Members of the Royal Family as part of the job have to perform excruciatingly boring functions at best or, at worst, carry out engagements on advice from the Foreign Office through gritted teeth. So it is charming that King Charles can indulge his own whimsical fancies through The King’s Foundation – a Scottish charity that supports things he really cares about.
It started when his charity bought Dumfries House, then The Castle and Gardens of Castle Mey and Highgrove Gardens followed. Yesterday I went to another King’s Foundation project: The Garrison Chapel. The story is that about twenty years ago the government of the day decided to sell off under-utilised capital assets. I was staying in a British embassy in Africa at the time. Word came that the extensive embassy grounds in the centre of the capital were surplus to requirements and should be sold. It transpired that title to the land belonged to that country’s government who were happy to have the land returned but not sold. As far as I know there is still a golf course, kitchen gardens, stables and parkland surrounding the embassy.
There was lower hanging fruit closer to home and Chelsea Barracks was marked out for redevelopment. This was a wake-up call for the army. Sites such as Wellington Barracks and Sandhurst were quickly designated as key assets, too important to sell. But I digress. The original valuation for Chelsea was about quarter of a million pounds; in the event a Qatari company paid almost a billion – a rare example of a government initiative over-achieving financially. Richard Rogers produced a plan for the site – housing of which half was to be affordable. It was controversial and the Prince of Wales, as he then was, favoured a more traditional design. He was thinking Poundbury-in-Chelsea I imagine.
Anyway there was a row and the King’s intervention was criticised. New plans were approved, this time with 25% affordable housing. It is unbelievably bland architecture with two bedroom flats selling for north of £6 million. I think “affordable” may be relative. One building from the 19th century survives: The Garrison Chapel. While it should give King Charles pleasure to have preserved it, he must wince at the surrounding blocks of flats.
When I visited yesterday it was closed. It seems it only opens when there is an exhibition or event and there’s nothing on until next month.
I can tell you the story of how it avoided demolition, (I was the last soldier to leave Chelsea Barracks) and how the Chapel was awarded retrospective listing.
I and many others would like to hear about that.
Christopher
Spot on commentary. I wince every time assets are sold. The intervention produced a bland product, and it’s like a desert.