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Thurston House: The house that beat the bulldozer
Plans to demolish Thurston House in Peterborough have sparked concern. Picture: Ben Davis
LOCAL councillors, residents and Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson rejoiced when a decision to demolish a local Victorian building was overturned. CARLY LEWTHWAITE looks into the history of this much debated house.
IT was just past 11pm on Wednesday, 14 July 2010. After a four-hour full council meeting debating the reasons for and against the development, it was time to vote.
Local residents, organisations and voluntary groups had all voiced their opinion as to why Gayhurst, also known more recently as Thurston House, should stay. On the other side of the room, Accent Nene had also put forward their reasons, namely that it believed the house needed extensive repair and that the large site would provide much-needed affordable housing in the city.
Both sides waited with baited breath as finally the results were revealed. With a close call of 19 votes to 17 with three abstentions, the two-storey house was saved.
One man who was there on that very tense evening was Trevor Pearce.
Chairman of Peterborough Local History Society, he was there to do his bit to ensure that the city did not lose yet another piece of history, one which he remembers from his childhood.
He is puzzled as to the name. The house was named Gayhurst, and he has no idea where the current title of Thurston House came from.
“Gayhurst was built in 1873 for a former Mayor of Peterborough, William Barford. He was a director of what was later to become Barford Perkins Engines Ltd. Barford was dropped from the name at a later date, creating the company we know today.”
Trevor continued: “He lived there, and it was then passed down through the family until the start of the Second World War, when it became the Peterborough Civil Defence Headquarters. It remained as such throughout the war years.
“As a child I remember the house well. It had clock outside with the words ‘Civil Defence’ as the markers, rather than the usual 12 numbers. It disappeared at one point and then reappeared, on the front of another house just down the road. It stayed there for a long time, but at some point was moved again. It has not been seen for at least 25 years.
“After being used by the Civil Defence, Gayhurst went on to become offices for the planning department of the City Council from about 1975 to 1984. At the time there was a beautiful great wooden summerhouse on the southern side, which is sadly no longer there.”
Some might also be surprised to know that the large grassed area in front of the house was once a popular sporting location.
“Until the 1970s it was a bowling green, and was known as one of the top greens in the area.”
When the vote came back in favour of keeping the house, it was a momentus occasion.
Trevor said: “Cheers went up when we heard that it wasn’t going to be demolished.
“I am absolutely delighted, it was a good decision because the house is too valuable.
“Our MP Stewart Jackson could not be there in person, but he wrote a very eloquent letter, describing the proposal as wanton vandalism.”
Despite his desire to save the house, Trevor is under no illusion that something does need to be done with the plot.
“I’m not silly, you can’t afford to have a space as big as that in the middle of the city doing nothing.
“It would be acceptable to build some small bungalows or similar, but something as high as the proposed villas is too much, especially next to the church and in a conservation area.”
Thurston House is in the Park ward conservation area. Cllr John Peach, who represents the ward, said on a previous occasion: “The council spent a lot of time and money two years ago studying the conservation areas and in some cases, extending them and reinforcing their importance.
“Building flats on that site would be going against that policy of upholding the importance of conservation areas.”
Trevor added: “It is a lovely old house, it has a lot of character and was certainly worth saving.
“It is absolutely criminal that they wanted to demolish it. There are many uses that it could be put to. If they can’t develop it sympathetically then they should pass it on to someone who can, I don’t think that is unreasonable.
“We have lost too many buildings like this. It might not be a listed building but it is still a house of good standing and worth keeping and preserving.
“We are paying a price that is too high for the development in Peterborough.”
This is not the first time the house has come within a measuring tape’s width of a bulldozer. The original proposals involved including the site in the NHS Peterborough-backed Recognition Centre, to help the city’s most socially deprived people.
However, this was turned down last year by a planning committee after an outcry from residents over the scale and fears that it could attract drug users.
The new proposal, thrown out last week, no longer included the NHS centre, and simply involved the house being completely demolished to make way for a variety of houses and flats.
Despite not being available to comment, Accent Nene used its design statement to point out that the proposed development had been on the “fringe” of the conservation area, and that the building was currently in poor condition and under used.
For the time being campaigners have won the battle, but whether they have won the war remains to be seen. Although with councillors, residents, local groups and an MP behind it, it seems that Thurston House can do no wrong, and will have many windows of opportunity in the future.
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Comments
There are 9 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
The Admiral
Monday, August 2, 2010 at 11:03 PMwhy do we have to keep knocking things down, why can't someone come up with a really novel idea - incorporate it within a development. Then the parking will be all along the road and we will have another item to comment on in a couple of years time.
Kim
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 11:17 AMThurston House has commercial tenant in it. It's not empty and abandoned. The other properties in the row are all tenanted and occupied and in good repair. Accent Nene, the housing association, have owned Thurston House for 20-plus years and, apart from doing the legal minimum, have spent very little on its upkeep because they knew all along that they wanted to develop the plot. Why are you all so negative about the building's future? It would be snapped up as office or a family home in five minutes if it was put on the open market. Or even by a small developer who wanted to turn the building into upmarket 'Heritage Apartments' while keeping the facade. And....Voice of Reason.....these ideas and a couple more were put up Jackson, Peach, Peterborough Civic Society, local residents, et al, before, during and after last week's council meeting.
A local chap
Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 05:58 PMLots of clebration - yet no one has a clue what to do with this place. That would impress me more from Jackson, Peach etc
hissing cyd
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 03:54 PMONE OF THOSE VERY LARGE CHURCH CANDLES IS IN THE LOFT COMPLETE WITH A WAXED PIECE OF STRING LEADING TO SOME OLD NEWS PAPERS.. I GIVE IT AROUND TWO WEEKS TO BURN DOWN TO THE STRING. THEN THE HEADLINES WILL BE EMPTY HOUSE GUTTED BY MYSTERIOUS FIRE.
That person there
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 02:31 PMJust wonder how long it will be before this place is hit my a "Mysterious Fire" like a lot of other buildings in Peterborough that needed to go for development......
AliV
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:51 PMThey have just delayed its demolition - a few years of it being unoccupied will see it knocked down and turned into rabbit-hutches.
Dalek Sec
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:17 PMIt isn't empty at the moment, but, as I understand it, it will be in a few months, I guess it'll then just be abandoned by the owners until they can geta planning application through that it acceptable.
badwolf
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:14 PMSo is this building actually been used for anything as it stands currently, or are we celebrating the saving of an empty building which was probably just fall into ruin and soon have "do not enter" signs around it
pborolad
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:10 PMWhy doesn't Colin 'Saviour of Peterborough' Hill buy it and then sell it back to the City Council at a much inflated price
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