http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23437068-details/Brown%27s+plan+to+make+Britannia+cool+again/article.do

Brown's plan to make Britannia cool again
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor
12.02.08 Related Articles

London will get a national film centre and a permanent home for its fashion week under Gordon Brown's plans to revive the "Cool Britannia" spirit of new Labour.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham will publish a detailed list of commitments to the arts next week as he sets out a blueprint to turn the UK into the "world's creative hub".

A leaked draft of the Green Paper today revealed that Mr Burnham and the Prime Minister are determined to see London outperform other European capitals and reap the economic benefits of the creative industries.

Projects include a new £200million national film centre on the South Bank, a permanent home for London Fashion Week and a global arts and finance conference styled on the Davos World Economic Forum.

But after recent cuts in Arts Council grants to theatres and other bodies, critics already warn that the proposals risk sounding like a diversionary "gimmick" or a "Stalinist Five-Year Plan".

It is also unclear, given recent tight budgets at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, where the money for some of the projects would come from.

A mix of public and private cash could be used for the £200 million film centre but it is uncertain how much the film industry would stump up.

The Green Paper also hints at taking a more active role including a review of the "health" impact of the fashion industry's use of skinny models and forcing the subsidised arts to hire more ethnic minorities.

However, parts of the arts world will be delighted if the list of more than 20 schemes drawn up by ministers gets the final go-ahead. The British Film Institute, which is housed in a temporary building under Waterloo Bridge, has been lobbying hard for a national centre on the South Bank.

Similarly, the fashion industry has argued that a permanent site for London Fashion Week would help it plan events and provide a focus for the London College of Fashion, British Fashion Council and others.

The global arts conference, called the "world creative economy forum", would be set up in co-ordination with the West Coast of America, linking London with not only Los Angeles but also San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Mr Burnham was an aide to former Culture Secretary Chris Smith, the man who drove Tony Blair's original "Cool Britannia" pushin 1997 and 1998 and Mr

Brown is keen to maintain Britain's edge in billion-pound arts industries.

Mr Burnham and Children's Secretary Ed Balls are also due to announce plans to link the arts much more closely to schools. Children will have the right to spend five hours a week on activities such as visiting galleries and museums, attending theatre performances and learning a musical instrument.

The right to "five hours of culture a week" will become the responsibility of a new Youth Culture Trust, with a £10million trial in 10 areas of England and Wales, beginning this year, and will focus on those from disadvantaged backgrounds and children who display a particular talent. The Government also said it recognises that important music venues are under threat, including the Hammersmith Palais - closed last year to be redeveloped as an office complex - and the Astoria - under threat from Crossrail - and will discuss with the Mayor of London how these venues can be preserved. Ed Vaizey, the Conservative arts frontbencher, said: "This reads more like a Stalinist Five-Year Plan than a vision for creative industries. What makes it so depressing is that we have waited more than a year for this paper and it's little more than a series of reheated policies or absurd micromanagement."

Well there's one use for Potters Fields.

Great news, if something actually happens. How far will £200million go in building a national film centre, is it enough for a truely great building?
Anything would be an improvement on the current NFT. Potters fields would be a great place for these projects, they could really make up for More London if they were well designed. Where else could these go?

The site they are looking at ( have looked at for years ) is the Hungerford Bridge car park.

Oh wow what great site, that whole area needs so much work. It could really do with a spot of masterplanning to get the redevelopment of the shell center and elizabeth house etc to tie in with this and to make it a place you would actually want to be. Alas theres no chance of that happening. And i know theres that 'Waterloo Opportunity Area Planning Framework' but thats not really a proper master plan. It holds no water with anyone. Whats being proposed here at the moment is just crap.

Would this be the site for both projects or just the BFI national film center?

what about the park? next to that site? Was there not a design for that? and whatever happened to it? Nothing seems to of been done.

There was a Rick Mather draft masterplan for Jubilee Gardens which basically involved grassing over the car park. The park will probably be addressed alongside this scheme.

Well there's one use for Potters Fields.

Brilliant idea!!!! The site should be for a major cultural institution, not uber expensive apartments styled like an episode of future london in Dr Who.

:lol: The South bank car park is a better area though, the last masterplan fell through because mysterious residents suddenly appeared and complained that they would have no where to park. Hmmm

residents? It wasnt much of a masterplan anyway.

This was it. No idea whats happening now but the local nimby's complained about the height on York rd or something similar.

http://www.jubileegardens.org.uk/winner.html

:lol: The South bank car park is a better area though, the last masterplan fell through because mysterious residents suddenly appeared and complained that they would have no where to park. Hmmm

Thats very strange.....as the visuals for the new park show the car park there? looks great I have to say.

i was talking about the long gone master plan for the redevelopment of the gardens and moving the national film theatre/bfi to where the car park was.

Although the source of that part of the masterplans collapse may have been something more to do with the car park not returning to be part of the jubilee gardens, but it was reported in the media that the residents wanted the car park left as a car park:

http://www.wcdg.org.uk/waterloo_groups.asp?ItemID=26&CategoryID=105

The Gardens have been appallingly abused since ownership transferred to the Arts Council. Throughout the 1990’s the site was used for construction huts and spoil heaps for the refurbishment of the Bakerloo line, digging out of the Jubilee line, and construction of the London Eye. It was never subsequently reinstated to its 1977 design, but simply flattened and grassed over. This has caused enormous resentment in the local community and considerable mistrust of the South Bank Centre (SBC), the site’s current owners who lease it from the Arts Council.

In 1990 Lambeth Council designated both the Gardens and the car park as Metropolitan Open Land which is the strongest form of protection possible for open space to prevent any sort of building or development. This designation still pertains and reflects the strategic importance of central London’s only riverside park (Embankment Gardens on the north side are separated from the river by a 6-lane major road).


Having looked back at the plan the retail + art buildings were to be under the car park and jubillee gardens with like a roof garden covering it. I think that there is a lot of local support to keep the gardens as is and expand to cover the car park, but as you point out the current plans for the garden do not cover the car park and therefore that space will become open to redevelopment.

http://xs224.xs.to/xs224/08081/west8_whitepaths355.jpg

http://xs224.xs.to/xs224/08081/west8_view2-3687.jpg

there it is, we could have been enjoying it for the past 5 years...


http://xs224.xs.to/xs224/08081/jubilee169.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/646771.stm

At Jubilee Gardens - next to the London Eye - a three-storey landscaped park will be created with the underground concert venue.

The BFI's new centre will stand alongside, housing the National Film Theatre, the Museum of the Moving Image and the BFI's national library.

Further underground developments beneath the park may also be considered for organisations such as the National Film and Television School.

Some interesting comments on the other sites of the South Bank


http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/nr/rdonlyres/3cac64c4-132b-4d5a-9a32-c5d6dd565c86/0/022161.pdf

20th Century Society

The management of the Society has recently changed and they now do not take such a
strong stance as to the importance of the Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall and
Purcell Rooms as exceptional examples of 20th century architecture and would be open to redevelopment proposals.

English Heritage

English Heritage have failed to get The Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall and
Purcell Rooms listed on two occasions, but would still consider them as listed buildings in
any planning application.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/1999/01/06/babank06.xml

The architectural argument for the Hayward complex would be stronger if it did not sit between the Festival Hall and the National Theatre. The Festival Hall, completed in 1951, though altered in 1962, has long been popular with the public. Any threat to it would raise a storm of real protest. The National Theatre, built between 1961 and 1976, has always been more controversial, yet is undoubtedly a building of real architectural power. It may have its problems but it has nevertheless been accepted by the public in a way that the Hayward never has been, and in the vigour of its architecture it makes painfully clear the weakness of its neighbour.

The truth is that the problem with the Hayward complex does not lie in public perception, but in the fact that it is not a particularly good building. Elements of it have a certain cheeky charm, such as the apparently Aztec-inspired façade of the Hayward Gallery towards Waterloo Station, and the whole project is obviously of considerable intellectual and historic interest to enthusiasts. But the truth has to be faced that it failed. One only has to approach from Waterloo Bridge or explore the dank lower level to realise how disastrous the impact of the building has been on the South Bank.

It is a mistake to think that every building with serious architectural aspirations - such as the Hayward complex undoubtedly had - is worth preserving. The Hayward should be thoroughly recorded with drawings and photographs and then demolished - though it goes without saying that whatever replaces it must be of exceptional quality. As long as it stays, it is hard to believe that the South Bank Centre can ever fulfil the potential of its astonishing site.

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