Eel Pie Island: Campaign aims to preserve boatyards

Steve Cassini and his wife Sheba outside their home on Eel Pie Island

A campaign has been launched to preserve boatyards on a famous Twickenham island where bands such as The Rolling Stones have played.

Campaigners have raised £6,000 to help with their Historic England application for the four yards on Eel Pie Island to have special asset protection status.

It was prompted after one of them was put up for sale for £3.5m.

The island has previously hosted world-famous bands including The Who, Genesis and Pink Floyd.

They all played at the Eel Pie Island Hotel before it burnt down in 1971.

Simon Cassini, 55, has lived on the island with his wife Sheba since 2008 and visited it for years beforehand to have work done on their houseboat.

The pair, who now live in a home called the "Loveshack" on the island, said there was "universal support" for the move among the island's 120 residents and small businesses.

Speaking to BBC London, he added: "What everyone loves about the island is that is it a working community and now it is under threat.

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"The guy that owns the biggest boat yard is retiring," he said, adding no-one wanted to take over the business so it had been put up "for sale as a development opportunity".

"We are trying to get heritage status so someone can't just buy the yard, knock it down and build a block of flats."

The campaign's main aim was to "preserve the space as a boatyard" because of the community and employment it brought to the area, he explained.

Helen Montgomery-Smith has owned one of the smaller yards since 1996 and lives on a Dutch barge moored on the island.

She is chair of the Eel Pie Island Association and is spearheading the campaign to get the status for the yards, which she said had been in continuous use since 1892.

"We probably should have done this years ago," she explained.

"There are hardly any services like this that are still working and we need to make sure it continues."

The fundraising will help with their application to Historic England, which she admits is still in its "infancy".

As well as being a source of community, the dock currently employs about 12 people, provides apprenticeships and regularly has specialist contractors on site to carry out work on boats in its covered slipway, Mr Cassini said.

One of the four boatyards on the island is currently up for sale

While only one yard is up for sale, the campaign wants the protection to apply to all of the island's boatyards.

The Eel Pie Island Association said hundreds of boatyards had once existed along the Thames between Wapping and Teddington Lock but that number had now reduced to less than 20.

"The essential infrastructure of slipways, hardstanding, docks and wharfs are what makes the boatyards viable," it added in a statement.

"These sites need heritage status to ensure they remain active and functional for future generations."

If the protected status is granted, the boatyards' importance will be considered as part of any future planning applications.

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