The Drill Hall in Horsham Under Threat!
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- Опубліковано 3 лют 2020
- The lovely Julia and I were alerted to the threat of another heritage building that is likely to be pulled down for redevelopment. This is the Drill Hall in Denne Road in Horsham, West Sussex. Built in 1927 and was the home of the 4th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, in one form or another, for 77 years.
The money to build the hall, complete with the sprung dance floor, came from the community and part of the building was used, and is still used, by the community for dances, jumble sales, weddings and other events.
Horsham District Council, who now own the property, want to knock it down and build flats in its place.
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I remember the Drill Hall being used by the Territorial Army when I was growing up. If I remember, when they moved out and gave the building to the council for community use (around 1999) a covenant was placed on the building requiring it to remain in public use. Since that time, it has been used well by the public, and when the Arts Centre (now the Capitol) was being refurbished, the drill hall was the main theatre for the town.
It’s not only the loss of community use that worries me, but it is a fine piece of 20th century architecture, largely in its original form (nasty uPVC windows notwithstanding!) I understand that both Historic England and the 20th century society have been contacted by the campaigners to see if the building can be listed.
The council have I think misjudged public opinion on this one. To be fair, I should put forward their argument which is that the new flats would be ‘affordable’ and would in essence be ‘council houses’. A new community hall would be built in the new estates to the west of town. This argument does not take into account that this is a fine building in a central location that is well used; why not put these flats in the residential area?
I wish the campaigners the best of luck and I have heard that the British Legion maybe a group who could run the hall in the future.
To the west of the town is, out of the town.
Hi Richard, look up 'Out of the Blue Drill Hall' in Edinburgh. Formed a Trust and made it into a successful venue, community space. It's huge and I suppose Edinburgh is a major city but it shows they successfully saved the building.
Exactly.
Very odd this. A perfectly sound, well used building that just happens to be in a 'convenient development location'. This seems a common ploy used by some councils to get rid of a well used facility in a prime location, by relocating it to an unsuitable location with an often shoddy replacement. Why not build the new homes where they were going to rebuild the Hall? If the Hall was unused (which it is not) then it could be converted into housing, not knocked down retaining the heritage of the area!
So true.
My mum met my dad there, they went to many dances there in the 1950s, they married in 1953 and were wed almost 54 years until dad passed away 5 years ago.
And I bet those flats are going to be priced to where many who need a place won't be able to afford to live in them. Today nobody seems to build anything affordable, it's always build it to look fancy enough on the outside to fool people and give it a name that sounds wonderful so the people who buy will be quite pleased with themselves.
Affordable is a misleading term - affordable to whom?
@@RichardVobes Affordable renting will have to be within the guidelines of affordable and match the LHA (local housing allowance).. yes this is still quite high but it's a lot lower than private renting.
Institutional and public buildings from between-the-wars are most vulnerable to demolition. They are under-appreciated architecturally and often in areas of high land value. How a well-used public resource like the drill hall can be under threat is anyone's guess - though you don't have to guess very hard...
Thank you for sharing this; seen it on your Facebook page. The Drill Hall needs to be saved! Iconic Horsham building. I recall my late father mentioning he played the drums in a band there, believe it may have been pre ww2 or early part. Sometimes I walked down Denne Road instead of the Causeway to St Mary’s School. Horsham is my home town, born in South Street over an old old store Evershed and Cripps, I’m all for improvement and understand the housing crisis in the south east.....but please please please HDC leave this one remaining Part of Our Heritage ❤️🙏🏻❤️
Thanks for watching and let's hope the council is listening.
It's quite a substantial building. I am surprised the council have not come up with the idea to keep the frontage and develope the rest. It's sad because if you remove people's history you remove them to. I think the main problem seems to be it's a commuter town now and London is sucking the life out of it.
That is the nub of it. If you remove people's history, you have taken the soul out of the place.
Either the local community forms an action group, led by a few very determined individuals who are prepared to devote themselves to a prolonged fight to stop the developer doing it, or it goes. With a rapidly escalating population demographic in the country from the government's immigration policies bringing in hundreds of thousands of people for re-settlement every year, combined with a property bubble, the pressure for this destructiveness towards older buildings on prime land is enormous all over the Home Counties, & the Government is pressurizing the councils not to stand in the way of it. An alternative to its demolition if redevelopment can't be stopped might be an internal conversion of the building to residential property use, preserving the exterior.
We shall soon be living in 'Any Town' - where they all look the bloody same.
As an ex Parra. who trained in Charlton and the White City please, please keep up the GOOD work.
Brian in California and moving to Eastbourne in April '20
Thanks, Brian. I will do my best!
I found this really interesting & hope someone does reach out to you as I would like to learn more. I have never heard of a Drill Hall. Here in the States, Military & Community buildings are quite separate - so I'm just really curious & fascinated!🤔
It will get heated I am sure.
@@RichardVobes So many questions...like if it is Military than isn't it government owned & so therefore how can the Horsham City Council vote to shut it down? If it is of historic value, how can they for this reason???
Even if they used the existing building and converted it to flats it wouldn't be quite as bad , surely this is viable ? In the North quite a few large old mill buildings which were structurally sound were converted into flats .
This looks very much like my old secondary school which was built in the early 20th C . That closed in the late 1980s and was quickly demolished to build a Safeway store , now Morrison's
I would rather it be a shop or pub and keep the fabric of the building than knock it down.
@@RichardVobes ideally, but would probably be a Wetherspoon, it's the sort of building they go for, or national shop chain the way things are but at least it would be somewhere for the community.
Not another building under threat! Let's hope the community win it is surprising tits such a used building and also part of the millatry and its pending destruction. Interesting video well done 👍
Thanks, George.
Hi Richard I really enjoy your quality content. This particular building is characteristic of its period and I think that alerting English Heritage and the National Trust might be useful. The interwar period gave rise to much interesting architecture I speak from some small knowledge having studied history in a sleepy college which was used as a hospital during WW2.
It will be a shame to lose this building to boring flats,
Hi I spent six months in the early eighties working in the nuclear bunker updating the telecoms equipment in the Royal Observer Corps central control centre. In the event of nuclear war this bunker would have been the control centre for All civil and military operations in the South of England .By the early nineties it was obsolete and the control room was move to Newhaven fort as a museum display
The approach of moving the community facility three miles out of town, replacing it with nice saleable flats, tells you how much that council really cares about the community that votes it in...once they've got your vote they couldn't give a damn...they're taking away a facility that is easily accessible to youngsters and old folk without much in the way of transport, and replacing it with something that won't be so good (no rifle range or sprung floor ballroom I bet) in a far less accessible location...Money comes before People every time with these bodies...
As Mr Greatplum has already posted, why not avoid the demolition/rebuilding cost cost, and the community disruption, altogether and if flats are required, build them three miles away, out of town? The answer of course is Money...some developer has his/her eyes on that site, (or the council wish to attract one), who will want to maximise the profits accruing from not having to provide new access, doctors surgeries, shops, community facilities etc...and not having to set aside Section 106 money, as they would with a site three miles away on theoretically less valuable land...shouldn't less valuable land be better for them? Well not if they can get the best of both worlds !
Theoretically of course you're ticking all the right boxes by building housing on a brownfield site...but in practise that's not really the case is it? You're robbing the community of an asset and fobbing them off with a scout hut miles away...
It beats me! You wonder who the councils really work for.
If the council insist on making flats they should at least include a community space on the ground floor & retain some aspects of the design.
Hopefully the drill hall will survive we hear all sorts of things about what is being done to resist (I chose that word for a reason) the onslaught from developers. I think I read something about it having some sort of special status from years ago though I am a bit vague on this and could be wrong.. Many office buildings have been turned into flats and with people buying/renting them, there will inevitably be more traffic. My opinion is that the town is becoming less of a nice place to live-I have loved here for nearly 34 years. I still love it and having moved from East London, I am always grateful for having had the opportunity to reside in a great part of the country but it does seem to me that there is a lot more traffic and little allowance made in terms of improving the roads. I live 15 miles from the town centre and we have pretty much given up driving in now-can't complain because we walk, get healthy and don't incur parking charges but on the downside, we don't spend or money in town because we have to carry whatever we buy 1.5 miles home. Having said that, many great shops have gone and we just have fewer interesting shops but at least you are spoilt for choice if you like coffee. There are a few roundabouts that have some green on them, given time, maybe we will see flats being built on them n them-oh what a cynic I am.
I fear you are right. I am pleased to not live in Horsham anymore.
Lovely area 👍🏻
No for long" Councils must meet house-building targets or lose planning powers, Government says"
Sajid Javid warns local authority.
These councils are a law unto themselves. I hope the old Hall is left for future generations to enjoy. It all seems so unfair to turn it into housing.
Especially when they have raped so much of the local area too.
Forgive me for saying so but your lady friend is very attractive and you very much have her attentions, your a lucky devil richard and the nice thing is that she is into what your into, your not boring her at all
They should restore and no more flats
Exactly!
Is there a planning application submitted? If so I can look for it and upload here or you can do another video with the link so we can all make complaints.
I think they have managed to save the hall now.
I believe the Rolling Stones played a gig there in one of there early outings.
The bunker round the back was one of the RSG's in the event of war. Info and pictures here:
www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/horsham-roc-group-hq/
Thanks for that!