Could today be the day that Broomfield House’s fortunes finally begin to turn around?
Earlier today Enfield Council, in partnership with the Broomfield House Trust and Friends of Broomfield Park, formally submitted their four million pound bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore the house to its former glory. The aim is to restore the House as faithfully as possible to its nineteenth century appearance, without the mock Tudor facade which was added in the 1930s.
A new website, www.broomfieldhouse.org, has been set up to support the bid and tell the story of the house.
A decision on the bid is expected in February 2013.
This weekend there is another chance to tramp the streets in the fine and very entertaining company of Jaywalks’ tourguide Joe Studman.
Joe will be regaling fellow walkers with tales of Billy Biscuit of Cullands Grove (the alleged coiner of the phrase ‘readin, riting and rithmatic’), John Donnithorne Taylor’s one man green belt policy, and Palmers Green’s links with the Spencer family of Cannonbury Tower including a touching story of kindness from Elizabeth 1.
The walk is being run in conjunction with Southgate District Civic Trust. Tickets are £5 (£3 concessions). Meet at Palmers Green station on Sunday 28 October at 2.30
The Boundary Commission has published its revised proposals for Enfield Southgate as part of its national review.
In March, the Commission proposed that Haselbury ward should be added to the constituency, while Bowes ward was to be shunted into Hornsey and Wood Green, currently a Liberal Democrat constituency (Lynn Featherstone is the current MP there).
The latest proposals, published on Tuesday, bring Bowes back into Enfield Southgate constituency, which is currently represented by Conservative MP David Burrowes. Bush Hill Park, currently in Labour leaning Edmonton, also moves into Enfield Southgate.
Following disagreements and deals within the (‘still very much a’) coalition, it is unclear whether the changes will happen, as the Tories will need Lib Dem support to get them passed. The Lib Dems are of course still smarting from the Conservatives failure to back their proposals for changes to the Lords.
But it is interesting to speculate what impact the changes could have on the constituency’s representation.
Autumn draws in, the leaves are browning. Time to jump on a train and do some pre Christmas shopping, catch a show, meet up with friends.
Well, you cant.
Trains from Palmers Green into Kings Cross are subject to disruption every Sunday from now until Christmas.
First Capital connect suggest that as an alternative, you might like to head north to Enfield Chase, walk to Enfield Town, jump on a Liverpool Street train, get off at Seven Sisters and make your journey from there by tube. It will only take you an hour and a half.
Gary McKinnon, the Palmers Green resident who hacked into US military computers, is to be spared extradition to the USA.
Home secretary Theresa May has this lunchtime announced that the threat posed to McKinnon’s health was too great. Speaking a few moments ago, May said
“After careful consideration of all of the relevant material, I have concluded that Mr McKinnon’s extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr McKinnon’s human rights. I have therefore withdrawn the extradition order against Mr McKinnon.
The Director of Public Prosecutions will now decide if McKinnon has a case to answer in a UK court. McKinnon, who has Aspergers Syndrome, has admitted to hacking, but claims that he was looking for evidence of UFOs. He has waited 11 years for a decision on his case.
David Burrowes had threatened to resign his unpaid post of Parliamentary Private Secretary) if McKinnon was extradited
A competition run by the Mayor of London, the Garden Museum and the Landscape Institute has generated some new ideas about a possible future for the New River.
The New River runs from Amwell in Hertfordshire right down into Stoke Newington, with a further now non flowing sections running all the way to its original destination at Saddlers Wells. Though easily one of the oldest remnants of Palmers Green’s past, the New River (neither new, nor a river) is often forgotten as it meanders past hundreds of back garden fences and snakes along its ancient – though oft amended – path.
London Landscape architecture practice Place Design and Planning’s idea was to reveal, re-connect and diversify the historic waterway as a way of drawing communities along the route together, stimulating business in the area and managing water in a sustainable way.
One of the images from Place Design + Planning’s shortlisted entry for the New River Image Place Design + Planning
The competition was inspired by New York’s High Line, the aim to generate new ideas for bringing hidden, forgotten and abandoned places into public use. While the ideas may perhaps never be implemented, the aim is to stimulate new thinking.
The winner from Fletcher Priest | Pop Down was to create an urban mushroom garden lit by sculptural glass-fibre mushrooms in the old ‘Mail Rail’ tunnels beneath Oxford Street.
Other entries closer to home included an idea from Andres Briones for a Lea Valley Rain farm to store run-off and rainwater to serve the local neighbourhood. Our recent summer suggests that that idea could be very successful.
