According to the Waltham Forest Guardian the council’s grand plan to close every leisure and entertainment venue in the borough and replace it with flats has suffered a slight setback with news that The Standard Music Venue has been granted a temporary reprieve from the bulldozer.
Despite the original Blackhorse Road redevelopment document stating there is “a substantial demand for the development of an evening economy” in the area, The Standard has been treated with contempt from day one.
When the famously vague glossy brochure was published in 2006 with a big blob where the Standard used to be no one even bothered to deliver the brochure to The Standard itself. Paul White who’s run the venue for almost 25 years only found out when a customer informed him the Standard was marked on the document for demolition.
A Regenfirst spokesmen next claimed at a community meeting that there were only a “handful of people interested” in saving the Standard, and that in his words “most of its customers came from outside the area“.
Now the venue - guilty of committing the cardinal sin of attracting people to Walthamstow for a night out - has had a temporary reprieve. Ownership of the site was due to transfer on July the 31st, but the unnamed developer has reportedly shelved the scheme, due to the slowdown in the housing market. There is however an agreement to buy in place that gives them the right to return to the deal when the housing market recovers.
Bringing shops, cafes, and a music venue to the Standard side of Blackhorse Road junction was used by developers and the council as justification for cramming a 1000 people into 10 tower blocks on the other side of the road (by the railway). The claim that no facilities were needed at street level and the development should be purely dense housing now looks flimsier than ever.
With Tesco Express planning a store on the former Essex Arms site the grand scheme for the Blackhorse Lane redevelopment around the station seems to be descending into farce!
Meanwhile Paul White was, according to the Guardian “initially ‘delighted’ about the reprieve, but was angered when informed of the full ramifications of the deal”.
“I feel like I have been kept in the dark” he said “At the end of the day it is my staff and I who will lose their jobs.”
Click here to read the full Waltham Forest Guardian article.
The Standard will as ever continue doing their thing, giving local acts a break with their “Battle of the Bands” competition and unsigned nights, Salsa classes on Mondays, the tribute acts of course and when possible dragging hotly tipped talent out to the Stow (pictured The Bishops).
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