File:Opera House Finished (49319321552).jpg

1 January 2020. The Opera House in Chesnut Road. Now student accommodation.

Part of the façade of the old building has been incorporated into the new building. Does it work as a pleasing addition to local buildings? I'm surprised and pleased to say that I think it does.

A Night Club called Opera House

In the past, people thought I was joking when I said there was an opera house behind Tottenham Police Station.

It was the Opera House Nightclub; and Club Opera. Though later its name was changed to Industry.

The building was almost completely demolished, apart from the façade.

On 8 April 2013, Bruce Thain, a local journalist, reported on plans for this site. including comments from developer Stewart Wellington. He was granted planning permission by Haringey Council for a four storey block with 64 student rooms. The plans retained part of the original facade.

Plans for the new building were approved with 160 square metres of solar panels, a green living roof and secure cycle space.

In the 2013 news item, Bruce Thain mentioned that planning permission included agreement that the owner of the building, Steven Webster, would pay £150,000 towards affordable housing and pedestrian safety in the borough.

At the time Mr Wellington said he was negotiating with universities and colleges in North London to guarantee that all rooms in the building will be occupied by students. ________________________________________

Some links about Façadism

Façadism is the term used for the practice of demolishing a building but leaving its facade intact to build a new structure behind or around it. This may be for historical reasons. Or to suggest - or pretend - that a modern building still retains some historical features, § Article 2 January, 2018, by "the Gentle Author" was far from gentle about this "Outrage". "We must stand up to the creeping plague of facadism, an infection spreading across the developments of London". Adding that: "future generations will laugh in horror and derision at the folly of facadism". § The Ethics of Facadism; Pragmatism versus Idealism. An article by Robert Bargery. Sympathetic and informative online article in 2005. (Robert Bargery was previously head of policy and research at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.) § Online article: Facadism: When walls talk, and lie by Niall Patrick Walsh.