Credit: Found On Internet

www.petitiononline.com website has a top ten of active petitions.

Squeezed in between a petition about the Pathetic road conditions in Pune the IT hub of Maharashtra in India and A Call to the UN to Provide Reparations for the Hezbollah War in Isarel is an unlikely candidate for the outpouring of public grief over a treasured venue in London.

Save the Astoria it says and sits at Number two of the most active Petitions with over 6000 signatures (1000 of these since I last looked at the website last night). The petition (albeit somewhat hazy with the facts) is demanding consideration from the current owners for the classic music venue. ‘We're not letting the Astoria go without a fight. An outlet for the arts is being destroyed in favour of something the surrounding area doesn't really lack in’

London’s Astoria, an old Cross & Blackwell Pickle Factory and central London’s only venue of 2000 capacity, has long been the right of passage for a band’s career - tipping them and general signalling their breakthrough by filling a Astoria night, although the fate of the venue isn’t looking good.

In 2007 or 2008 a compulsory purchase order will come into effect as the Cross Tunnel Rail link will run under it. The building is deemed unsafe for the works that will be required to go underneath it.

In June 2006 Derwent Valley Central struck a deal with Compco Holdings and bought the Freehold of the building for £23.75m. Derwent apparently have plans to convert the site to a combination of shops, flats and offices, presumably when the Cross Rail work is due to be done.

The petition argues that central London is only shops, flats and offices, and places of cultural significance are few and far around Tottenham Court Road,  especially somewhere as important to music lovers as the Astoria and the Mean Fiddler (LA2).

The website for the campaign www.savetheastoria.org is not yet partisan, and is ready for compromise Jade & Sarah go on to elaborate that ‘rather than just knocking down the Astoria forever, they could develop the block in a similar way to the mall containing the Islington Academy. Shops and restaurants could surround the venue’