SE23 Forum

According to the South London Press the owner of the property in Lordship Lane has been told to sell up by Southwark Council.

The council claim the owner has been 'hostile' to any disscussions to save the delapidated building.

Southwark council plan to spend ?75,000 refurbishing the building.

Rescue plan to save Victorian concrete house
10 June, 2009

A rescue plan has been drawn up to save one of London?s most unusual houses.

The semi derelict Victorian house ? believed to be the only surviving property of the period made mainly of concrete ? is to be taken over by a housing trust after years of wrangling.

Southwark Council has issued a compulsory purchase order to force the owner to sell the property, on Lordship Lane, East Dulwich. And the Vivat Trust has applied for planning permission to redevelop it once the order has gone through.

The news has been welcomed by the Victorian Society.

The Grade II listed house, which is on English Heritage?s buildings at risk register, has been empty for almost 30 years. Its owner has made several attempts to knock it down, but has been turned down five times by Southwark.

Alex Baldwin, conservation advisor for the Victorian Society, said: ?This house has suffered terribly from neglect and vandalism. Time and again the owner tried to argue that it was beyond repair and must be pulled down.

?This application proves that it is not too late for this architecturally important house, and that even the most derelict properties can be brought back into use.?

?This is a great example of a council using its powers and working with a voluntary organisation to save an historic building.?

The concrete house was built in 1873 by Charles Drake of the Patent Concrete Building Company.