Ignoring a record number of objections from a wide alliance of national conservation watchdogs, historical societies, angry locals and residents’ associations across RBKC - as well as an objection from the neighbouring London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham - the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s (RBKC) Major Planning Development Committee last night (29th April 2021) approved plans for what is seen as gateway building for the highly sensitive new Earls Court Masterplan.  
 
The Conservative-run Council had received a staggering 345 objections to current site developers The Earls Court Partnership Ltd’s application, a contentious 9-storey block at 344-350 Old Brompton Road, London SW5 9LU. Despite such overwhelming opposition to the scheme (with only 7 comments in its favour), the Committee inexplicably saw fit to approve a portal building whose height, scale, and massing is feared will be used as a benchmark to justify increased heights within the site area, and act as a precedent elsewhere in the borough.  
 
Given that we are living in a time of climate emergency, the fact that the new building will not be built as carbon neutral is shameful.  
 
Objections received by the Council included those made on the grounds of height, density and massing; segregation of renters inside the buildings; concern over the affordable housing; homes for rent only; no child density study provided by the developer; lack of amenity and green space for the new residents, and negative impact on historic, architecturally important sites: Grade I listed Brompton Cemetery directly opposite the site, Grade II listed West Brompton Station, and three Conservation Areas: Brompton Cemetery, Philbeach and Seddlescombe Road.  
 
Objections from all three local Earl’s Court Ward councillors – Cllr. Adourian (Con), Cllr. Spalding (Con) and Cllr. Wade (Lib Dem) - were also ignored.  
 
There is growing anger at the Council's decision. Said local resident Keith Barker-Main, "This is the latest example in a long list of planning approvals by RBKC that puts speculative developers' profits first, ignoring the needs, aspirations and concerns of those residents and local businesses RBKC purportedly represents."     
 
Linda Wade, Chair of ECAAG, who strongly objected at the committee meeting in her capacity as an Earl’s Court Ward Councillor said:  
 
“Granting approval to this application shows a lack of vision by the applicant and the Council. We are operating in a totally new environment; post-COVID aspirations and demands are different. The way in which people live and work in the future will require a fresh approach. This building in its height, scale and massing is incongruous to local streets and it is not of human scale and must be seen as a snapshot for what ECP Ltd and its delivery vehicle ECDC envisions for the future of the development area."  
 
This application should not be seen in isolation. This is not a standalone building; rather it should have been viewed in the context of the revised Masterplan to assess its impact and connectivity. This was an opportunity to create something significant. That opportunity has been missed.”  
 
Objectors included Save Britain’s Heritage, The Royal Parks, The Kensington Society, The Fulham Society, The Friends of Brompton Cemetery, The Gardens Trust, The London Parks & Gardens Trust, The Earl’s Court Society, Philbeach Residents’ Association, Edwardes Square Scarsdale and Abingdon Association, Cornwall Mews South (West Side) RA, Earl’s Court Village Residents Association, The Boltons Association and Earl’s Court Gardens & Morton Mews Residents’ Association.  

All Conservative Councillors on the Major Planning Development Committee - Husband, Idris, Bennett and O'Connor voted for the redevelopment and the sole Labour Councillor, Bakhtiar, voted against. 

The pictures show "a before and after" artist's impression of what the building will look like from Brompton Cemetery. 

Duggie Fields was acknowledged as a great artist. He was also an extraordinarily delightful man.  Duggie loved Earl’s Court where he lived for over 50 years, and he is now one of its legends and a London icon. 

He was a staunch supporter of the Save Earl's Court campaign from its start in 2012 until his death. He was a true inspiration, he encouraged us, attended our events and took part in some of our protests. He was very generous with his creativity and helped us fundraise by designing our campaign badges and a special, limited edition poster.
 
He gave his support to our Earl’s Court Fringe Film Night launch in 2016 which was an alternative event to the developer funded local film festival.  Our fringe film night went online for the first time in 2020 and Duggie created a digital introduction to this event for us.  He said at the time, “It is always good to have an alternative point of view to the ‘official’ point of view.” 

Duggie is primarily known for his art, but he also loved music and made several music videos for his own compositions. He was a featured artist on Etienne Daho’s Les Filles du Canyon and he performed this track with Etienne live at Olympia Paris in 2018 and at Electric Brixton in 2019.

Duggie will be laid to rest in the beautiful Brompton Cemetery in Earl’s Court. Duggie loved walking there.  
In recent years, Duggie supported the creation of “the world’s greenest venue” on the site of the former Exhibition Centres.  We will continue our efforts to make this a reality, encouraged by his example.
 
Words cannot express our sadness. Our thoughts are with his family and his many friends.
 
RIP Duggie. Forever in our hearts. 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/12/duggie-fields-obituary

​The Earl’s Court Area Action Group (ECAAG) organised its third Earl’s Court Fringe Film night on the 26th of November 2020.  

ECAAG’s event went online this year due to lockdown restrictions and was accessible via Twitter on @saveEarlsCourt.  
  
ECAAG’s fringe event was originally set up to provide an alternative, creative space to the Earl’s Court Film Festival whose first sponsors included the former developer of the 45-acre Earls Court Masterplan site and is now partly funded by The Earls Court Development Company, a division of Delancey, which is responsible for driving the redevelopment.  Our events are entirely free from corporate spin.  
  
Long synonymous with the arts, the avant-garde and the LGBTQI community, the rebellious maverick spirit that first put Earl’s Court on the map, is still very much alive and kicking in Earl’s Court.  
 
The three core participants in our event were, in alphabetical order, Duggie Fields, Amer Jamhour and John Rogers.   
  
Duggie Fields  
Artist Duggie Fields who has lived in Earl’s Court for over 50 years and is a passionate advocate for the area officially opened our event and said: 
“It is always good to have an alternative point of view to the ‘official’ point of view.”  
He chose his film “My Chemo Summer” as his contribution on the night. Having completely recovered from cancer via chemotherapy he says that people can be reluctant to talk about their treatment and he has had positive feedback on his film from patients and health care workers alike.
  
Amer Jamhour  
We showed our first ever foreign language film which was “Dunia” by Amer Jamhour.  Amer is a motion graphics designer and a writer/director who has British/Jordanian nationality. His film is in Arabic and he told us:   
 
“Dunia was my first film, the visuals popped up in my head before the story crystallised. However, the story became about the cycle of violence.   I like the idea of this festival because it's organised by the locals, for the locals, and it supports local initiatives.”  
 
John Rogers  
Film maker, psychogeographer and author John Rogers participated again this year. He picked his film “The Heart of London” focusing on the Save Denmark Street & Soho Centre of UK Music campaigns and said:  
 
“It was originally filmed around the time I filmed the Save Earl’s Court campaign when it felt like there was a fight on to save the very soul and essence of London. The Save Earl’s Court Campaign is close to my heart. It is such a spirited and creative campaign that it was an honour to document. I had a fantastic experience screening at the previous festival, and I feel privileged to be asked to screen again.”  
 
ECAAG’s fringe film nights have always featured a large campaign cake for attendees.  As we were unable to have a real cake this year, we asked our supporters on Twitter to post pictures of cakes.  We had a few cakes in our larder which we posted to encourage competitive bakery and we were so pleased to see the wonderful cakes with a film theme which people had made to join in our event! Thank you to our filmmakers and all who joined in on the night.

Our alternative vision for the Earls Court Masterplan made the front page of the online version of the prestigious Architect's Journal this month. 
 
You can see the article which was published on the 24th of June, 2020 here:  
 
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/all-new-team-brought-in-to-masterplan-10ha-earls-court-site  
  
As online links can become unavailable over time, here is the statement from the Earl’s Court Area Action Group (ECAAG) which was published in the Architect’s Journal article: 
 
We are calling for meanwhile-use on the site to include a green, multi-purpose temporary venue for exhibitions, events and sports given Earl’s Court’s Olympic heritage. This would generate overnight stays which will help the local economy including hotels, bars and restaurants and help our national economy to recover.  
  
Given that, according to Friends of the Earth, Earl’s Court has the worst air quality in the country, we need significant greenery on the site now. Significant greenery must also be part of the site on a permanent basis.  
  
We are also calling for an international design competition to build a permanent, significant, multi-purpose venue – ‘the world’s greenest venue’.  
  
As with the meanwhile use venue, it too must generate overnight stays to help support the local and national economy.  
  
We would like the site to have a range of exemplary, green housing options including provision for sheltered independent living for older and mobility restricted residents as well as families and key workers.  
  
There should also be social infrastructure include a crèche and pre-school facilities, provision for a secondary school, and support home working hubs.  
  
We would like to see step-free access to the site from Earl’s Court tube station and access to the Overground at West Brompton.  
  
We believe an area action plan is needed to avoid basic mistakes.  
  
For example, retail in the new development must be carefully chosen. What we do not need is a new high street which would affect businesses in Earl’s Court Road and would lead to even less people in Earl’s Court going to High Street Kensington – which has been decimated by high rents and rates and the opening of Westfield. Encouraging independent businesses and avoiding more chain shops would be a positive development.  
  
The promised Olympic Legacy has not materialised. Therefore the new masterplan must continue the Olympic legacy in Earl’s Court and promote inclusive sports for all.  
 
The new masterplan must integrate into the local streetscape and housing in materials, height, scale and massing. It must be sensitive to the Victorian residential area – not overpowering and disconnected from the existing area.  
  
Care must be taken in the use of materials to help integrate into the local streetscape with mansion-block style to deliver on the density.  
 
Green space and greenery should be significant for physical and mental well-being. Choice of plants and  landscaping must be focused on the climate emergency.  
  
At the mixed development at Kings Cross by Argent they achieved a creative balance between the retail, commercial, residential and art school (and gallery) and doing so in one of the largest open spaces in London, with an interesting tall building cluster close to the station, opening up the canal side and innovative reuse of existing architecture.  
  
The same could be applied to Earl’s Court with the retention of Empress Place as light industrial units for small businesses and cultural enterprises. 

​Our campaign has had its first meeting with the new developer of the Earls Court Masterplan, Delancey.  Capco have sold their share in their joint venture with Transport for London to the Dutch Pension Group APG and Delancey.  We met with Delancey's Development Director - third from left in the picture accompanying this news update.

We discussed immediate greening and meanwhile use of the barren site at a time of a climate emergency; air pollution; a range of green housing options including social housing; a replacement green venue; volleyball and the lack of an Olympic Legacy on the site; disabled access on to the site and the need for transparency in tendering and procurement processes.

Documentary film makers The Rainbow Collective have made a new campaign film for us which shows what we will continue to fight for under the new ownership of the Earls Court Masterplan. We thank The Rainbow Collective for their time and support in making this film. 
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