North London residents are up in arms about the threat to demolish long-standing community centre and performance space, the Highbury Roundhouse.

Islington Council are proposing to knock down the building owing to its poor condition, but yet have not put forward a replacement site yet. Locals are concerned that they will not only lose an historical and much loved Islington landmark, but will also end up without a new venue as the cuts kick in and public spending in slashed.

Highbury Roundhouse has functioned as a community centre for over four decades and has recently been taken on as a case by the organisation responsible for the upkeep and restoration of many noted old buildings such as Westminster Abbey.

Head of the restoration initiative is specialist Brian Morton. In a meeting with the Council last December he urged officials to withdraw plans for the venue's demolition, on the basis that the neglect theh building suffered was at the hands of the Council and that it could be remedied under the appropriate guidance. This first meeting was unsuccessful and the proposals remained in place.

But Morton and his team have finally managed to get the surveyor involved to admit that the building is not at immediate risk of collapsing and that plans should be put on hold until further assessments have been conducted to confirm Morton's suggestion that the Highbury Roundhouse can be restored quite simply and cheaply. If, assure officials, this can be done, then the demolition notice can be lifted.

SO, good people of Stokey.... if you are willing to get behind this project then please sign the petition: organisers are hoping for 1,000 signatures to present to the Council. If, however, you feel public money could be better spent in this time of austerity, or that it's best to keep things modern then please let us know.

Photo courtesy of AlanBenzie and Flickr