Have Your Say

Earls Court exhibition centre is one of the oldest, biggest and most famous exhibition centres in the world.  No-one would deny that the current building is past its sell-by date and that demolition is a realistic option for the building.  But to knock the building down and end the area’s association with exhibitions and events on a grand scale is a short sighted and mean spirited option.

I have to declare an interest.  I work at Earls Court. But please note, I am not opposed to knocking the old building down.  Only to this development which appears to want to end the sites involvement with shows and events which date back over 120 years to Buffalo Bills Wild West Shows held on this very site.

The introduction to this web site goes on about what a fantastic gateway to London the site offers; and how well connected it is, with the A4 offering direct access to Heathrow, three tube lines connecting the site to the whole of London as well as bus and overground train links.

The lucky few residents of this new housing development will be able to move to wherever they want with comfortable ease.

This development will only speed up the inxorable easterly migration of the business life of London - to Canary Wharf, to The O2, to Excel and to the new Olympic park, who all must be rubbing their hands in glee at the end of Earls Court exhibition centre.  The West is dead, long live the east.  Whose long term plan was it to starve west London of opportunites and infrastructure?

Olympia is a lovely old venue, but it is no match in terms of size and facilities for Excel or the NEC, nor will it be after its development. And its transport links are not a patch on Earls Court.

And what are the two local authorities thinking about, Hammersmith & Fulham and RBKC?  They have their perfect site as a “Gateway To London” with the potential for a stunning frontage onto the A4 -  which they are planning on turning into housing development. And will watch as the traffic speeds by, to spend their cash and develop their businesses on the East side of London where the facilities exist.  Rather than a golden opportunity to build an exhibition and events space worthy of London, worthy of the UK and worthy of the twenty-first century.

Where do the 25,000 new jobs come from that are advertised?  If it is in the construction process, that is hardly sustainable.  If it is from another source not made clear in the web site can someone expand on those figures?

The exhibion and events industry is an industry with a future and is well suited to major cities, and with a growing international market.  Excel know this, the O2 have shown us what can be done with investment and creative thinking, all the major cities of the world know this - look at the stunning venues they are building in Singapore, Beijing and Abu Dhabi.

Customer feedback from event organisers constantly give the location as one the best things about Earls Court.  And so it is.  We are about to lose that forever.  Shame.

To lose this facility in favour of houses will be very nice for the people who live within the designated area, and will no doubt deliver a tidy return to the investors, but will hardly be the ‘Gateway to London’ worthy of this city and will be death for the numerous pubs, restaurants and hotels that thrive on the events visitors currently drawn into the area.

Thanks for your comment, Adrian.

The Earls Court Exhibition Centres are great, but this unique opportunity to create a remarkable new district for London is too important to miss. We do not intend to end the legacy of exhibitions and events at Earls Court. The masterplan includes cultural centres for exhibitions and the main streets will be designed to accommodate festivals, parades and events, albeit on a smaller scale than the ones currently hosted at the exhibition centres. The enlarged and improved Olympia will be a state-of-the-art venue for the 21st century and we estimate that it will absorb around 65 – 75% of Earls Court’s business.

Far from reinforcing a shift of business to the east of London, the quality and scale of the Earls Court Project will pull the city’s centre of gravity back towards the west. This new district will not be entirely residential. As well as much–needed homes, it will include 2 million square feet of office and work space which will create thousands of new jobs, plus around 1,500 people a year will be employed during construction. New businesses that move into the area will be supported by enterprise centres which will encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. We’re committed to making this a new ‘gateway to London’.

I have just published details of the drop-in sessions for the Earls Court Project masterplan exhibition on this website. Please come along and we’ll be happy to answer any further questions.

CapCo, owner of Earls Court and Olympia Exhibition Centres, had announced a substantial investment programme to upgrade Olympia Exhibition Centre to accomodate the exhibition business they are decanting from Earls Court.  I can no longer find on the CapCo websites details of the planned upgrade of Olympia.

The closure of the District line by CapCo’s major development partner Tfl (Tfl own the huge Lillie Bridge Depot at the heart of the scheme and own CapCo’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre freeholds) seems bizarre.

Is the Olympia upgrade still going ahead?  How can Olympia survive with no weekday underground service?

Thanks for your comment Richard.

EC&O Venues (a subsidiary wholly-owned by Capco) is pressing ahead with the £20 million upgrade of Olympia announced last October:

http://www.myearlscourt.com/news/view/planning_permission_approved_for_olympia/

All works are on schedule - the West Hall and Olympia 2 are being improved, new pavements are being laid and new trees planted.

Two weeks ago Transport for London announced that it is cancelling the District Line weekday service to Olympia from December, but ‘plan to operate special services to serve major weekday events at the Olympia exhibition centre’.

We’re not sure what these special services will be yet, but we have a meeting with TfL this week to clarify. We’ll be making the case for keeping a regular Tube link to Olympia as we think stopping it will have an impact on the local economy and put a strain on public transport.

If you’d like to voice any concerns about TfL’s decision, please feel free to email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)