Petition To ‘Save’ London’s Air Studios Draws Nearly 7,000 Signatures

A petition drive to block renovations to a home in North London on grounds it would threaten the livelihood of Air Studios next door had collected nearly 7,000 signatures through early Thursday, said 38 Degrees, the London advocacy group that organized the drive. Beatles producer George Martin founded Air Studios in 1969 and sold it to two entrepreneurs when he retired in 2006, the group said on its website. It described Air Studios as “Britain’s premier scoring facility attracting some of the world’s biggest movies scores, as well as maintaining its popularity with major classical labels and high profile recording artists.” Artists such as Coldplay and Paul McCartney “are regulars” there, it said. The owner of the home next door, Andrew Jeffreys, applied to local authorities “for planning permission for major redevelopment which involves a substantial basement under most of this imposing site,” the group said. The studios are “extremely noise sensitive,” and if construction work “of this nature and length were to be granted the go ahead it would render the studios inoperable for a long period of time,” it said. The studios would need to shut down for at least six months and “may never re-open.” it said. Opponents also fear that “the structural risk is serious,” it said. “The basement, whose construction would devastate the site, is far too big.” There are not enough "alternate facilities available in London or the UK” to suit the many musicians who would be displaced, the group said. Efforts to reach for comment homeowner Jeffreys or Thomas Croft Architects, the London firm listed as his agent, were unsuccessful.