Ignoring wide-scale opposition from local residents and businesses, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham has approved the demolition of the world famous iconic, art deco Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre.

The Earl’s Court Area Action Group believes that decision is wrong. It is now campaigning to save an asset that is of vital importance to the capital's economy. Together, Earl’s Court’s twin exhibition halls provide West London's largest exhibition/ conference space and concert venue. Despite assurances, it transpires no tangible replacement facilities will replace a loss, which economically and culturally defines the area.

At a stroke, we will lose a unique facility that has hosted concerts from The Stones, Bowie, Madonna and Michael Jackson via George Michael and Pink Floyd to opera on an epic-scale and popular consumer shows such as The Ideal Home Show, The Royal Tournament and the Olympics.   

This crucial and viable economic and cultural hub will be replaced by an inappropriate Canary Wharf-style city whose skyscraper towers will dominate West London’s Victorian skyline, wrecking cherished views. This utterly inappropriate designer ghetto will contain no affordable housing. The average Londoner will be priced out of urgently needed homes by speculative absentee landlords out to make a fast buck.

Over the 20 years it will take to build a site that will more than double the population of an already hopelessly over-stretched neighbourhood, and with no sensible transport solutions proposed, West London’s roads will become permanently gridlocked, further choking an area where car exhaust pollution already regularly breaks permitted EU safe levels. Together with noise pollution and light pollution from protracted night-time works, the public’s health will be endangered.       

Additionally, against the majority wish of its residents, a community’s perfectly adequate homes will be demolished in the name of a hungry developer’s bottom-line profit. This is ill-conceived scheme pushed through at the expense of the area's economic and cultural well-being and needs to be halted.

The Earl’s Court Area Action Group urges you to sign its petition to Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government asking that he calls in the applications due to the conflict of interest for Boris Johnson in his capacity of Mayor and head of TfL, which owns 1/3rds of the development site.

TOGETHER WE CAN SAVE EARL’S COURT!