The Central School of Speech and Drama has gone head to head with Camden Council after launching a legal challenge to halt a street market on its doorstep.
The application for a judicial review by the renowned drama school is the second within a year for Camden’s troubled £75 million Swiss Cottage development.
School managers, backed by star actors including Dame Judi Dench, claim the 60-stall market, due to open in Eton Avenue, will disrupt students and residents.
“We are hoping that a judicial enquiry will uncover substantive flaws in the manner in which Camden introduced the proposal,” said school principal Gary Crossley.
“When I joined Central in late 2000 I was excited at the prospect of Hampstead Theatre becoming our neighbours.
“The idea of a Hampstead cultural centre with two brand new theatres facing each other across a peaceful pedestrian square is one that any arts lover would relish.
“It seems extraordinary that Camden wants to ignore this potential in favour of a commercial enterprise that will place a physical and psychological barrier between the two.
“Camden claims that 60 stalls operating all day for five days a week will bring benefits. Not to those who live, study, or work in Eton Avenue. For them a market will bring noise, clutter and additional traffic to an already congested area.”
The school, whose buildings overlook the proposed market, requested a judicial review with the High Court last month.
Despite major opposition by residents and the Central School, Camden granted itself planning permission for the market in May as part of its regeneration of Swiss Cottage including refurbishing the library, rebuilding the sports centre and landscaping the open space. Last November, protesters lost a judicial review to overturn Camden’s planning decisions for the leisure centre and a block of luxury flats.
Central School deputy principal Debbie Scully said the school was willing to continue negotiations with Camden in the interim if some kind of satisfactory solution could be achieved.
The Swiss Cottage Action Group – residents opposed to the market – has proposed it should be placed on the Hampstead Theatre site in Avenue Road when it moves to Eton Avenue next year.
Camden has yet to grant a licence for the market after councillors said more research was needed into its impact on the largely residential area.
The application, and Camden’s written response to it, will be considered over the next two months by a High Court judge who will decide whether to grant permission for a review.
A council spokeswoman said Camden was “unable to comment further at this stage as the matter may come before the courts”.
Thanks to Mike Kennedy for sending me this article, which appeared in Hamstead & Highgate Express ("Ham & High") on September 21, 2002 . The Central School of Speech and Drama is situated at the Embassy Theatre in London. A publicly funded Higher Education institution, Central specialises in the performing arts. The three main areas of the school are performance; production, art & design; and education.
Notable former students of the school include the late Sir Laurence Olivier, Dame Judi Dench, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Steven Tompkinson, Christopher Eccleston, Joss Ackland and James Fox.