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A Community of Gardeners, a talk on Thursday 15 September 2011 - Light refreshments from 7pm, talk at 7.30pm - all welcome Terrace Room, Small Mansion Val Bott's…
Explore Gunnersbury, London Open House, 18 September 2011 - Ealing and Hounslow councils have organised a chance to see Gunnersbury's historic buildings and join…
FRIENDS EVENTS - DATES FOR YOUR DIARY - Park Walk, Saturday 11 June, from 10.30am to 12 noon Walk round the historic landscape of the Park…
Joan Catterall (1941-2011) - Joan Catterall, one of the founder members of the Friends of Gunnersbury Park in 1981, died on 24 February…
Gunnersbury Park: A Rothschild House 1835-1925, 21 February 2011 - 7.30pm, 21 February 2011 An illustrated talk by Diana Davis, based upon research for her recent MA…
Meeting and Walk for the Friends, 2pm, Sunday 20 September
The Consultation Questionnaire
Terrace Room, Small Mansion
Friends who would like to discuss the Questionnaire before they fill it in will be welcome at this event, which takes place 10 days before the closing date for its return.
Richard Gill, the Park’s Regeneration Manager, and James Wisdom, Chair of the Friends will lead the event. We will meet for a preliminary discussion in the Terrace Room, and then walk through the Park via the Bath-house, the Stables, the Pitch and Putt and the burnt-out Farm Buildings (and then, if there is sufficient enthusiasm, across to the land being proposed for sale).
This will be a good day to come to the Park anyway, as it is London Open House Day and the Temple and Bath-house will be open to the public.
It is most important that all the Friends complete the questionnaire because on this occasion, our voices will be heard individually rather than as an organisation.
I have a prior engagement.
Will their be a summary of matters discussed available?
RBezza on 18th September 2009 at 16:05 PM
Having checked again with the relevant documents, I would
like to correct a couple of inaccuracies in James Wisdom’s comments re the original reason for the Covenant and those who can now claim the benefit of it. I will quote verbatim from the legal Opinion (sought by Hounslow Council) dated 8 May 2007.
“When the land and buildings now comprising Gunnersbury
Park were acquired from Marie de Rothschild and Lionel De Rothschild in 1925, a covenant was given in the following terms:
‘The Purchasers for themselves their successors and assigns
further covenant with the Vendor and her assigns that they the purchasers, their successors and assigns will not except as hereinafter mentioned use the hereditaments hereby conveyed for any purpose other than as a public park or sports ground and that the mansion houses and buildings on the property shall not at any time hereafter be used except for such public purposes as may be ancillary to the use of the property as aforesaid and that no building or erection other than a building or buildings for use for public purposes shall at any time hereafter be erected on the property hereby conveyed other than the
part thereof which is indicated on the plan hereto annexed and is thereon surrounded by a blue verge line which land may be used and sold for the erection thereon of private buildings.
If it were merely a question of the covenant in the
1925 conveyance no problem would arise because that covenant is now no longer enforceable.
The problem in fact arises because part of the land sold
on for building purposes was sold on by a conveyance containing a covenant by the Councils as vendors in terms (described by the Lands Tribunal in its 1970 judgment as being substantially the same as that given to the Rothschilds. At the date of preparation of this opinion it has not been possible to locate a copy of a relevant conveyance containing this covenant hence the reliance on what was said by the Lands Tribunal in 1970. It is that covenant which remains capable
of being enforced by the current owners of the houses constructed on that land.”
Before I get accused of anything, I would like to
emphasize that I’m not expressing any opinion whatsoever of my own. Nothing in the original covenant to say it was to stop merely light industrial building; and it is not true to say that those of us who have the covenant in our deeds are no longer entitled to its benefit.
I have copys of both conveyances of 1925/1926. Bela Cunha
nick22 on 21st September 2009 at 17:38 PM