Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre is undeniably a historical icon; the home of dramatic and perennial UK exhibitions since before the present structure was built, starting in 1886/7 when audiences were gripped by the thrills of Buffalo Bill and his cowboy spectaculars, as well as Roman chariot races. Since then everything from Crufts Dog Show, the Royal Tournament, The Ideal Home Exhibition, the Royal Smithfield Show, the National Boat Show, the Motor Show, the World Travel Market and countless mega concerts have rolled in and out of their cavernous halls.
All that is about to come to an end, with the final approval of a major new development after several years of legal opposition by nearby residents and the exhibition industry, covering not just the Earl’s Court Exhibition envelope but, 761 existing residential property alongside Earl’s Court also. The new development will raise both sites to the ground and construct 800 new housing units within a 20,000sq.ft. area, called the Lillie Square Development, as the first phase of the creation of a new London district with a five-acre “lost river park”, 4 new urban villages, leisure facilities, affordable housing and refurbished railway stations all around it. Interestingly, the naming of this area, Lillie Square, harks back to the first development of this space in March 1869 when the Lillie Bridge Athletic Ground opened. As such, this was the first link with the present Earls Court Exhibition Centre nearby. Before then, it had simply been covered with small farms and market gardens.
It has to be said that Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre has been viewed by many for some time as being long past its ideal sell-by date. The rise of the more modern and more flexible ExCel in London’s Docklands has been relentless, and has accounted for the loss of much of Earl’s Court’s hitherto stalwart and reliable business. Now the emphasis on West London is being centred on Olympia (the sister flagship of Earl’s Court) evidenced by the recent completion of a £30m investment.
It’s an object lesson for the UK event industry and those who own, run, or manage exhibition halls and centres in London. Buildings that were built over a century ago for these purposes were fit for them at that time but, unless they are regularly maintained and upgraded to fit today’s exacting requirements, their owners will take cold hard decisions to either change their use, or redevelop.
I have personally witnessed this change with the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lawrence Hall, a similarly historical building and exhibition hall of some architectural significance but which, ultimately, proved very expensive to maintain, upgrade, and compete with more modern and dedicated venues. The result was that the RHS took the sensible decision to lease this building to Westminster School for their use as an internal sports facility. There were other factors involved in this decision, not least of which was the difficulty encountered with residents which surround it.
In today’s sensitive environment where commerce, noise and disturbance too often clashes with residential aspirations for quiet and traffic-free disturbance (even the Royal Albert Hall gets complaints) the dedicated venue built fit-for-purpose beyond the rarefied atmosphere of a residential zone, has to be the preferred way forward.
René Dee is the author of Sweet Peas, Suffragettes and Showmen: Events that Changed the World in RHS Halls.