39 Tottenham Street
An Important Historic Building
No 39 Tottenham Street is an important historic building in Fitzrovia, lying at the junction of Tottenham Street and Goodge Place. For over forty years the ground floor and basement were home to the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre, which played a large part in local campaigns to preserve Fitzrovia as an area where ordinary people can live and work. The property has been unoccupied since the last tenant was rehoused in 2009 and the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association vacated the ground floor and basement in 2019.
The Fitzrovia Trust has approached the freeholder, Camden Council, with a view to taking a long lease on the building in order to convert it to affordable housing and a commercial or community use on the lower floors.
The building is in a semi-derelict condition. It has been identified as an Asset of Community Value, which provides an opportunity for a community group such as the Trust to purchase it. It is listed Grade II, in a conservation area and is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2025
The Trust has not yet acquired a long lease on no.39, but we are hopeful that this will happen in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, we have submitted a planning application to Camden for our proposed scheme for the property. This will involve:
Commercial/community use on the ground floor/basement:
- Provision of a 1-bed, 2 person flat on the First Floor (43.6sqm)
- Provision of a 1-bed, 2 person flat on the Second Floor (43.6sqm)
- Provision of a 2-bed, 3 person maisonette on the Third/Fourth Floors (66.5sqm). This will be achieved by the addition of a fourth floor and a new mansard roof.
All residential tenancies will be offered to people on Camden’s waiting list. At present we are hoping that the finance for the scheme will come from a mixture of our own resources, and from money obtained from a Section 106 award and from a Community Infrastructure Levy award, both of these latter via Camden Council.
SUMMER 2025
We have recently had a number of useful meetings with Camden Councillors and Officers about taking a long lease on the property, and finding the resources to carry out a full refurbishment of the building. Our aim is to provide one or more flats at affordable rents on the upper floors and other compatible uses on the ground and basement floors.
We have also retained a firm of consultants to assist us with the design, funding, and quantity surveying aspects of the project.
Because of the condition of the building and the cost of restoring a listed building, there is no guarantee that a viable project can be secured, but the Trust pulling out all the stops to try and make it happen.
If you can assist in any way, please contact Colin on fitzroviatrust@aol.co.uk