• THE demolition of Maria Fidelis School is another example of disregard and lack of care when it comes to Somers Town.

These buildings along Phoenix Road formed one of the oldest townscapes, and told a story of French Catholic refugees, and early social reformers.

It’s now gone. It’s angered locals who’ve seen things “chucked into skips”.

It seems to have been done in a huge rush with little care and attention for important features – statues, tiles, fireplaces – which could have been saved.

We are not against development but it needs to honour the past. You wonder, too, if these new buildings will be anywhere near as solid as the Victorian ones they replace.

We are facing huge construction projects and demolition, crushing a working class community.

From what we can see in plans, the future here is a dystopian vision of living dwarfed by towers of glass and steel encircled by rampant commercialisation of overpriced, unnecessary, retail theme parks, alien to people here.

It’s an area of much social housing which seems to be at the bottom of the list, as ever. This would not happen in Hampstead. It’s because people do not have a voice here.

Somers Town has a rich and varied heritage and we need to record and celebrate its unique story, and retain a sense of place and identity in the face of destruction.

DIANA FOSTER
Chair, Somers Town History Club