MORE THAN a thousand angry music fans have signed a petition calling for a Southampton venue to be saved from demolition.

Developers want to knock down rock bar Firehouse in Vincents Walk and turn it into a 13-storey tower block of 39 flats.

The application has also angered city parks campaigners who say the high rise would have a “seriously detrimental impact” on Palmerston and Houndswell Parks, which it would overlook.

 

In just 24 hours 1,100 people signed the petition to save the “loved venue.”

The petition calls on developers to “find another plot to build flats on” and organisers say they want Firehouse “left alone for the metal and rock culture to continue to thrive.”

The dispute comes just months after another iconic venue, The Talking Heads closed its doors for the last time.

Petition organiser Aimee Mullan, who has been a Firehouse regular for a decade, said: “I just want the chance to show that Firehouse is a loved venue and shouldn’t be taken away.

“It’s not just rock and metal people who go there. I have been there and there’s been a few elderly people at the bar – people you wouldn’t expect to see there but they go in because it’s a friendly place to be and nobody judges.”

Gavin Wakefield from Ocean Village, who has been going to Firehouse for 11 years, said: “It’s the only place that everybody can be themselves. Now all the customers are panicking. Every other venue seems to be turned into flats.”

Southampton Commons and Parks Protection Society say the development “has a seriously detrimental impact on the [grade] II* registered Central Parks because it is too high and of a design which fails to respect and enhance the setting of the Parks.

“It is a small site; the scale of development, the number of residential units proposed, represents over-development of a small site in a visually sensitive location.”

Another conservation group, The Gardens Trust said high rise blocks in the area are becoming “too dominant” and added: “Should this building be allowed, the small park, directly in front of the proposed new 13 storey building will receive considerably less sunlight from 2pm onwards than before, so that by 4pm just under a third of the park will not receive any direct sunshine at all.”

Historic England say the park would “not be adversely affected” but warned that adding more in the future “would create a ‘walled’ affect, restricting views out and undermining the visual connectivity between the parks and the wider townscape.”

 

Bargate Ward Councillor John Noon said: “I’m disappointed that we are losing another pub in the city centre, but I’m not necessarily disappointed that we are building homes in the city centre. We need them.

“The buildings have got to be appropriate for the area.”

Designs by Winchester based company Architecture PLB promise “a tall building of outstanding and sustainable design” on the “underutilised site” with the benefits to the public “outweighing any residual harm.”

The building would be designed to look like “extruded fingers” - with a 360 degree outlook.

The application has been submitted on behalf of George Macari of Terramek Developments Ltd from Jersey and the Shaftsbury Pub Company Ltd.

Managers at the bar said: “We have been thoroughly humbled and blown away by the outpouring of love and support over the last couple of days.” A planning decision is expected in January 2019.