Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Waltham Forest Council announces Plan to Restore Land Around the William Morris Gallery

The Waltham Forest Council has unveiled plans to help restore the land around the William Morris Gallery. The good news is that they will be working to restore historic planting areas around the gallery and working to repair the bridge from the historic gardens. The bad news is that it sounds like they will be turning the place into a bit of a concrete jungle (there are plans for massive additions to the parking area).

There will be a series of exhibitions at the William Morris Gallery on December 4, 2008 (that's tomorrow!) from 3:30-7:00 pm to discuss the proposal. Apparently that is the time to ask questions about their plans. On December 9, the exhibition will move to the Horizon Cafe in Aveling Park, Walthamstow, and it will be open until 31 May 2009. Council experts will be answering questions on Thursday 11 December and Thursday 18 December between 1pm-3.30pm, and further dates when officers will be in the cafe will be published late December.

I would be really interested to hear what some of my readers from the UK and that neighborhood think about the proposal. Please let me know if any of you attend! To see full details of the council's plans, check out their newsletter (in pdf).

You can also read more about it on the Waltham Forest website.

5 comments:

Fete et Fleur said...

I hope that their good intentions don't pave the road to . . .

It would be a shame to ruin the setting of the gallery with concrete. I'll be back to check on this.

Nancy

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Marvelous news! I have a wonderful book entitled The Gardens of William Morris, which is one of my favorites. It will be so nice to see his land restored to the way it was when he was there.

Anonymous said...

It's good that the gardens and bridges are being restored. Usually in the UK when they add to a car park, they put up the charges to it so they can re-coop some of the money. Perhaps that is why it's a big addition? You even have to pay to park at a hospital these days.

Margaret said...

I wish they could think of another way to raise the money, though. William Morris must be rolling in his grave!

Acornmoon said...

I have a dilemma here, I love my car, need to park my car, hate car parks.I would love to visit Walthamstow one day and as our public transport system is so poor, it would probably be by car, I don't think William would approve somehow.

We live within an easy drive to Whitwick Manor, you would just LOVE it!