Heritage designation remains for former Lambeth school

A heritage property in Lambeth will remain just that —- a heritage property.

London city council voted 9-5 Tuesday night in favour of maintaining the heritage designation it granted to the former M.B. McEachren elementary school in Lambeth last year.

Mayor Matt Brown and councillors Anna Hopkins, Maureen Cassidy, Harold Usher and Michael van Holst voted to remove the heritage designation while councillors Mo Salih, Jesse Helmer, Phil Squire, Josh Morgan, Paul Hubert, Virginia Ridley, Stephen Turner, Tanya Park and Jared Zaifman voted to maintain it. Councillor Bill Armstrong was absent.

Last week, a city committee voted in favour of dropping the designation so the property could be re-developed.

The former school at 4402 Colonel Talbot Rd. was built in 1925 but declared surplus by the Thames Valley Board in 2010. The Lambeth Health Organization has owned the building since 2015 and wants to tear it down in order to build a medical centre.

Many residents in Lambeth supported removing the heritage designation.

“I understand that the building has to be valued by the community and I have not heard from the community that it has value and I have to listen to what the community is telling me,” said Hopkins who represents the area.

City staff had recommended keeping the school’s heritage status in place arguing no amount of “commemoration or interpretation” can replicate the heritage of the building.

Hopkins supported the staff recommendation but voted against it to side with her constituents.

Last May council voted unanimously in favour of the heritage designation for the former school.

“Nothing has changed in terms of the merits of designating the building. The Conservation Review Board took a look at it, they gave us their recommendation but the facts about the building itself and the recommendation from our staff aren’t changing,” said Helmer, who supported maintaining the heritage designation.

The review board recommended against heritage designation and “declined to recognize the Heritage Planner as an expert,” according to a city report.

Thomas Christensen, a Lambeth resident who has lived in the area for 38 years, criticized politicians in a letter presented to councillors.

“We have seen many changes to M.B. McEachren Public School over the years,” he wrote. “Our neighbour who attended this school over 60 years ago, as did his father, siblings and children, has no wishes to see this dilapidated building remain. The proposed medical centre would be a vast improvement for this property and the neighbourhood,” wrote Christensen.

Supporters of maintaining the heritage designation argue it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

“I think its an important building worthy of designation. I want to emphasize that designation of a heritage building doesn’t mean that it can’t be redeveloped or modified,” said Helmer.