Welcome
to the Twickenham Riverside website, put together and maintained
by local people who are concerned about the redevelopment of the old
swimming baths beside the Thames, and working to support the
planned River Centre.
Clive Chapman's walkthrough shows how the redeveloped poolsite can look when it's completed.
About
the Twickenham River Centre:
The River Centre will be a place where people of all
ages can learn about the environment, the river and sustainability,
learn to build a boat, fish or row, and watch the world from a great
café. Look here for more information on its features and what it can provide to the community.
Twickenham Poolsite from the air - showing how little of the site is actually in use, and its surroundings. The Jubilee Gardens play area is on the left. The three-panelled white patch is the roof of the café. Approximately four-fifths of the site is fenced off and empty.
Green Space in Twickenham - showing how much of Twickenham is already green space, and indicating the area that would be public open space in the projected poolsite development.
The areas across the river, Ham Lands and the grounds of Ham House, are shown but not highlighted.
On 20th October at a full meeting of the council, leader Serge Lourie stated that the council would be deferring a decision on
the signature of a contract with the developer for the poolsite until summer 2010, in order to have time to examine the developer's accounts up to September of this year.
Jenny Pearce, Chair of the Environment Trust, says:
The Environment Trust for Richmond on Thames is the lead organisation for Twickenham River Centre, part of the Twickenham Riverside project. The Trust has been kept fully informed by Richmond Council of developments with respect to the programme for the Twickenham Riverside site.
The Trust is disappointed about the delay to the project programme, as announced by Richmond Council, which means that the contract with the developer will not be signed until next summer. Nevertheless, the Trust remains committed to developing the River Centre with the Council and the Trust's network of partners. We support a cautious approach so that we will in due course be able to assure our members, and our partners in the project, of its financial stability; and we recognise that it will take time for the Council to undertake a thorough examination of the developer's accounts up to September 2009.
The Trust will use this interim period to further develop its programme of environmental education, working with established partners such as Thames Landscape Strategy and Thames Explorer Trust, as well as new partners which include Kingston University and Capel Manor College.
The Trust is already providing environmental programmes to local schools, as well as short courses for all ages. The Trust will be developing a broad range of education, apprenticeship and employment training courses with its partners over the next 12 months. This is in line with its plans to have a vibrant and wide-ranging programme of education and community-based activities for operation out of the River Centre on its completion.
Please see
our History 1980-2001 page for background
and the details of developments proposed for the pool site prior
to December, 2001; and the pages for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 for
events in those years. The picture archive from the partial demolition of the old pool building is at Pictures
1 and Pictures 2.
Rethink
on the Riverside - prepared for the Twickenham Society
Group of Local Societies and Individuals: Introduction and Full
Report (.pdf, 16 pages, 192kb). Sept 2002.
To
give us input about the River Centre or to go on our mailing list:
If you want to make suggestions for the River Centre, or you would like to receive email alerts when this website is updated, please fill in the form.
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