I am an active member of the Victorian Society. It is clear from the current options report that full demolition of all of the pools and Louise House is the preferred option. This is quite scandalous. Louise House is about to be bulldozed purely to enable the council to use the receipts from flats to partially fund the pools rebuild. There is nothing wrong with Louise House and it forms part of a group of buildings which togther make up the historic heart of Forest Hill.
The pools are more difficult because of the problems with the roof (solveable) and the pools (more tricky). The interior of the pools has been substantially altered in the 1960s.
My preferred option would be to retain the facade (which is the most striking and best preserved part of the building) and rebuild new pools behind. This kind of thing is very common practice in central London and is not limiting at all: there is land to the left and right of the facade which could be used to create DDA compliant entrances and the like.
The council do seem to be hell bent on getting rid of this building, despite its many virtues, all for the sake of the extra ?200,000 it would cost to keep the facade.
I have written to the Secretary of State for CMS, the Culture Secretary, the Mayor of London, the Mayor of Lewisham, the Victorian Society, SAVE, our MP and MEP and local councillors proesting about the proposed demolition but am not hopeful. The man at SAVE did some enquiries and apparently Lewisham have sought and got permission to demolish the building from DCMS already.
Who is prepared to campaign on this?