The Association’s Annual General Meeting will take place in St Helens Church hall (St Helens Gardens W10) on Thursday 1st November at 8pm. The meeting is open to all members, and to anyone living in the streets around the St Quintin Estate.
There will be the usual formal business of electing a management committee and officers for the association. We have a management committee of 12, with two members standing down this year, and please email sthelensassn@aol.com before the meeting if you wish to stand for election.
The officers of the association have agreed to continue for a further year, if re-elected. These are: Chairman, Henry Peterson, Vice Chairman Ruth Hillary, Treasurer Maggie Tyler, and Secretary Tania Martin.
For the main discussion at the AGM, we want to talk about about the past and present of Latimer Road, and to get peoples ideas for its future.
Latimer Road is part of the Freston Road/Latimer Road Employment Zone, within the current planning framework of RB Kensington and Chelsea. The council has recently launched an Enterprise Review, looking at the future of employment zones in the Borough. Fresh thinking is needed, not least because Latimer Road is one of the few parts of the borough where offices and business units prove hard to let.
As part of the proposed neighbourhood plan for this area, we feel that Latimer Road could be improved. It currently lacks pedestrian footfall, but this will change when the proposed east west underpass beneath the railway is built. Plans for this project have not been finalised, but £4m of funding is included in the Imperial West S106 agreement. It is understood that the underpass might be built as part of the earlier phases of the construction programme for Imperial West, in the next year or two.
So we would like to seek the views of our members on the regeneration of Latimer Road, and how to bring more life to the area. We will be showing examples of how some similar roads and streets in London have achieved a good mix of workshops, offices, studios, and residential, which in turn bring cafes and restaurants to the area (or ensure the survival of those already there).
We hope that you can join us for this discussion, Thursday November 1st at 8pm.
It is correct that a planning application has been submitted to convert the former Volunteer pub (now Ariadne Nektar bar) into a five bedroomed house. The Association is opposing the change of use of this building, it being the last of three former pubs in the street. We share the view that the street, and the surrounding area, could support a successful restaurant or gastropub and that this would be a step towards bringing back some life to the street.
One major problem with Latimer Road is that there isn’t anywhere to eat lunch if you work there. Unless you want to eat fish and chips or greasy spoon type food, it’s a long walk to Notting Dale and the Bramley road area – the nearest places that do salads and sandwiches. Number One is great but the other Thai actually on Latimer Road is just bad – someone could make a killing if that was a bistro or small italian and sold sandwiches during the day. Ariadne’s Necktar is also crying out to be run properly as a pub with good food – there is a potentially large catchment area. As it is rumour has it that it will soon be converted into a house – goodbye another pub.