Bad news folks.
Negociations with the landlord about keeping the venue open reached an impasse, and it is definite that Pizza on the Park will, after all, and despite an appealing programme being put together for an extra three months, close on June 18th with a performance from Steve Ross.
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How come that one of the most fab places in London has to close down, while so much crap continues to stay open?
I more or less 'grew halfway to a man' in there as Elton John would say; music, food up-stairs, past acquaintances and lovers…
Is London closing down, too?
Can we not DO SOMETHING?
Klaus Jurgens
a true admirer of the place
Klaus.Jurgens@gmail.com
Klaus , thanks for taking the trouble. PotP has now closed.
Harold Sanditen, I and one (anonymous) third person did indeed try to “DO SOMETHING.” We did what we could.
We got a leader article placed in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/apr/26/jazz-venue-pizza-on-park
Which led to good coverage from Mark Shenton in The Stage.
We encouraged news stories and opinion pieces in the Evening Standard and the Times. We set up a Facebook group.
We wrote for support to a number of people, including the Planning Department of Westminster Council, and the Chairman and the Chief Executive of the holding company above Pizza Express.
But in the end, we were faced with one insuperable problem:
In the UK it is possible for people to intervene in a planning process while it is going through.
But Westminster Council had allowed this one to happen without any reference whatsoever to PotP being a musio venue, in 2007.
It is not possible to do anything that long thereafter. We were out of time.
The cultural vandals have won this one, I'm afraid.