STOTHERT & PITT SQUATTERS IN ANTI-DEMOLITION PROTEST

bath | protests | press release Thursday December 06, 2007 17:03 by Charlie Dancey - Letinov Steam Circus charliedancey at gmail dot com

A team of artists and entertainers collectively known as the Letinov Steam Circus have been occupying large sheds at the old Stothert & Pitt crane works at South Quays in Bath for nearly two months, but now officials from B&NES have started proceedings to evict them from the site

“We were first attracted to the site because we needed rehearsal space,” said Charlie Dancey of the Letinov Circus “but we’ve been looking into the history of the site and we’re now determined to prevent the wanton demolition of some very important historical buildings.”

The former Stothert & Pitt engineering works were to be developed by Bath Spa University, who pulled out after they failed to come to terms with B&NES over an argument about who should pay for a Flood Risk Assessment. The development opportunity then passed to Sir James Dyson, who has been planning to build his School of Design Innovation there.

“The buildings, if left unmanaged, will fall into disrepair and dereliction. We have cleared up a great deal of dangerous rubbish, and secured buildings that had been broken into previously by scrap metal thieves. The open areas on site are currently used as a sort of unofficial car park by the working people of the city and without our presence on the site the cars parked in it would be at risk from crime.

“We’ve chased off quite a few criminal types,” said Dancey, “they soon run off when they see someone like me walking over in a reflective jacket juggling three rubber chickens.”

We agree with the Bath Heritage Watchdog pressure group in that we also support the idea of Dyson’s school in principle, but we very strongly object to the demolition of the old Stothert & Pitt crane works in order to build it.

The hideous irony is that Dyson plans to train future engineers, but seems blind to the enormous value of the engineering history embodied in the very fabric of the buildings he aims to demolish.

Parts of the Titanic were built here, steam locomotives were built here, dockside cranes which still stand all over the world were built here.

The site was targeted by the Luftwaffe during the Bath Blitz but fortunately the great buildings, whose imposing facades face onto the Lower Bristol Road survived the atack, while large parts of the City Centre were badly damaged. It now seems that the developers are determined to do what the bombers could not.

B&NES got away with destroying Churchill House recently but enough is enough.

The Letinov Steam Circus are inviting all to an open meeting this Sunday, 2pm, at South Quays, the aim of which will be to stop this concrete and steel madness at all costs. We want to create a voice loud enough to penetrate the deaf ears of B&NES.

Our message is simple:

“No, you can’t knock the crane works down! You need to tidy up the other mess you made first. You are very naughty boys and girls and you are to stop ruining our City!”

We shall not be leaving just yet.