the estate.
- The impact on other car parks (especially Defoe and Andrewes).
- The damage to relations between the school and the local community.
The governors' email addresses
Here are the governors' email addresses. Please just copy and paste them into the address field of an email: Clare James is the chairman
clare.james@cityoflondon.gov.uk, nick.bensted-smith@cityoflondon.gov.uk, anna.sapirabulafia@theology.ox.ac.uk, rehana.ameer@cityoflondon.gov.uk, randall.anderson@cityoflondon.gov.uk, rogchadwick@yahoo.com, emma.edhem@cityoflondon.gov.uk, skle2@cam.ac.uk, david.graves@cityoflondon.gov.uk, tom.hoffman@cityoflondon.gov.uk, ann.holmes@cityoflondon.gov.uk, robert.merrett@cityoflondon.gov.uk, sylvia.moys@cityoflondon.gov.uk, richard.regan@cityoflondon.gov.uk, thriplowbury@aol.com, ian.seaton@cityoflondon.gov.uk, sirms@snyder.org.uk
Please also copy the email to these four addresses:
catherine.mcguinness@cityoflondon.gov.uk, john.barradell@cityoflondon.gov.uk, bursar@clsg.clsg.uk, alistair.maclellan@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Catherine McGuiness is chairman of the policy & resources committee, John Barradell is the town clerk and chief executive, Alan Bubbear, is the bursar of CLSG, and Alistair MacLellan is the clerk to the board of governors. The email needs to be copied to Alistair MacLellan because there are three external governors for whom we do not have email addresses and we have asked Alistair MacLellan to forward copies of our emails to the missing three.
Many thanks for your support
Best wishes
Jane Smith
Chair, Barbican Association on behalf of the BA Thos More Car Park working group and the affected houses
Please also copy the email to these four addresses:
catherine.mcguinness@cityoflondon.gov.uk, john.barradell@cityoflondon.gov.uk, bursar@clsg.clsg.uk, alistair.maclellan@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Catherine McGuiness is chairman of the policy & resources committee, John Barradell is the town clerk and chief executive, Alan Bubbear, is the bursar of CLSG, and Alistair MacLellan is the clerk to the board of governors. The email needs to be copied to Alistair MacLellan because there are three external governors for whom we do not have email addresses and we have asked Alistair MacLellan to forward copies of our emails to the missing three.
Many thanks for your support
Best wishes
Jane Smith
Chair, Barbican Association on behalf of the BA Thos More Car Park working group and the affected houses
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