Harrow College, working with Harrow Council and the Mayor of London, is proud to announce the official launch of Arc House and the newly redesigned Lowland’s park.
Based in the heart of Harrow and designed by award winning architects Adams & Sutherland, Arc House is an exciting new venture brought to you by Harrow Council, the Mayor of London and Harrow College.
Guests including members of the public, Harrow Council and the GLA were invited to the launch at Arc House, next door to Harrow College’s Harrow on the Hill campus, on Tuesday 17 March.
Speeches came from Chair of the Mayor's Design Advisory Group and Adviser to the Mayor of London on Crossrail 2 Daniel Moylan, Vice Principal of Harrow College Pat Carvalho, Mayor of Harrow Cllr Ajay Maru, Harrow Council Cllr Keith Ferry and Director of Adams & Sutherland Liz Adams.
Speaking about the launch of Arc House Cllr Ferry said: "Today we are here to launch Arc House, a new performance space and café sitting in what was, effectively unused scrub land unknown and unloved by the people of Harrow. This has been a long journey. We started in 2010 when we looked at Lowlands and we thought we could do something with this space. With our limited resources we decided to make a bandstand. We made a bid for money from the Mayor of London and we've ended up with a larger idea of a bandstand."
Arc House will form part of a new indoor and outdoor performance space, café and public park for the local community in Harrow. Funding for the project comes from Harrow Council, the Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund and investments from Harrow College.
Moylan said about the role of the GLA: "The Outer London Fund has an enormous contribution to make to the economic vitality of the capital as a whole. The GLA on behalf of the mayor has spent a lot of money in Harrow. Harrow has plans and visions and Boris Johnson has tried to help with those plans. From the Outer London Fund we have invested £3m in various schemes including creating this wonderful park. What has happened here in Harrow is simply wonderful and we are very proud to be able to say that we are a part of it."
Carvalho added: "Harrow College is absolutely delighted to be part of what is going to be a great community space in terms of performances, the café and the surrounding park. We hope this community space will enrich the learning environment for our students and will provide the people of Harrow an absolutely fantastic community space."
Serving Harrow town centre and the wider area, both Arc House and the redesigned Lowland’s park create a vibrant and engaging open space set to become a hub for performance and cultural celebration in the borough.
The remodelled Lowland’s park also includes new play equipment, furniture, more direct paths, a new amphitheatre and lots of new trees.
Arc House is a significant addition to Harrow, and will provide performances, dance and music to those working and living in the area. It will also offer volunteer and apprenticeship opportunities to people in the Harrow community.
Arc House will be open to the public from April 2015 and will draw visitors from across Harrow and London.