Hi All,

Just a quick note to say that I am going to be hosting a meeting on the possibility of a campaign to save Greenham Control Tower as some kind of public facility, operated by a trust or similar organisation. I'd be keen to hear from anyone who has an interest in the building, and what possible uses the building could have going forward. My own idea is for a visitor centre / cafe with classrooms but that may change as the project develops.

I will be speaking to other interested parties who want to see the building kept for public use and that may result in a wider, community plan for the building.

I can be contacted on:

07411 488324 or richard.garvie@googlemail.com

Best Wishes,

Richard

I reckon it could be used to broadcast community radio - nice and high with good coverage likely. Plus it could be used as a self-funded community activity centre.........

By the way 'Save the Tower'? Is it/has it ever been under threat?

Save it from being sold off as a private building. There is various potential uses for the building, I just think we need a facility that preserves the heritage of the site and add something new to the Common.

Not a bad idea. Could certainly be a local attraction, bit like the 'Look Out' at Bracknell. Having a local meeting point would be a great community benefit and if we widened the horizon, could this be a place to meet for people who work from home? Or indeed, just want an inexpensive 'feature' place to drop in and meet a few people? We could also do with some real community meeting space round here for evenings.

I can see a number of stumbling blocks, access, cost of refurbishment, change of use, isolation, vandalism. it's a nice little soundbite but I would want to see costings, business plans, main supporters etc before I get excited.

I'm certainly up to explore the possibilities, which would inevitably mean doing just as you say. Would you be willing too as well; business cases are always best when all of these options are considered?

Personally I like it as it is, a ghostly and silent witness to the past.

That won't be an option as the building is up for sale.

It would make a very good community project and I suspect something for everyone. From a memorial to a sustainability centre.

As a grade 2 listed I would imagine it would be both expensive and tricky to take it on and I would be opposed to the idea of council grants for the job.

Unless, of course, it's purchased by someone who then wants to leave it as a ghostly and silent witness to the past.

It has been up for sale for ages.

The fact that it is up for sale is more a reflection of WBC's desire to rid themselves of a maintenance problem that any real likelihood of it being snapped up by a would be resident. Perhaps they would let a community trust have it on a long lease at a peppercorn rent in return for the trust taking on the maintenance. It would still require a hefty sum to turn it into something useful.

Some sort of attraction or community centre sounds a good use for the building, but I worry that its remote location would mean it got little use and would struggle to be self-supporting.

Similarly I fear the new cafe at Snelsmore is unlikely to last very long - though I hope I'm wrong and wish the proprietors the best of luck.

how much work is needed to pass health and safety checks for buildings open to the public.

As I remember, WBC long held an ambition to turn the Tower into an information Centre for the Common - history, flora & fauna, cafe, etc. The costs were phenomenal and the business case did not pan out.

Exactly - it is a white elephant.

The council don't want it & have no use for it & no-one else is interested in buying it.

Leasing it to a 'community trust' is just another way of getting the council to pay for renovating / maintaining it.

Too true - charge a lease fee (trumpeted as new income) make a grant from an existing budget (hide the cost from the funding body - the tax payer)

I'me still interested in where you plan to use for the radio station, you never did answer!

We have a meeting soon to appoint a steering group, at the moment we are trying to find somewhere in Newbury or Thatcham town centre that is cheap and easily accessible.

Wherever the station is based, easy access is key and the Common certainly isn't suitable. Nice idea though!!!

As for leasing the control tower, there are various funding schemes to apply to for community facilities so the council wouldn't have to pay a penny. If that option was explored, the building would once again be an asset at no cost to the authority, maybe a small grant each year towards running costs.

The council are clear that the building must be sold. The cost of building works are forecasted to be around 250-300k to make it useable, with alterations on top. It all depends on how much value we place on the importance of the site I guess.

Thanks for that, I don't think it has every been an asset (in the community sense) and spending that sort of figure on a building so far away from the center of the community would be (again in my view) nonsensical. If any one did buy it it would still have to be preserved owing to it's grade two listing.

So, the set-up Grants.... what sources do you have in mind?
Then the small grant each year towards running costs.... What source for that?

There usually has to be a match of funds before any funding schemes would provide support so I suspect that the council would probably have to stump up something.
I have my doubts that 250-300k would suffice, I would expect 500k to be more realistic, the building is virtually derelict and very much a utility build designed for a 25 year life so it is pretty much past its sell by date I would imagine.
Anyone know if there are any undergound rooms or tunnels beneath it?.

Vladimir Putin?

Cue the bright lights -"Vee haff vays off making you buy"

It can only be sold if they can find a buyer, meanwhile they have a statutory duty to maintain it in a good state of repair. If they don't then West Berkshire Council will be down on them like a ton of bricks. ... whoops.

if this was Glasgow or Liverpool, it would have 'gone on fire' ages ago.

...and there you were fretting about gargoyles!

I didn't say that I'd be happy about the loss of the Control Tower.

It is a case of the listing status preventing a use being found.

Not really - the listing is new, the building has been empty for many years before it was listed.

and now you won't be able to change anything........due to the listing......

The way some of us carry on when change of any description is mooted suggests the whole of West Berkshire is listed. Goodness knows how Brunel et al would have got on today!

Never mind Brunel - wholsale destruction of vernacular architectural heritage was rampant well into the 20th C.

The bit that survived did so by pure chance & that is why we tend to cherish them now......lot of tourism in crappy old buildings.

The control tower would make an excellent community facility, the obvious being bird watching, wildlife talks and the like a fabulous coffee shop underneath for those family weekends walk and bike rides a Cold War interpretation museum and a hundred other uses I am sure. It was I THINK subject to a bid by the Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust a few years ago, but it went nowhere. I am pretty certain that the Greenham Common Trust would stump up the money and they are just reading these posts to see what useful ideas emerge for it. It's well built and I am sure that we are not in any real danger of losing it. Lets hope that someone comes up with a good scheme for its shared use not only for the tower but of the buildings beneath and around it and doubtless a couple of hundred thousand will bring it into use for visitors to Greenham Common. It would be silly not to really, the views up there must be pretty impressive.

As we no longer send many goods by rail, hold cattle markets, make fewer things, unless buildings can be adapted and changed they won't survive. As usual its down to us. Keep hearing our local town council wants to quit the Town Hall - why? The high tech firm I've been with most of the day is housed in a building that dates back to 1760.

The Control Tower could quite easily be adapted and used for other things. Following the proposal here, there could also be a useful and tangible benefit to us, the community. All it takes is a little imagination, a little gumption, and then the hard bit - some effort.

Much easier to sit on the side and lob bricks though isn't it! However, some things take off - Festiniog Railway should never have succeeded etc.

Listing doesn't stop you changing things, just makes it a bit more difficult to destroy historically significant features. But my point was that if they couldn't find a use for the control tower when it wasn't listed why does anyone think a use can be found now? All the suggestions in this thread have been made many times before, but have never been implemented. Good luck to RG, but I can't see it as a commercially viable location for anything.

Of course, you are quite right. That's the nature of change. When its time has come its ready - so like everything else, many repeats. Nevertheless, Newbury does seem to make rejection a habit.

Nothing to do with Newbury, but how things change.
At the outset or before the troubles in France in 1770. French were building mansions all along a bank of the Thames
at Richmond. Orleons House is the only one that remains.(An Arts Centre)

All were pulled down and turned over to flats in the 1920s.Where did the French Aristos go?
Maybe back to France.
ce

That's right - the historical features of a building built for a singular purpose are going to be a hindrance to most other uses.

It depends on the nature of the way in which a building is listed.

It's funny that now the council will profit from it.


Personally, if it becomes a Eisnehower/Newbury in WWII musuem/cafe, that would be great.

The GAMA is already in private hands so if they can turn that into a Cold War Musuem, all there is is to get BLDG274 (Wing HQ/Command/Decontimination) to finish off into a world class musuem complex.

Going back to 1991, we opened the GAMA up for one day, and had around 300 visitors. Just think what a good attraction would bring.

Sorry Phil, this is Newbury, we don't do innovation.

Possibly about 7 years ago an older sibling and I had a pootle around what remains of Greenham.
It seemed empty apart from a store for derelict container trucks.

Long gone were the days when we would struggle up Goldfinch Bottom to watch the B47s and 52s on our bikes.

Afraid we took snaps of his new Jag, an old banger now! Not the wife that is. On what was left of the tarmac.

I think I like dereliction more than museums. Ghostbases have more thoughtful moments.

I have taken in dotage to buying my own Christmas Gifts.
A year ago I bought a great book of derelict Ante-Bellum ruins.(US)

Send me the men in white coats. I like ruins, I probably am one!
ce.