Campaign builds to save historic London timber yard

Travis Perkins, the tenant of the 175-year-old Newson’s Yard on Pimlico Road, has galvanised local residents and businesses to protest against the plan by landlord Grosvenor Estate to turn it into a retail space.

The campaign is supported by the local Residents Association, the Belgravia Society and the Pimlico Road Traders Association.

A planning application has been lodged with Westminster City Council.

The enclosed yard stocks a huge range of mouldings for restoration of London’s 18th and 19th century buildings and has staff that have worked there for a long time.

“Much of the materials used to build the Belgravia as we know it came from the timber yard,” said Travis Perkins on the campaign website it has set up. “The yard is over 175 years old, the oldest of its kind in the country and a rare example of such a building still being used for its original commercial purpose.”

A long list of objections has been lodged against the application with planning authority Westminster City Council. Many say the proposals would change the character of the area and cite the loss of the historic timber business as unacceptable.

“The yard is not just historically important but still important to many trades people,” said one objector. “If Travis Perkins is forced out it leaves just one such merchant in the whole of Westminster.”

Objector Cecil Quillen said the proposals would create a pale imitation of Bond Street, while another said the application was a “venal drive to get foreign people to casually drop in to new shops and spend a fortune.”

Loss of jobs at the yard was another objection.

Visit the campaign page on www.savenewsonstimberyard.co.uk