Bloomsbury Conservation Area

We lobbied Camden Council for 2-3 years to extend the Bloomsbury Conservation Area throughout our 'area of benefit' (see Constitution) and to strengthen their enforcement action against harmful developments. After a long period of 'gestation' the Council adopted the Bloomsbury Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy on 19th April 2011.

We are pleased that it includes all the local area extensions we had lobbied for, together with a firm commitment to improving enforcement action. We are also pleased with the Council's intentions to promote the restoration and preservation of historic buildings, including shop fronts. However, the Government's cuts to local authority spending have cast doubt on the Council's future capacity to fulfill their intentions, which may explain their proposal to focus limited resources on "Development Control", "Site Specific Policy Guidelines" and "enforcement action where this will deliver results".

Bloomsbury is a very large conservation area covering the area from Euston Road in the north to Lincoln's Inn Fields in the south and from Cleveland Street in the west to Gray's Inn Road in the east. The area's fascinating history is summarised in the Appraisal, where you can find street-by-street descriptions of listed buildings, historical street furniture and other buildings which the Council consider make a positive contribution to the conservation area.

The map opposite shows the new boundary of the Bloomsbury Conservation Area (BCA) alongside MA's area of benefit, which is marked with a broken line. You will note that only two small sections of our area now sit outside the BCA - they are: the 1960s Hotel/Office block between Bernard Street and Coram Street and Medway Court, off Leigh Street.

Additional Info:  

http://camden.gov.uk
 
 

Created On 05 November 2010