Blind and partially sighted residents of Pocklington Lodge fight to prevent the break up of their community

L to R: Andrew, Jessica with guide dog Kenny, Chloe and Devaki

Tenants launch campaign to stop their homes from being sold

Kenny was snoozing peacefully in his basket when I arrived. The three-year-old guide dog opened an eye and regarded me warily until his mistress told him it was ok and he could relax.

“I am very lucky to have him”, Jessica told me. “I only had to wait six months, whereas some people have had to wait years”.

As a partially sighted woman, Kenny enables Jessica’s independence, yet, ironically, he is a big part of the reason she nearly gave up trying to live independently in London. When she moved here from Bristol, she tried hard to find a flat share where she could keep a dog, where there was somewhere safe for them to exercise, but struggled to find anywhere suitable.

“There is a lack of options outside of here”, she told me. “I was literally packing up the van to go home to my parents when this place came available”.

She wants what every other 26-year-old wants, to be independent and start creating a life for herself. She is a data analyst who works from home, and is also studying law at university.

Pocklington Lodge, Rylett Rd, W12

Pocklington Lodge – a happy, mutually supportive community

‘Here’ is Pocklington Lodge, a block of flats on the border of Chiswick and Shepherd’s Bush which provides specialist accommodation for blind and partially sighted people, where she has lived for the past three years.

The residents each have their own flat – 50 in all – but there are handrails along the corridor, braille symbols on the doors beneath the numbers and on the washing machines in the communal laundry, and there is somewhere for the guide dogs to do their business.

Living with sighted people is fraught with frustration and danger. They tend to move things about and leave things on the floor to trip over. With its shared communal room, which boasts an upright piano and a portrait of Thomas Pocklington, and a garden outside, the residents of Pocklington Lodge feel safe and are able to socialise and swap useful information.

It is a happy, functioning community of exactly the type developers are currently trying to recreate and market to single people all over London.

Dr Devaki Sivasubramanian

“I enjoy being looked after by each other and understanding each other’s needs”, Devaki told me.

Dr Devaki Sivasubramanian was a gynaecologist and a surgeon until an inflammation of the optic nerve made her totally blind for three days. It forced her to retire at the age of 45 and has left her with only six per cent sight long term.

Like Jessica, she pays her rent from her own means and is not eligible for housing benefit, in her case paying out of her savings. Devaki was forced to move back in with family initially but found it stifling after the life she had led. She felt her family wanted to wrap her in cotton wool.

“Even my own mother does not understand my needs in the way the people I live with here do”.

The communal garden at Pocklington Lodge

The Thomas Pocklington Trust no longer wants to run accommodation and the residents fear for their future

Jessica, Devaki, Chloe and Andrew have invited me to Pocklington Lodge to explain why they are fighting to keep it as it is. Together, they have lived there a total of 58 years.

The building is owned by a charity, the Thomas Pocklington Trust, which was set up to provide services and accommodation for visually impaired people, but now its objectives have changed. They want to sell the building, refusing to protect its designated function for visually impaired residents.

The residents fear for their future. Devaki has already experienced the closure of a Pocklington Trust building. She lived in Pocklington Court in Roehampton before moving to Chiswick.

“When they sold that building, I was chucked out, aged 48, scared. It was painful for me to move, and I wasn’t keen on keeping the same landlord, but they promised me they had no intention of closing this down for at least 25 years”.

Devaki, who is now 63, moved in ten years ago and this is the last specialist housing project the Trust owns.

Moving is a stressful process for most of us, but even more so for blind and partially sighted people, who have to put so much more effort in to getting to know their local area, learning their routes and understanding their new environment. They rely on things staying the same.

Thomas Pocklington

Thomas Pocklington understood this, Andrew explained. He was a watchmaker and jeweller who later went into property. On a shooting weekend he was accidentally injured and was without sight for a while. On his death in 1934 he left a legacy to provide services and accommodation for visually impaired people. The money was allowed to mature and the Trust set up in 1953.

Pocklington Close was built in 1967 roughly on the site where the Lodge is now, and was replaced by the Lodge in the 1990s.

Andrew chairs the Pocklington Lodge Tenants Association. A retired civil servant, blind from childhood, he has lived at Pocklington Lodge for 28 years and lived at Pocklington Close for 11 years before that.

He is old enough to remember housing provision for blind people where tenants shared a bedsit with someone of the same sex, but other than that, had no say over who they shared with.

Andrew Hodgson

“That was a step up from the hostels that went before that”, he told me.

He, like Devaki, is living off his savings, and at 70 he receives a state pension.

“If the building is sold, I suppose I would attempt to stay here, until my savings ran out and then I would probably be eligible for accommodation for old people”.

He is more concerned for younger people like Chloe, who is 48, and what will happen to other residents like her who are in danger of displacement.

Chloe, a former administrator for a finance company, is severely sight-impaired as the result of a brain tumour. She had to give up work when the small company she worked for was bought out by a larger company.

“I couldn’t get their magnification software to work and they seemed to have no understanding of my needs”.

Chloe Campbell, who showed me round Pocklington Lodge demonstrating the small adjustments which make life easier for blind and partially sighted people

‘The provision of accommodation for blind and partially sighted people no longer forms part of our strategy’

The residents found out in November 2024 that the Thomas Pocklington Trust was planning to sell the building. They were informed by email that:

‘The provision of accommodation for blind and partially sighted people no longer forms part of our strategy’ and their focus was now on advocacy and campaigning: ‘for more inclusive, accessible and equitable communities and a fairer society for blind and partially sighted people’.

The email explained that subsidising accommodation was too costly: “The direct subsidy for Pocklington Lodge is currently around £1,000 per tenant per year… This has become more difficult for us to justify in the context of our strategy and other pressing charitable needs that we need to meet”.

The tenants question this financial assessment as the building is owned outright by the Trust and they all pay rent. For those who cannot pay out of their own resources, the rent is covered by Housing Benefit.

They were assured:

“It is important for us to be clear that if we were to transfer Pocklington Lodge to another organisation, your tenancy would continue exactly as it is and your rights would remain the same”.

But they were also told the Trust may decide to change the designation of the property so that ‘while existing tenants could remain on the same terms, future tenants would not necessarily be blind or partially sighted’.

Advertisement on Rightmove

Pocklington Lodge up for sale, advertised on Rightmove as ‘a 50-bed residential investment opportunity’

Pocklington Lodge has been advertised for sale by Rightmove as ‘A 50-bed residential investment opportunity. Located in the affluent and desirable Ravenscourt Park. Freehold, subject to the existing tenancies. Planning permission for an additional 16 units and amenity space. Current rent of approximately £615,000 per annum’.

The Trust obtained planning permission last summer from Hammersmith & Fulham Council to add 15 flats to the building, or an additional storey, and four more to replace a bungalow that exists on the site.

The residents have launched a campaign to save their community, with a petition calling on Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Disability, ‘to intervene immediately to protect Pocklington Lodge’s designated status as housing for blind and partially sighted people’:

Change.org: Protect housing for the Blind & Partially Sighted

They have petitioned the Charity Commission not to acquiesce to the change in the building’s status, telling the Commission there had been ‘an absence of meaningful consultation and communication’ since the original email and ensuing round of meetings and the Trust had been ‘evasive’ about its plans.

They are also making a series of videos, with the help of a supportive, sighted neighbour – direct appeals to the Trustees not to sell their homes from under them; and they have created a website and social media accounts to make the public aware of what is going on.

 The Thomas Pocklington Trust should regard Pocklington Lodge as their flagship, says Andrew. Video by Steve Anderson.

The local community is very supportive of the residents, says Jessica. Video by Steve Anderson.

“What is going to happen to all the blind and partially sighted people living here?”, asks Jessica. “What protections do we have against potentially a property developer? And why does our landlord want to make millions out of the expensive and affluent areas of west London, particularly moving away from their ethos as a charity”.

The Chiswick Calendar has asked the Thomas Pocklington Trust for an interview.

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