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Kite flying at the British Legion Elder Avenus Crouch End

For almost 12 months the former British Legion Hall on Elder Avenue has been for sale. For several of those months it has been 'under offer'. This offer has now fallen through, and the building is back on the market. My idea is that the public of N8 could form an un-council, un-commercial, un-profitable consortium to buy and run this building in a way that resonates with the public

Now this is not an easy ask. My picture is, roughly, of 1,000 people each contributing £1,000, sufficient to cover the £750,000 purchase price and leave a bit over for a lick of paint. The building already has a D2 use class:

Assembly and leisure

Class D2. Use as–

(a)a cinema,

(b)a concert hall,

(c)a bingo hall or casino,

(d)a dance hall,

(e)a swimming bath, skating rink, gymnasium or area for other indoor or outdoor sports or recreations, not involving motorised vehicles or firearms.

I think this has some sort of chance of getting off the ground, because:

there are plenty of rich people in Crouch End
there are plenty of theatrical/cinematic/TV people in Crouch End
there are plenty of ideas people in Crouch End whose living depends on creativity
there is some dismay with the deviation from the town hall vision
it might work - the original investors might get their money back

I might need to fill in some more details.

What do you think?

Tags: british legion

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Connor on September 7, 2011 at 16:53

yes great idea! i could contribute a grand. but we need to get the message out on this....

Permalink Reply by Adrian Essex on September 7, 2011 at 20:54

Glad you like the idea, Richard, that now makes two of us. I have been almost completely lax about this and am likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. All I have done is float the idea. What is needed are meetings with estate agents, site visits, negotiations with vendors, followed by a serious publicity campaign.

Are you in a position to do anything. You can contact me at opinion8@rocketmail.com

Permalink Reply by Richard Connor on September 8, 2011 at 9:23

hello adrian,

im a poor library steward im afraid with little resources, it would be good to get more people involved so that we could get something more substantial to approach the owners with. if it were the british legion then perhaps they would sell it to a community organisation for less??

anyway its a lovely old building would be shame to see it turn into another gym...