Man who saved neighbourhood and woman who built playground honoured

FRANK Dobson unveiled a plaque to a man on Sunday who saved his home from demolition.
The Holborn and St Pancras MP is just one of hundreds of Bloomsbury residents who have George Wagner to thank for saving their neighbourhood from bulldozers in the 1970s.
Dr Wagner, a lecturer who was a refugee from Nazi Germany, founded the Bloomsbury Association in 1972 to fight plans to site the British Library opposite the British Museum between Russell Street and Bloomsbury Way.
Under his leadership residents eventually overturned the decision to pull down their homes, successfully arguing for the library to be sited in Euston Road, King’s Cross, where it eventually opened in 1998.
Speaking at the unveiling of a plaque in his honour in Bloomsbury Square, Mr Dobson, who lives in Russell Street, said: “I don’t know where I would have moved – the government and the council would have had to re-house a lot of people, and George’s campaign convinced them that that in itself was an important issue, but what was most important was protecting the unique history of this area.
“The library is much better where it ended up, helping to improve King’s Cross and Somers Town, and that will really be seen when the EuroTunnel link opens.”
According to Jim Murray, chair of the Bloomsbury Association, plans to spread the British Museum south of Russell Street had existed “in every plan since the 1930s”.
He added: “George was a legend.”
And a tenants’ leader who brought a playground and community spirit to a Kentish Town estate was also honoured with a plaque and a party on Sunday.
Nell Deller, of the Peckwater Estate in Islip Street, led a successful campaign for a play centre in 1972 and was a plain-speaking defender of tenant rights until her death in 2003.
Play groups she helped found were so successful they were funded full-time by the council, continuing to this day.
Alan Walter, who succeeded as chairman of the Peckwater Tenants Association, said: “Her door was always open to anyone who needed help.”
Friend Charley Burr added: “She’d probably be looking down on us now thinking what a great day this is except she’d probably rather be down below than with all the boring buggers up there.”
He said she had organised countless ‘jollies’ to the seaside for tenants adding: “We had an old coach that couldn’t get up the hill out of Brighton, so, without being rude, we had to ask some of the heavier mothers to get off and run alongside the coach until we got to the top.
“I remember we needed one more mum to get off, so I told Nell, sorry, you’re going to have to go, and when we made it to the top of the hill I told her: ‘We’re never doing this again.’”