So what’s happening with the Play Tower? We hear the council is looking at the possibility of applying for National Lottery Heritage Funding to help kick start the redevelopment.
Plans for the restoration of the Play Tower stalled some time ago after developers Guildmore delayed work because of rising costs in the current economic climate.
Ladywell-Live asked Tony Rich, a former chair of the Lewisham Building Preservation Trust who has been involved in efforts to restore the Play Tower over many years, to explain what could happen with an application for Lottery Funding.
The crumbling Grade 2 Listed Ladywell Swimming Baths (Play Tower) which has been placed on Historic England’s “At Risk Register”, has been a sad, empty, shell since it closed in 2004.
Developer Guildmore which won a council-organised competition to become the chosen development partner in November 2017, was due to build 33 homes plus a multi-screen cinema on the site, but in 2022 ran out of money.
At the time Guildmore won the competition there was surprise that it had decided not to pursue any grant assistance to help deal with the multi-million pound costs of refurbishing the building. Instead it chose to rely solely on reinvesting profits from sale of apartments in the scheme.
Now the scheme has stalled, the council has decided to pursue National Lottery Heritage Grants funding which is open for bids from £10,000 up to £10m.
The lottery funding does not define heritage but stresses what is important to the local community itself and can be anything from buildings to heritage walks, digital output, new staff etc.
Costs canot be retrospective so a detailed forward repair/refurbishment programme needs to be set out.
The council would also need to be able to show that the it would not be possible to fund the scheme from the profits made by the housing development itself.
It remains to be seen whether a cinema or community space remains possible to achieve in the project.
It would also be important for the council to show that it is working closely with the local community iand ensuring the heritage and stories surrounding the Victorian swiming baths are an integral part of its future plans.
Residents fed up with council’s failure to get a grip on Playtower redevelopment
Ladywell residents are becoming increasingly angry at the council’s failure to push the Playtower redevelopment forward and to engage with the local community over the future of the project.
The Grade II listed building, increasingly an eyesore on Ladywell Road, has been allowed to deteriorate after multiple fires, vandalism, and poor protective fencing.
The Ladywell Society, which speaks on behalf of a wide range of residents and businesses in the area, says it is “disgusted at the way Lewisham Council has allowed the Playtower redevelopment to drag on whilst the building continues to deteriorate.
It also insists it is no longer “acceptable” for the Ladywell Society and the whole community to be continually “fobbed off” with platitudes as a substitute for meaningful involvement in a major project with local significance.
Society founder Robert Smith wrote to Mayor Brenda Dacres in February when she was the deputy mayor and cabinet member for housing development and planning, urging the council to act quickly to save the Playtower.
“I have to report that I did not get a reply. It’s beyond disappointing,” says Robert.
Robert says the society’s patience is wearing thin as council officers continue to take the line that negotiations “are still ongoing” with the developers Guildmore which secured the contracct to redevelop the site in 2017.
The council were told last year that Guildmore was unable to carry out the restoration work as planned without seeking additional sources of funding because of the sharp rise in prices and interest rates.
But the society says the negotiations have been “ongoing” for way too long, leaving an important listed building to deteriorate.
“Are the council simply wanting this to continue to the point where the building deteriorates so far that it has to be demolished! One could be forgiven for thinking so,” says Robert.
Pressure from the society has led to officers demanding information from Guildmore to enable decisions to be made on the continued viability of the partnership between Guildmore and the Council for this project.
“However, even this seems to be taking an age,” says Robert.
Campaigners battling to preserve the building pointed out at the time Guildmore took on the project that its decision to turn its back on any grant funding could prove to be a mistake. See earlier posts
Instead of seeking a grant subsidy Guildmore put forward a scheme that required the maximum amount of private housing on the site to generate the necessary profit to fund the refurbishment of the Playtower. But extensive wrangling over a demand for affordable housing delayed work on the site.
The Playtower site, dominating the area close to St Mary’s church, is an eyesore and gives the wrong impression of Ladywell. Ladywell is an up-and-coming area – an attractive place for new businesses and residents alike, says the society.
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[…] Between Catford and Lewisham town centres, the council has also hoped to have a cinema in the long-delayed Ladywell Playtower project, which has stalled amid rising costs. […]