News earlier this year was that the Heritage Lottery Fund announced stage 1 funding towards a grant of £1.2 million to help restore Dollis Hill House. This would have enabled Dollis Hill House Trust (DHHT) to work with Training For Life and Brent Council to annex a section of a public park for pseudo-social-enterprise, or, in the words of the DHH, to bring about the “commercial exploitation of the house’s prime and dramatic location, balanced with a positive vision of the house’s future as a cohesive focus for the growing and increasingly diverse population of the surrounding area.”

Last Thursday (6th Nov), TheWillesden Observer ran a cover story asking “Is this the end for Dollis Hill House?” after Boris Johnson decided not to give money pledged by Ken Livingstone.  Johnson is reported as saying that “…in these harsh economic times and with many so many other priorities chasing limited resources, the money would be more effectively spent on initiatives that improve the lives of Londoners.”

Click through to the Observer website for some pictures of the derelict and firedamaged building.

I’m currently wondering how much money Brent Council could save by pulling down the building. More reports on this when I get the information.

I spend a lot of time in Gladstone Park and I’ve recently taken an interest in the state of Dollis Hill House. I think that the kindest word to describe the building is ‘wreak’. There are plans (there are always plans) to restore the house from the Dollis Hill House Trust in partnership with Training For Life. I’m not sure what they are in detail… but the appear to involve getting a whole bunch of money together to renovate the building into a venue of some kind - better than flats… no worse than demolition.

I’m interested to know more details about the project, how it will be a ’social enterprise’, how it will fund its self &tc… more to come, I’m sure…