Chelsea Barracks was a British Army barracks located in the City of Westminster, London, adjacent to Chelsea, on Chelsea Bridge Road.
Contents |
History
It was originally built to house two battalions of troops. It was the home of two companies of the Foot Guards: No 7 Company, Coldstream Guards; F Company, Scots Guards, 238 Signal Squadron. The four companies total about 280 troops.
A nail-bomb attack on the Barracks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in September 1981 killed two civilians.
Sale of the barracks
On 6 September 2005 Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid, announced that Chelsea Barracks would be sold. He described it as needing extensive renovations. The site was vacated in 2008. The troops transferred to the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich. The site is part of the Ministry of Defence's MODeL project that will see it and five other sites sold off across London mainly for housing.
The barracks is also the home of the Regimental Bands of the Irish Guards and the Welsh Guards and to a small Signal Squadron. New locations for these units have not been announced.
Westminster City Council published its draft planning brief for the Chelsea Barracks site in September 2006. It includes a commitment to develop 50% of the site with affordable housing. A Community Forum was established by local residents in April 2006 with the support of Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, John Hutton MP, to campaign for greater transparency in the sale of the barracks site and for the 50% affordable homes commitment to be realised.
2007 sale
The barracks is in one of London's most expensive residential areas and was originally expected to sell for £250m.[1] In April 2007 Chelsea Barracks in its 12.8-acre (52,000 m2) site was agreed to be sold by the Ministry of Defence for £959 million to a consortium consisting of Qatari Diar and CPC. The Times reported that "The enclave, between Sloane Square and the river Thames, now has the unofficial title of Britain’s most expensive residential development site at £70.3m per acre."[2] On February 1, 2008 the Candy brothers took possession of the site.[3] Different design proposals for development of the site have been put forward by Richard Rogers and by Charles, Prince of Wales.[4] Westminster City Council claim that the participation by the Prince has encouraged healthy public debate.[5]
References
- ^ "Chelsea Barracks to be sold off". BBC News. 2005-09-06. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4218386.stm. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
- ^ Louise Armitstead and Robert Booth (2007-04-29). "Sold, sir! £900m record for Chelsea Barracks". Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1720032.ece. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
- ^ Judith Heywood (2008-02-01). "Record £959m buys Chelsea Barracks for developers". Times Online. http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article3285501.ece. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
- ^ Angus Laurie and Mariana Leguia (2009-08-16). "The case of Chelsea Barracks – Prince Charles and Richard Rogers". Glass Magazine. http://glassmagazine.co.uk/forum/feature.asp?tid=275. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
- ^ "Chelsea Barracks Planning Application". Westminster City Council. 2009-06-16. http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/environment/planning/chelsea-barracks/. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
