School Move

Why Crouch Hill?

Crouch Hill Community Park, which is less than half a mile away from Ashmount's current site, houses Bowlers Community Nursery and the CAPE Play and Youth Project - both valued services for children and young people in the local community - as well as the Crouch Hill Recreation Centre, a building that has been unused since 2004 and is now derelict. The Recreation Centre was closed because that building, which is of no architectural interest, had reached the end of its life.

These buildings all stand within a very special green environment. In fact, it is so special that it has been designated as 'Metropolitan Open Land' (MOL), and is therefore protected as an area of nature conservation. (The other piece of MOL in Islington is Highbury Fields. For more information about MOL, click here.) However, despite the fact that the green site at Crouch Hill adjoins the Parkland Walk, it is neglected and under-used as a community resource.

Building on MOL is allowed only in exceptional circumstances. But the fact that a derelict building already stands there means that a new school for Ashmount, and much-needed new accommodation for Bowlers Nursery, can be constructed at Crouch Hill in place of that existing building without the loss of any green space.

At the same time, the park will be restored and enhanced, to make the green space more accessible to the local community. The CAPE building will be refurbished, and an Ecology Centre provided there, together with enhanced facilities for the Youth Project. And Ashmount’s new building will not only offer state-of-the-art educational provision for local children, but its facilities will be available out of school hours to reinstate community services lost when the Recreation Centre closed.

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