With many others I went to the meeting about Louise House last night. The council is seeking expressions of interest (within 7 weeks) followed by serious tenders for a future use of Louise House.

The new user would need to fund restoration and/or conversion of the building themselves within three years. A successful bid could lead to a 125 lease being granted on the building. Lewisham favour a social, creative or artistic use, although there could be some commercial use as an enabling activity. Please find attached two PowerPoint presentations. One is a survey of the building and the other is details of the bid process. Please feel free to circulate them as freely as possible to any interested parties.

I do not have strong feelings myself about the nature of the new use, but it clearly needs to be economically sustainable. I am wondering if a Building Preservation Trust might be a useful vehicle to take the lease, with sub-tenants actually providing the activity. I have some contacts who know about BPTs and would be willing to help set one up and perhaps be involved in running it, if this vehicle was thought to be helpful and if there were others who could devise a sustainable use.