As things stand the Mayor, currently sporting Olympic gold for marathon media-milking, has powers to demand changes to the scheme or even to take over its determination himself. The politics of all this provide instructive insights into the London Tory power network and the pivotal role in it of Mayor Jolly Goodfun, also known as 'Boris Johnson'. It argues that it makes no sense to knock down such a building at a time when demand for exhibition space in London is growing, and has written to communities secretary Eric Pickles asking him to subject the two boroughs' plans to a public inquiry. Meanwhile, the Association of Event Organisers (AEO) has been lobbying hard to save Earls Court. The residents campaign had previously launched a judicial review.

A meeting at which the council homes to approve the sale has been put back to 3 September.

The Conservative-run boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea (K&C) and Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F) envisage a regenerative new 'urban quarter' full of luxury flats and, they say, new local job opportunities rising from the rubble, but they've been meeting some determined opposition.Ī resourceful and relentless anti-demolition campaign by residents of the estates has led to a huge negative response to H&F's consultation over its proposed 'conditional land sale' to the prospective developers CapCo. This would also reduce to dust the 760 homes of the West Kensington and Gibbs Green housing estates. The planned destruction of Earls Court is – as regular readers of this blog know – part of a larger redevelopment scheme proposed for that part of inner west London. Sounds odd? A bit of background sheds some light. Opened in 1937 and a premier London venue for the events industry ever since, it is earmarked for levelling directly after helping accommodate the largest event London has ever hosted. It's ironic that the Earls Court exhibition centre, presently hosting Olympics volleyball, is lined up for bulldozing after the Games.

Earls court london olympic venue