The Mayor of Lewisham said the decision to list the Lewisham Bridge Primary School building was the result of "somebody's fancy for Edwardian sinks, butterfly designs and tiling"
A campaign to save an historic 1914 London school from demolition which has seen parents occupy its roof has won impassioned backing from The Victorian Society after the site was given Grade II listing by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Lewisham Borough Council is appealing against the decision as part of its plans to demolish Lewisham Bridge Primary School and turn it into an expanded, privately-run school accommodating children up to the age of 16. Pupils of the school are currently being bussed to a temporary site more than a mile away.
Outraged parents and local residents have held a string of occupations and demonstrations at the school this year. A protest group, Hands off Lewisham Bridge School, has been set up, comparing the Council's plans to "squeezing a quart into a pint pot" and citing Environment Agency concerns over land contamination and waterlogged ground in the grounds.
"It's impossible to see how the historic building can be retained if the borough sticks to its plan to educate more than 800 children on the site," said Alex Baldwin, Conservation Adviser for the Victorian Society, calling the move "very frustrating" for the Council. "The fact is they now own a school recognised as being of national importance. It is time for a re-think."
Planning permission has not been granted for the Council scheme, and hecklers barracked Gordon Brown when the Prime Minister visited the school last month.
The Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, argued that the DCMS decision "beggars belief."
"It has been made by an undisclosed civil servant with no regard whatsoever for local need," he said. "The future prospects of our children and young people cannot be sacrificed for the sake of somebody's fancy for Edwardian sinks, butterfly designs and tiling.
"Protecting our heritage is important, but while there must be hundreds of schools like this across London, the Lewisham Bridge site is uniquely suited to provide a desperately needed new school to serve the children, young people and families of this area. We know that from our exhaustive searches and consultation over recent years.
"We have looked at no less than 29 sites and this was the only possible realistic option. I will be doing everything I can to get this project back on track.”
An Early Day Motion tabled in Parliament by John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, applauded the protests and urged the Council to halt its plans.
However, Darren Johnson, Green Party candidate for Lewisham Deptford, argued the local authority should run the school. "Normally I am in favour of protecting old buildings and preserving our heritage, but I do think English Heritage's decision to list the school is a mistake," he said.
"We have already spent nearly a decade trying to find a site for new secondary school provision in Lewisham. If we cannot have Lewisham Bridge as a site for a new all-through school we could be waiting many more years for the new secondary school places which are desperately needed."
Protestor Eleanor Davies said The Victorian Society had "shown more moral backbone than the Greens." "They [the Society] are well experienced in fighting corporate vandalism and have advised us that it is very unlikely English Heritage will reverse their decision to list the school," she said.
"This means that unless Lewisham Council are prepared to destroy the school against English Heritage's wishes their present plans are dead in the water. For all their talk about being something different, our experience of the Greens is that they are hand-in-glove with the privateers."
