Stamford Hill School

The future of old Stamford Hill Primary School building

Context:

Falling pupil numbers across London are resulting in school closures in many boroughs. These schools are often landmark buildings with rich architectural, educational and social heritage and internal spaces which could provide much needed community spaces. The old Stamford Hill School site, located on Berkeley Rd N15, is one such site.

What VCRA has done so far:

The school closed in 2018. VCRA has written to Haringey Council to enquire about their plans, with no response. We've spoken with our ward councillors about our concerns for the building, its deterioration and state of neglect. We've asked what Haringey plans to do with it. Through our neighbourhood Whatsapp group and during residents' meetings, the community has expressed its concerns that the site may be put up for development with no thought for the community's needs or our area.

VCRA have been exploring this issue and would like to share what we think with you, and to seek your input going forward. If we are to take any action at all, this will need to be led and developed by many of you. The committee is fully engaged in ensuring our 'business as usual', including our litter picks, park and winter events, green space work, etc and fundraising towards these activities. We are a small group and a project to save the school for community initiatives will need others in our community to lead and take actions. It may be a project that takes a long time.

This is what we know or think to date:

We do not know what plans if any Haringey have for this site. From our councillors, we have heard that there is no plan to sell the site (at the moment) however the council is considering it for social housing.

Next steps:

In order to try to protect it, we need to apply for this to be an Asset of Community Value. We have all the links and guidance for this application. The form looks simple however our findings are that we need to develop a realistic looking business case for the use of the site, not just good ideas.

Is anyone up for taking on this work? It is a first step. If we are successful then the property cannot be developed without proper consultation for five years, so there's some protection there along with time to start working on the business case. There are examples of both successful and unsuccessful applications on the Haringey website, there will be other guidance and VCRA has some leads on organisations that may be able to provide advice and some practical help. We will provide all that to whoever offers to lead on this project, and work alongside you as much as we can.

Alongside this main step we will need people to look for and develop links with partners. These might be local organisations or individuals that might be supportive or add resources or even work alongside us to make this project viable. Again, VCRA already has some links, and these can be developed.

We will also need a group that works on fundraising. This may include heritage grants, local businesses (not much scope very locally we suspect unfortunately), etc. This group would also undertake communications to gain interest and support as widely as possible, perhaps with journalists and the media.

If we get these three main groups set up and working together, and able to commit sufficient time to do this work, we could be successful - there are a few examples where this kind of thing has happened, again not so much in Haringey but we know of examples from nearby boroughs.

Do you have the commitment to make our community's dream a reality? You may need to put in hours of work per month, meet regularly as a team, meet partners and funders or the council, draft letters, applications, notices and prepare business plans. It may seem daunting but it's possible, looking at other projects where a community has done just this. Achieving this first step (the school achieving designation of an Asset of Community Value) will be a significant marker and protection for the site.

If you can offer your help, we think the first stage will be for the interested group, with VCRA support, to have an initial meeting with everyone that can input and workshop our way through. We will help organise that with help from you! If there is anyone with specialist skills - property development and management, business development, architectural, administration, etc that would be great but really what we need is your ideas, energy and commitment.

Contact: hello@vartry.org