– – – 2017 – – –
In early 2017, the hospital announced that ‘following feedback from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, local residents organisations and statutory bodies, the Trust has made amendments to the submitted plans’ and it invited local residents to view the final design proposals at a drop-in exhibition on three dates in January.
– – – 2016 – – –
Having spent 2015 working on its proposals, Royal Brompton Hospital invited residents to attend a public drop-in exhibition in February 2016 and a second one in late May / early June.
SSDRA committee members also attended two meetings of the Brompton Community Liaison Group which included the Brompton Hospital, Brompton Trust, architects, designers, engineers, communication consultants (Soundings) and other local RAs, the church and KRAKR (King’s Rd Association). Soundings presented results from natural light studies on St Luke’s church gardens. Slides from the presentation were then studied by the committee. Soundings and the architect also met with SSDRA and St Luke’s church separately with regard to plans for the Chelsea Gardener site.
In addition, the Council invited SSDRA (and other local residents’ groups) to attend a factual briefing arranged for its members in mid June at which the hospital presented their redevelopment proposals for the various sites which were then still at pre-application stage.
Throughout we asked questions and provided information as the hospital’s plans most directly impact on Sydney Street residents.
Three planning applications were made in July 2016:
1. Main hospital building – a new large building on the site of the current car park, directly opposite St Luke’s gardens, which is planned to be the same height as the main Sydney Street building (5 storeys), plus a low one at the rear on Dovehouse street (to replace ‘the shed’)
This building will be to house all in-patients who are currently in the building on Fulham Road.
All parking will be under the hospital on Sydney Street, with entry and exit (for ambulances too) from Cale Street – this is causing concern, as is the proposed use of the existing entrance on Sydney Street (which no-one can remember being used in the past) during the construction process.
An atrium with an entrance from Sydney Street will be situated between the new building and the existing one
2. 117-123 Sydney Street – the 4 listed houses on the east side of Sydney Street (Bumpkin, etc) would remain as retail on ground and lower ground floors, but the hospital would convert upper floors to residential and sell them as well.
3. Chelsea Farmers Market – this site (which the hospital owns) will be sold to pay for the new buildings
While development of the Farmers Market site depends on Crossrail 2, as the site is safeguarded, it is proposed to develop ‘high-end residential’ of similar scale as the houses on the east side of the street (4 – 5 storeys?), for which there might need to be consideration of light and sight access.
The two brick buildings at the junction with King’s Road (the old workhouse and the antique shop, etc) would stay, as the Crossrail 2 station entrance might be located there.
Postal notification of the applications was not received by residents until around 20 July, with a deadline for responses of 12 August. Despite the inconvenience of this falling within the summer holiday period and the number of documents involved (115+ for the main building application alone), SSDRA alerted its members to the applications and outlined some initial observations and concerns. The Association and individual residents then moved quickly to draft responses and to ensure that they were submitted to RBKC in time.
SSDRA continued to be supportive of the Brompton remaining in this area of Chelsea and of their very good medical work and was pleased that in this year they had met several times with us and other local RAs. They had also reflected some of our concerns in their proposals by making some amendments; however, we remained concerned about other aspects including:
- the scale/bulk of the proposed new hospital building which will be located on the current parking lot at the corner of Sydney St and Britten St
- the impact to light – both in the St Luke’s Gardens and on the houses opposite the Chelsea Gardener
- the noise impact due to plant and equipment on the roof of the new hospital building
- the lengthy construction and its disruption
- parking and access to parking from Cale Street
We also drew the attention of the Council to the timing of the hospital’s submission of the applications – submission during the summer holiday period was not consistent with the hospital’s stated importance of its community involvement.
Following responses to the July planning applications, the hospital announced that it was proposing some alterations and amendments to its plans.
Some elements of these proposed alterations, as well more general aspects of the re- development, were explained to us at our AGM in October by representatives from the RBH team who presented extracts from their July 2016 | CLG 04 Meeting Presentation (you will need to scroll down to ‘Information & Documents’ at the bottom of that page).
After the AGM, they provided further links to items on which they were unable to present at the meeting:
Daylight, Sunlight and Overshadowing Assessment
Construction Traffic Management Plan
– – – 2015 – – –
Royal Brompton Hospital spent 2015 working on its proposals.
– – – 2014 – – –
Following the previous year’s decision by the hospital to remain in Chelsea, RBKC issued a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) regarding re-development of the Brompton’s Chelsea Campus.
We strongly supported the Brompton’s intention to remain in Chelsea; however, this SPD included a number of aspects which were of great concern to the Association. In particular, the SPD contemplated the consolidation of the hospital to Sydney Street and the sale of five other sites, including the Fulham Wing, the Chelsea Farmers’ Market and others for residential housing. At the same time the Royal Marsden Hospital, which has limited space, expressed an interest in purchasing some of the Brompton’s medical space in the Fulham Road building in order to expand their own facilities. This would keep a portion of the Brompton’s facilities in medical use, rather than all sites which they are selling moving to residential. Unfortunately, the SPD did not have the flexibility of this option.
We spent a great deal of time with other local residents’ associations which border on the Brompton, with local councilors and liaising with both Brompton and Marsden hospitals. Our councilors Merrick Cockell, Will Pascall and Paul Warrick were very helpful and supportive in this process. Unfortunately, the Brompton’s management was less willing to engage and did not show flexibility to consider other options. Therefore, a petition was started and signed by almost 8,000 people, including many of our association’s members.
The outcome of the petition was that in July 2014 a representative of each of the local residents’ associations presented our case to the full Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council. The result of this was that the council agreed to issue a new SPD later in 2014. We hoped that this new plan would better take into account the wishes and needs of the local community and we stressed that we would continue to work to ensure that our objectives remained a priority.
– – – 2013 – – –
In 2013 the Board made a decision to stay in Chelsea and provided us with some early information about their plans:
“Having assessed the possible options, including an alternative site, we have decided that the right decision is to redevelop on the Chelsea Campus. Our aim is to create a dynamic new hospital which enables our world-class clinical teams to further develop their specialist skills in an environment specifically designed for this purpose.
The next step will be to devise a masterplan and we remain committed to extensive stakeholder and public engagement throughout the process. We are continuing our capital investment programme at Harefield Hospital and will remain a two site centre – inner and outer London. Our plans for the two hospitals are interdependent; we are following a ‘Trust approach’ not two hospital-based strategies.
Patients deserve the best possible care for their heart and lung conditions and we now have a very real opportunity to begin an important new chapter in the Trust’s history. We look forward to working closely with all our partners to create an environment where specialist expertise is available in dedicated state-of-the-art facilities, designed for patients now and in the future.”
The Association reaffirmed that it would be active in protecting and promoting the interests of residents during the consultation and planning process, as any project to redevelop the site would have a significant impact on our neighbourhood because the hospital is the largest landowner.
– – – 2012 – – –
Cale Street extension
The Planning Dept. considered an application from the hospital to
build a two storey extension on the north side of the hospital facing
Cale Street. It would be at ground and first floor levels. The design
seemed reasonable, but we raised the following concerns:
1. not clear whether noise from the new plant on the roof of the extension would exceed permitted limits
2. the presence of two large floor-to-ceiling ground floor windows facing Cale St.
3. the seemingly unnecessary felling of existing trees on Cale Street, only to be replaced by new ones.
Plans for the future
Mr. Piers McCleery, Director of Planning and Strategy for the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, spoke at the Astell St. Residents’ Association. In his talk, he indicated that the hospital had two options: either redevelop the hospital on the existing site or relocate it elsewhere in London, in which case White City in northwest London was a likely location. Mr McCleery would not be drawn on when a decision would be taken, but it could be a few years. Some tenants in the Chelsea Farmers’ Market complained that they were insecure and therefore not able to improve their premises because the hospital only gives them 6 month leases.
– – – 2011 – – –
There was a delay in the hospital’s programme; it gave us the following statement:
“The planned redevelopments at Royal Brompton have not progressed as quickly as was predicted. Work has continued on a number of specific projects to improve facilities for patients, but the site redevelopment plan is still at an early stage. Local residents will be invited to comment on any plans at the earliest opportunity. The Trust continues to receive approaches from other hospital trusts and commercial organisations regarding potential re-location, and these are considered on individual merit. On a positive note, the Trust and Imperial College were recently granted nearly £20 million of government funding to continue their groundbreaking research into heart and lung disease in the jointly run Biomedical Research Units based at Royal Brompton.”
– – – 2010 – – –
The hospital announced in 2010 that it would embark on a major redevelopment programme in 12-18 months’ time. The project was set to have a significant impact on our neighbourhood because the hospital is the largest landowner. We declared that we would be active in protecting and promoting the interests of residents during the consultation and planning process.
After a meeting with the Royal Brompton, they gave us the following statement for our newsletter:
“As many of you will be aware, the redevelopment of parts of Royal Brompton Hospital has been discussed by its Board for some time. Despite its position as the UK’s leading specialist centre for heart and lung disease, clinicians at the hospital are working in some very outdated facilities – built 170 years ago – which are not suitable for the type of advanced treatment that patients can now benefit from. Some of the current facilities and infrastructure are in need of significant improvement, if the hospital, an institution of local, national and international significance, is to continue to provide expert care.
The hospital is therefore looking at options for redeveloping parts of the site to bring it up to the highest possible standard. A professional team will be appointed with a competition to ensure the best architectural expertise, appropriate for the immediate environment. Local residents will be invited to comment on any plans at the earliest opportunity, well before planning permission is sought. The team responsible for the re-development will use a variety of methods to ensure everyone is fully informed – these will include meetings, presentations and publications. There is no set timing for this consultation as yet, but it is expected to take place around Summer 2011. Local residents will be kept fully informed of progress.
This much needed redevelopment will ensure that Royal Brompton Hospital continues to provide world class expertise for patients locally and across the country.”
– – – Hospital sites explained – – –
The Royal Brompton is currently located in hospital buildings in the Fulham Road, Sydney Street, and Dovehouse Street (the now-closed nurses home and Hospital for Women). However it also owns all the property south of Britten Street bordering on Sydney Street. This includes The Chelsea Gardner, The Farmers’ Market, the car park, the four storey Victorian brick building at 151 Sydney Street (built as a Workhouse), and the neighbouring Edwardian brick building on the corner of King’s Road (the old Chelsea Registry Office). The only buildings that are protected are the four early 19th century houses (now small shops/restaurants) at 117-123 Sydney Street which are Grade II Listed buildings.