Chronology
Here, all the way back to January 1887 are some of the key events in the 137-year history of the Victoria Hall, which is at risk of becoming part of a luxury hotel instead of a resource for the seven towns of the London Borough of Ealing.
For more than a century and a half the Hall has been at the centre of community life in Ealing, easily accessible from all parts of the Borough and hosting art exhibitions, balls, discos, blood donation drives, vaccination campaigns, ballroom, ballet, swing and Ceroc dance classes, amateur dramatics, graduation ceremonies, examinations, classical, rock, folk, jazz, roots and ethnic music concerts, weddings, exhibitions, multicultural celebrations such as Durga Puja, Divali and Christmas, film societies, NHS cardiac rehabilitation and anti-smoking classes, public enquiries, inquests, election hustings, election counts, protest meetings and many other types of event. Support our campaign to keep this going by making a donation here.
9 August 2024
The Charity Commission announced that its Chief Executive, David Holdsworth, has written to all local authorities in England and Wales setting out ‘urgent action’ they can take to ensure they comply with the legal responsibilities of charity trusteeship, which makes them responsible for running the charity and managing its assets. His letter provides an excellent summary of the shortcomings of Ealing Council in its dealings with the Victoria Hall.
29 July 2024
The Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH) publishes an open letter to the Victoria Hall Trust (VHT) demanding to know what the Trust is doing to reopen the Victoria Hall. The letter receives extensive coverage in local media.
3 July 2024
The Charity Commission publishes a 'decision review' of the nearly 100 objections it received. They were nearly all ignored.
28 March 2024
The Charity Commission publishes the second draft of its revised Scheme which it says 'will regularise the governance of the charity and the Victoria Hall property going forward.' The public is given until Sunday 28 April 2024 to comment. Once public consultation is complete, the Charity Commission will appoint an independent officer to review all the representations received during the consultation stage and to decide whether further amendments are necessary.
22 March 2024
At a short court hearing the appellants acting on behalf of the FoVH were finally refused permission to appeal against the September 2023 court ruling which would allow Ealing Council to take control of the property owned by the Victoria Hall Trust, as long as the Charity Commission could come up with a revised Scheme for the Trust following representations by the appellants and Ealing Council. This new Scheme was expected to be published for public consultation by the end of March 2024.
29 February 2024
Judge Mark West allows the appellants' appeal against the 2 November decision and offers the opportunity for an oral hearing about the legal aspects of the appeal to be allowed to appeal. This hearing was expect to take place towards the end of March 2024.
13 November 2023
The Charity Commission published a first draft of a new set of rules for the Trust (a ‘Scheme’). FoVH expressed strong objections to certain aspects of the Scheme. A second draft new Scheme which takes account of FoVH and Ealing Council comments is to be be published by the end of March 2024.
2 November 2023
Judge Damien J McMahon rejects an application by the appellants the appeal against a number of aspects of his Tribunal's 21 September findings. The appellants subsequently launched an appeal against his decision not to allow an appeal against the Tribunal's findings.
21 September 2023
The Charity Tribunal published its decision. It partly upheld the appeal and quashed the Council's draft Scheme. The court stated that it was not satisfied that the proposed rule changes adequately protected the interests of the Charity and ordered the Commission and Ealing Council to draw up a new Scheme in consultation with the appellants by 25 March 2024 -- within 185 days of the decision.
5 September 2023
Ealing.News publishes details of a Council email message which states that Ealing Town Hall, including the Victoria Hall will be completely closed down from the beginning of October 2023 following what was called a 'health and safety assessment.'
13 June 2023
At the 13 June 2023 meeting of Ealing Council, the Liberal Democrats moved a motion calling on Ealing’s Labour administration to scrap the £3m Ealing Town Hall hotel scheme and to work with residents towards a community-led new use for Victoria Hall. Fifty minutes into the meeting, as can be seen in the YouTube video recording (https://www.youtube.com/live/iSq3jZgnmek) the Council used an obscure procedural device called a ‘closure motion’ to stop the debate before it could start, as reported here: http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=eavictoriahall016.htm and here: https://ealing.news/ealing-council/ealing-libdems-accuse-ealing-labour-of-stopping-a-debate-and-vote-over-future-of-ealing-town-hall-and-victoria-hall/
Ealing LibDems subsequently launched a petition (https://www.ealinglibdems.org.uk/victoriahall ) for the debate to take place. If enough people sign the petition, the Council will be obliged to allow it.
12 May 2023
In answer to a written question submitted to the 25 April 2023 meeting of Ealing Council about ‘the total cost to the Council to date of the Victoria Hall hotel scheme’ it emerged that the Council had spent close to £1m more with the total having risen to £2,923,264.
20 February 2023
Under Judge Damien McMahon, the three-day Victoria Hall Trust Charity Tribunal hearing starts in London as appeal no. CA/2021/0009 at HM Courts & Tribunal Service's Field House Tribunal Hearing Centre, 15-25 Breams Buildings, London EC4A 1DZ. A decision is expected later in 2023.
13 December 2022
The Tribunal announced that the long-delayed hearing would take place between 20 and 22 February 2023.
27 September 2022
Following the Case Management Hearing it was expected that the substantive hearing would take place in November 2022. This turned out not to be the case.
13 September 2022
There is a further delay when court officials cancel the substantive hearing set to start on 27 September 2022 and replace it with a ‘Case Management Hearing’ to resolve legal and procedural issues that have arisen.
10 May 2022
At a half-day ‘Case Management’ video hearing of the Charity Tribunal, Judge Damien McMahon commented in his opening remarks that he was not happy with the ‘inordinate delay’ that there had been in dealing with the appeal and undertook to issue directions in around one week's time about when the longer, substantive proceedings would take place. At the beginning of July 2022 those directions were issued with an online hearing date set for 27 and 28 September 2022.
1 October 2021
Ealing Council applies to the court to become party to the proceedings as 'second respondent', thus delaying the start of proceedings which had been expected to have taken place as early as September 2021.
23 April 2021
Two local residents on behalf of the Friends of the Victoria Hall lodged an court appeal against the draft Scheme with the Charity Tribunal, thus triggering a lengthy legal process.
22 March 2021
The Charity Commission publishes what it rules should be the final draft of a ‘Scheme’ for the Victoria Hall Trust which would allow the Council to sell its property. The new Scheme ignores most of the shortcomings of previous version, including many that had been identified in the Commission’s own detailed review in April 2020.
Among the many shortcomings of the "final" Scheme are:
2 March 2021
To take over from the General Purposes Committee and to try to address conflict-of interest issues, a meeting of Ealing Council sets up a new Victoria Hall Trust Committee comprising five Council Trustees and three independent co-opted Trustees. It has its first meeting on 26 May 2021.
28 January 2021
At a GPC meeting, a number of questions were raised about what had been presented as ‘draft’ 2019-20 accounts and an ‘update’ to the 2018-19 numbers. These are the figures that are supposed to underpin the claim that the Trust is unsustainable and so unviable. There were so many questions about the numbers and the assumptions that one of the independent trustees called for a thorough independent review of the accounts and it was agreed it should happen. Three meetings later it still hadn’t been done.
17 December 2020
The Friends of the Victoria Hall write to the Charity Commission to deplore the Ealing Council response, noting
“Not only does it ignore most of your recommendations but it also contains some significant errors of fact. Consequently we believe that the draft Scheme for the Victoria Hall cannot be allowed to proceed and is likely to be challenged if it does. Furthermore, proceedings at the three Trustee meetings that have taken place since you issued your Review [in April 2020] have confirmed our strongly‐held view that the Trustees are conflicted because of their role as Ealing Councillors.”
24 November 2020
As directed by the 30 July 2020 meeting of the General Purposes Committee, the Council sent its response to the Charity Commission April review.
13 September 2020
The Campaign for and Ealing Performance and Arts Centre (CEPAC) publishes a video showing how the Victoria Hall could be updated and, if managed properly, serve the community well into the 21st century.
7 April 2020
In response to the barrage of criticism in the consultation, the Charity Commission publishes a Review of the Scheme which refuses to allow the Council to dispose of the Victoria Hall on the terms the Council had proposed. The 13-page ruling agrees with many of the serious criticisms that FoVH and others made of the Council scheme in its submission to the consultation.
29 June 2020
At a meeting of the Council General Purposes Committee a council officer reported that the total spend on efforts to dispose of the Town Hall had reached £1,942,000.
25 February 2020
In answer to a question from a councillor at a Council meeting, leader Julian Bell reports that £1.9m has so far been spent on efforts to dispose of the Town Hall. The amount was said to have included the physical cost of relocating services including CCTV, members and elections service to other locations; staff project management costs, the procurement process and professional fees (legal and property advice). That's most of the £2.5m that would be made from the sale of a 250-year lease to Mastcraft.
11 December 2019
The Friends of the Victoria Hall launches a petition ‘Save the Victoria Hall on 38degrees.org.uk, addressed to Helen Stephenson CBE, Charity Commission CEO. It rapidly attracts over 2,000 signatures. (https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-victoria-hall-1?)
27 November 2019
The Charity Commission publishes a draft 'Scheme' that would change the rules of the Victoria Hall Trust to allow Ealing Council to sell off Ealing Town Hall, including the Victoria Hall and Prince’s Room to the hotel developer.
Part of the Scheme was a ‘Community Use Protocol’ which purported to ensure that the beneficiaries of the Trust – the people of Ealing – would be able to use the Victoria Hall at affordable rates. However, these rates would not be available at weekends, and the very restrictive definition of what constitutes a local group would exclude many previous community users.
The publication of the draft Scheme prompts immediate criticism from campaigners and concern about the limited amount of time available in a consultation period that would run over the Christmas period. The deadline is subsequently extended to 7 January 2020.
14 November 2019
At the Forester pub in West Ealing, a number of prominent community groups hold a public meeting to form The Friends of The Victoria Hall (FoVH): Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum, Campaign for an Ealing Performance & Arts Centre, Central Ealing Residents’ Association, Ealing Art Group, Ealing Arts & Leisure, Ealing Civic Society, Save Ealing’s Centre, Gordon Road & Surrounding Streets Residents' Association (GRASS), Residents’ Association of Madeley and Westbury Roads (RAMW), West Ealing Neighbours.
21 May 2019
Ealing Council approves the Mastcraft planning application despite numerous objections.
15 January 2019
Mastcraft Ltd applies for planning permission (190182LBC) for "the partial demolition, conversion, alterations and extensions of Ealing Town Hall to provide a new hotel and retain community, publicly-available facilities and Democratic Services, with associated development." Campaigners point out that the partial demolition would would have a significant and detrimental effect on the space within the Victoria Hall.
15 March 2018
First meeting of the General Purposes Committee in its role as the Trustee for the Victoria Hall. The meeting is told "There is some uncertainty about exactly what property is held by the Trust." That is a matter that has been left unresolved ever since.
6 June 2018
London Borough of Ealing and hotel developer Mastcraft sign an agreement under which Mastcraft will be paid £420,000 if the Town Hall development can't happen. This was not revealed until 7 March 2019 when it was disclosed by the Director of Planning and Regeneration at a Cabinet scrutiny meeting.
1 March 2018
A petition to Stop Ealing Council leasing Ealing Town Hall addressed to the Charity Commission is launched on Change.org and attracts 1,797 signatures. (https://www.change.org/p/the-charity-commission-ref-victoria-hall-trust-ealing-nm-c-462805-stop-ealing-council-leasing-ealing-town-hall)
19 December 2017
A Meeting of Ealing Council delegates the Council’s functions as the Trustee of the Victoria Hall Trust to its General Purposes Committee, including the authority to finalise changes to the objects of the Trust and express powers to dispose of the Trust’s property. The General Purposes Committee has nine members, seven of whom are members of the ruling party.
26 May 2017
Having been prompted by this enquiry, Ealing Council discovers not only that the Victoria Hall Trust is still extant but that it owns at least 20% of the Town Hall building it had sold the previous year to its development partner so on 26 May a law firm acting on behalf of the Council applies to the Charity Commission for permission to vary the Trust Deed to allow disposal of both parts of the Victoria Halls. The Charity Commission instructs the Council to organise a consultation process with stakeholders. This ran from November 2017 to February 2018 and over 275 representations were received. The overwhelming majority opposed the sale of the Hall to be part of a luxury hotel.
19 September 2016
A member of the public present at the Scrutiny Committee meeting writes to the Committee clerk to express her concern that the discussion about the Trust was not minuted, and that there had not been any effort made to ascertain whether or not the Trust had been wound up.
4 August 2016
The Council Scrutiny Committee is asked to approve the selection and appointment of Mastcraft. There is some discussion about whether or not the Victoria Hall Trust exists, but there is nothing recorded in the minutes of the meeting, which approves the selection of Mastcraft and "thanks the officers for their hard work to date."
12 July 2016
An Ealing Council Cabinet meeting approves the granting of a 250-year lease to Mastcraft to turn most of the Town Hall and Victoria Hall into a "luxury" hotel, with part of the building retained for municipal use. They would be leased for 250 years to Mastcraft for a payment of £2,500,551 and an annual rent of £250,000.
21 October 2014
It is decided at an Ealing Council Cabinet meeting to market 'the opportunity to refurbish and redevelop Ealing Town Hall.' The Victoria Hall and Prince’s Room beneath it account for over 20% of the Town Hall site.
25 June 1958
The Charity Commission writes to Ealing Town Clerk to say that the Council cannot keep the £450 it raised the previous year from the sale of the Victoria Hall organ because the instrument is not the property of the Council – just like the Hall itself – and so it must distribute the money to local charities, as called for in the 6 November 1893 Declaration of Trust.
17 March 1902
The Trustees approved expansion of the Princes Room, making space for an extra cloak or store room at the west end, with an extension of the lower floor lounge to include a smoking room, buffet, toilets and caterers’ room. The whole new area was ready for hire in 1904.
17 May 1899
Following the construction of the covered way in Longfield Avenue the Trust Committee decides upon the first of a series of enlargements to the Hall. The discussion resulted in an extension on the north side the whole length of the building, giving a lounge, smoking rooms and buffet, along with an additional dressing room.
27 February 1897
A Trustee meeting decides to fund the purchase of an organ and the construction of a covered way over the Longfield Avenue entrance. Stairs from here led up to the Victoria Hall, and to a platform at the west end of the Hall.
6 November 1893
The Victoria Hall Trust is set up to take ownership of the halls. The trust deed declares that the Hall was to be made available for hire for "Meetings, Entertainments, Balls, Bazaars, and other Gatherings Whether Social or Political…”. The Declaration further specifies that any rental income generated, after deductions for the upkeep of the Hall, must be applied “as the Trustees may think fit between and among any Charitable or Philanthropic or Charitable Institutions in the District of Ealing Local Board as the Trustees may think fit…”
15 December 1888
Edward, Prince of Wales attends the official opening of the Victoria Hall.
25 January 1887
A public meeting is held to discuss how Ealing should mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was agreed a public hall should be built, paid for by public subscription. A sum of £2,000 was already pledged, the equivalent of £270,000 today.
The original design was for a high main hall at first floor level – what’s now known as the Victoria Hall – with smaller rooms at ground and basement level beneath, now known as the Prince’s Hall or Prince’s Rooms. The design allowed for the installation of an organ at the east end with a rose window visible behind it.
The structure stood attached to but separate from the main Town Hall apart from the first floor entrance to the Victoria Hall, which was accessed by a staircase through the main building. The Princes Halls below had their own entrance to the west, from Longfield Avenue and the two buildings shared a common service staircase at the southwest corner.
To be Continued...
For five years we've been saying: Hands Off Our Hall! It's not the Council's, so don't let this happen!
Support our campaign by making a donation here.
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For more than a century and a half the Hall has been at the centre of community life in Ealing, easily accessible from all parts of the Borough and hosting art exhibitions, balls, discos, blood donation drives, vaccination campaigns, ballroom, ballet, swing and Ceroc dance classes, amateur dramatics, graduation ceremonies, examinations, classical, rock, folk, jazz, roots and ethnic music concerts, weddings, exhibitions, multicultural celebrations such as Durga Puja, Divali and Christmas, film societies, NHS cardiac rehabilitation and anti-smoking classes, public enquiries, inquests, election hustings, election counts, protest meetings and many other types of event. Support our campaign to keep this going by making a donation here.
9 August 2024
The Charity Commission announced that its Chief Executive, David Holdsworth, has written to all local authorities in England and Wales setting out ‘urgent action’ they can take to ensure they comply with the legal responsibilities of charity trusteeship, which makes them responsible for running the charity and managing its assets. His letter provides an excellent summary of the shortcomings of Ealing Council in its dealings with the Victoria Hall.
29 July 2024
The Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH) publishes an open letter to the Victoria Hall Trust (VHT) demanding to know what the Trust is doing to reopen the Victoria Hall. The letter receives extensive coverage in local media.
3 July 2024
The Charity Commission publishes a 'decision review' of the nearly 100 objections it received. They were nearly all ignored.
28 March 2024
The Charity Commission publishes the second draft of its revised Scheme which it says 'will regularise the governance of the charity and the Victoria Hall property going forward.' The public is given until Sunday 28 April 2024 to comment. Once public consultation is complete, the Charity Commission will appoint an independent officer to review all the representations received during the consultation stage and to decide whether further amendments are necessary.
22 March 2024
At a short court hearing the appellants acting on behalf of the FoVH were finally refused permission to appeal against the September 2023 court ruling which would allow Ealing Council to take control of the property owned by the Victoria Hall Trust, as long as the Charity Commission could come up with a revised Scheme for the Trust following representations by the appellants and Ealing Council. This new Scheme was expected to be published for public consultation by the end of March 2024.
29 February 2024
Judge Mark West allows the appellants' appeal against the 2 November decision and offers the opportunity for an oral hearing about the legal aspects of the appeal to be allowed to appeal. This hearing was expect to take place towards the end of March 2024.
13 November 2023
The Charity Commission published a first draft of a new set of rules for the Trust (a ‘Scheme’). FoVH expressed strong objections to certain aspects of the Scheme. A second draft new Scheme which takes account of FoVH and Ealing Council comments is to be be published by the end of March 2024.
2 November 2023
Judge Damien J McMahon rejects an application by the appellants the appeal against a number of aspects of his Tribunal's 21 September findings. The appellants subsequently launched an appeal against his decision not to allow an appeal against the Tribunal's findings.
21 September 2023
The Charity Tribunal published its decision. It partly upheld the appeal and quashed the Council's draft Scheme. The court stated that it was not satisfied that the proposed rule changes adequately protected the interests of the Charity and ordered the Commission and Ealing Council to draw up a new Scheme in consultation with the appellants by 25 March 2024 -- within 185 days of the decision.
5 September 2023
Ealing.News publishes details of a Council email message which states that Ealing Town Hall, including the Victoria Hall will be completely closed down from the beginning of October 2023 following what was called a 'health and safety assessment.'
13 June 2023
At the 13 June 2023 meeting of Ealing Council, the Liberal Democrats moved a motion calling on Ealing’s Labour administration to scrap the £3m Ealing Town Hall hotel scheme and to work with residents towards a community-led new use for Victoria Hall. Fifty minutes into the meeting, as can be seen in the YouTube video recording (https://www.youtube.com/live/iSq3jZgnmek) the Council used an obscure procedural device called a ‘closure motion’ to stop the debate before it could start, as reported here: http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=eavictoriahall016.htm and here: https://ealing.news/ealing-council/ealing-libdems-accuse-ealing-labour-of-stopping-a-debate-and-vote-over-future-of-ealing-town-hall-and-victoria-hall/
Ealing LibDems subsequently launched a petition (https://www.ealinglibdems.org.uk/victoriahall ) for the debate to take place. If enough people sign the petition, the Council will be obliged to allow it.
12 May 2023
In answer to a written question submitted to the 25 April 2023 meeting of Ealing Council about ‘the total cost to the Council to date of the Victoria Hall hotel scheme’ it emerged that the Council had spent close to £1m more with the total having risen to £2,923,264.
20 February 2023
Under Judge Damien McMahon, the three-day Victoria Hall Trust Charity Tribunal hearing starts in London as appeal no. CA/2021/0009 at HM Courts & Tribunal Service's Field House Tribunal Hearing Centre, 15-25 Breams Buildings, London EC4A 1DZ. A decision is expected later in 2023.
13 December 2022
The Tribunal announced that the long-delayed hearing would take place between 20 and 22 February 2023.
27 September 2022
Following the Case Management Hearing it was expected that the substantive hearing would take place in November 2022. This turned out not to be the case.
13 September 2022
There is a further delay when court officials cancel the substantive hearing set to start on 27 September 2022 and replace it with a ‘Case Management Hearing’ to resolve legal and procedural issues that have arisen.
10 May 2022
At a half-day ‘Case Management’ video hearing of the Charity Tribunal, Judge Damien McMahon commented in his opening remarks that he was not happy with the ‘inordinate delay’ that there had been in dealing with the appeal and undertook to issue directions in around one week's time about when the longer, substantive proceedings would take place. At the beginning of July 2022 those directions were issued with an online hearing date set for 27 and 28 September 2022.
1 October 2021
Ealing Council applies to the court to become party to the proceedings as 'second respondent', thus delaying the start of proceedings which had been expected to have taken place as early as September 2021.
23 April 2021
Two local residents on behalf of the Friends of the Victoria Hall lodged an court appeal against the draft Scheme with the Charity Tribunal, thus triggering a lengthy legal process.
22 March 2021
The Charity Commission publishes what it rules should be the final draft of a ‘Scheme’ for the Victoria Hall Trust which would allow the Council to sell its property. The new Scheme ignores most of the shortcomings of previous version, including many that had been identified in the Commission’s own detailed review in April 2020.
Among the many shortcomings of the "final" Scheme are:
- Years of poor management by Ealing Council that have conspired to support the bogus claim that the Trust is not sustainable;
- The extent of that property has not been properly identified and has been underestimated in the Scheme, thus reducing the share the Trust would receive of the rental income the Council will be charging the hotel developer for the next 250 years;
- There’s no proper mechanism for managing Council conflict of interest among the trustees so the Council’s wishes would always predominate;
- Affordable community use of the Hall would be restricted to weekdays only and a very tightly drawn definition of which organisations would qualify for 'community' rates.
2 March 2021
To take over from the General Purposes Committee and to try to address conflict-of interest issues, a meeting of Ealing Council sets up a new Victoria Hall Trust Committee comprising five Council Trustees and three independent co-opted Trustees. It has its first meeting on 26 May 2021.
28 January 2021
At a GPC meeting, a number of questions were raised about what had been presented as ‘draft’ 2019-20 accounts and an ‘update’ to the 2018-19 numbers. These are the figures that are supposed to underpin the claim that the Trust is unsustainable and so unviable. There were so many questions about the numbers and the assumptions that one of the independent trustees called for a thorough independent review of the accounts and it was agreed it should happen. Three meetings later it still hadn’t been done.
17 December 2020
The Friends of the Victoria Hall write to the Charity Commission to deplore the Ealing Council response, noting
“Not only does it ignore most of your recommendations but it also contains some significant errors of fact. Consequently we believe that the draft Scheme for the Victoria Hall cannot be allowed to proceed and is likely to be challenged if it does. Furthermore, proceedings at the three Trustee meetings that have taken place since you issued your Review [in April 2020] have confirmed our strongly‐held view that the Trustees are conflicted because of their role as Ealing Councillors.”
24 November 2020
As directed by the 30 July 2020 meeting of the General Purposes Committee, the Council sent its response to the Charity Commission April review.
13 September 2020
The Campaign for and Ealing Performance and Arts Centre (CEPAC) publishes a video showing how the Victoria Hall could be updated and, if managed properly, serve the community well into the 21st century.
7 April 2020
In response to the barrage of criticism in the consultation, the Charity Commission publishes a Review of the Scheme which refuses to allow the Council to dispose of the Victoria Hall on the terms the Council had proposed. The 13-page ruling agrees with many of the serious criticisms that FoVH and others made of the Council scheme in its submission to the consultation.
29 June 2020
At a meeting of the Council General Purposes Committee a council officer reported that the total spend on efforts to dispose of the Town Hall had reached £1,942,000.
25 February 2020
In answer to a question from a councillor at a Council meeting, leader Julian Bell reports that £1.9m has so far been spent on efforts to dispose of the Town Hall. The amount was said to have included the physical cost of relocating services including CCTV, members and elections service to other locations; staff project management costs, the procurement process and professional fees (legal and property advice). That's most of the £2.5m that would be made from the sale of a 250-year lease to Mastcraft.
11 December 2019
The Friends of the Victoria Hall launches a petition ‘Save the Victoria Hall on 38degrees.org.uk, addressed to Helen Stephenson CBE, Charity Commission CEO. It rapidly attracts over 2,000 signatures. (https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-victoria-hall-1?)
27 November 2019
The Charity Commission publishes a draft 'Scheme' that would change the rules of the Victoria Hall Trust to allow Ealing Council to sell off Ealing Town Hall, including the Victoria Hall and Prince’s Room to the hotel developer.
Part of the Scheme was a ‘Community Use Protocol’ which purported to ensure that the beneficiaries of the Trust – the people of Ealing – would be able to use the Victoria Hall at affordable rates. However, these rates would not be available at weekends, and the very restrictive definition of what constitutes a local group would exclude many previous community users.
The publication of the draft Scheme prompts immediate criticism from campaigners and concern about the limited amount of time available in a consultation period that would run over the Christmas period. The deadline is subsequently extended to 7 January 2020.
14 November 2019
At the Forester pub in West Ealing, a number of prominent community groups hold a public meeting to form The Friends of The Victoria Hall (FoVH): Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum, Campaign for an Ealing Performance & Arts Centre, Central Ealing Residents’ Association, Ealing Art Group, Ealing Arts & Leisure, Ealing Civic Society, Save Ealing’s Centre, Gordon Road & Surrounding Streets Residents' Association (GRASS), Residents’ Association of Madeley and Westbury Roads (RAMW), West Ealing Neighbours.
21 May 2019
Ealing Council approves the Mastcraft planning application despite numerous objections.
15 January 2019
Mastcraft Ltd applies for planning permission (190182LBC) for "the partial demolition, conversion, alterations and extensions of Ealing Town Hall to provide a new hotel and retain community, publicly-available facilities and Democratic Services, with associated development." Campaigners point out that the partial demolition would would have a significant and detrimental effect on the space within the Victoria Hall.
15 March 2018
First meeting of the General Purposes Committee in its role as the Trustee for the Victoria Hall. The meeting is told "There is some uncertainty about exactly what property is held by the Trust." That is a matter that has been left unresolved ever since.
6 June 2018
London Borough of Ealing and hotel developer Mastcraft sign an agreement under which Mastcraft will be paid £420,000 if the Town Hall development can't happen. This was not revealed until 7 March 2019 when it was disclosed by the Director of Planning and Regeneration at a Cabinet scrutiny meeting.
1 March 2018
A petition to Stop Ealing Council leasing Ealing Town Hall addressed to the Charity Commission is launched on Change.org and attracts 1,797 signatures. (https://www.change.org/p/the-charity-commission-ref-victoria-hall-trust-ealing-nm-c-462805-stop-ealing-council-leasing-ealing-town-hall)
19 December 2017
A Meeting of Ealing Council delegates the Council’s functions as the Trustee of the Victoria Hall Trust to its General Purposes Committee, including the authority to finalise changes to the objects of the Trust and express powers to dispose of the Trust’s property. The General Purposes Committee has nine members, seven of whom are members of the ruling party.
26 May 2017
Having been prompted by this enquiry, Ealing Council discovers not only that the Victoria Hall Trust is still extant but that it owns at least 20% of the Town Hall building it had sold the previous year to its development partner so on 26 May a law firm acting on behalf of the Council applies to the Charity Commission for permission to vary the Trust Deed to allow disposal of both parts of the Victoria Halls. The Charity Commission instructs the Council to organise a consultation process with stakeholders. This ran from November 2017 to February 2018 and over 275 representations were received. The overwhelming majority opposed the sale of the Hall to be part of a luxury hotel.
19 September 2016
A member of the public present at the Scrutiny Committee meeting writes to the Committee clerk to express her concern that the discussion about the Trust was not minuted, and that there had not been any effort made to ascertain whether or not the Trust had been wound up.
4 August 2016
The Council Scrutiny Committee is asked to approve the selection and appointment of Mastcraft. There is some discussion about whether or not the Victoria Hall Trust exists, but there is nothing recorded in the minutes of the meeting, which approves the selection of Mastcraft and "thanks the officers for their hard work to date."
12 July 2016
An Ealing Council Cabinet meeting approves the granting of a 250-year lease to Mastcraft to turn most of the Town Hall and Victoria Hall into a "luxury" hotel, with part of the building retained for municipal use. They would be leased for 250 years to Mastcraft for a payment of £2,500,551 and an annual rent of £250,000.
21 October 2014
It is decided at an Ealing Council Cabinet meeting to market 'the opportunity to refurbish and redevelop Ealing Town Hall.' The Victoria Hall and Prince’s Room beneath it account for over 20% of the Town Hall site.
25 June 1958
The Charity Commission writes to Ealing Town Clerk to say that the Council cannot keep the £450 it raised the previous year from the sale of the Victoria Hall organ because the instrument is not the property of the Council – just like the Hall itself – and so it must distribute the money to local charities, as called for in the 6 November 1893 Declaration of Trust.
17 March 1902
The Trustees approved expansion of the Princes Room, making space for an extra cloak or store room at the west end, with an extension of the lower floor lounge to include a smoking room, buffet, toilets and caterers’ room. The whole new area was ready for hire in 1904.
17 May 1899
Following the construction of the covered way in Longfield Avenue the Trust Committee decides upon the first of a series of enlargements to the Hall. The discussion resulted in an extension on the north side the whole length of the building, giving a lounge, smoking rooms and buffet, along with an additional dressing room.
27 February 1897
A Trustee meeting decides to fund the purchase of an organ and the construction of a covered way over the Longfield Avenue entrance. Stairs from here led up to the Victoria Hall, and to a platform at the west end of the Hall.
6 November 1893
The Victoria Hall Trust is set up to take ownership of the halls. The trust deed declares that the Hall was to be made available for hire for "Meetings, Entertainments, Balls, Bazaars, and other Gatherings Whether Social or Political…”. The Declaration further specifies that any rental income generated, after deductions for the upkeep of the Hall, must be applied “as the Trustees may think fit between and among any Charitable or Philanthropic or Charitable Institutions in the District of Ealing Local Board as the Trustees may think fit…”
15 December 1888
Edward, Prince of Wales attends the official opening of the Victoria Hall.
25 January 1887
A public meeting is held to discuss how Ealing should mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was agreed a public hall should be built, paid for by public subscription. A sum of £2,000 was already pledged, the equivalent of £270,000 today.
The original design was for a high main hall at first floor level – what’s now known as the Victoria Hall – with smaller rooms at ground and basement level beneath, now known as the Prince’s Hall or Prince’s Rooms. The design allowed for the installation of an organ at the east end with a rose window visible behind it.
The structure stood attached to but separate from the main Town Hall apart from the first floor entrance to the Victoria Hall, which was accessed by a staircase through the main building. The Princes Halls below had their own entrance to the west, from Longfield Avenue and the two buildings shared a common service staircase at the southwest corner.
To be Continued...
For five years we've been saying: Hands Off Our Hall! It's not the Council's, so don't let this happen!
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