Twickenham, The River And Parish Church c.1955

Photo ref: T91002

More about this scene

Richmond Council, despite vociferous local opposition, struck a deal to sell the site to their preferred developers, the property group Dawnay Day, who own most of the shops and flats on the south side of King Street, adjoinging the old baths site. The deal involved the council selling their land to Dawnay Day on a 125-year lease, in exchange for a peppercorn rent and a substantial payment towards leisure in the borough and some access to the facilities on the site. Councillors and Council staff vigorously argued that this represented a good deal for residents and for the site. Local residents remained resolutely unconvinced. There were objections that the terms of the deal were inequitable, that the development proposed was unattractive, too large and unsympathetic to the riverside site, that the proposed access to the new onsite leisure facilities offered was unsatisfactory and, in the case of the Twickenham Riverside Terrace Group, that the riverside site was a public open space. There were also concerns over whether in future the developers might exercise a right to buy the freehold of the site, which would then be lost to public ownership forever. Meanwhile the baths, once a splendid art deco lido, continued to be vandalised and deteriorate.