As the point of arrival for waves of immigration, Brick Lane is the nearest we have to an ‘Ellis Island’ in this country. It represents centuries of struggle by generations of migrants seeking to build a life and belong, creating the multicultural Britain of today.
Post-war, Bengali men came to work in the garment trade and they opened curry houses on Brick Lane to feed themselves. In 1971, during Bangladesh’s War of Independence, many brought their families to join them.
At this time, the Truman Brewery signified a cultural barrier between the immigrant community in Spitalfields and the racists who sold National Front newspapers and held rallies to the north. After the murder of Altab Ali in 1978, Brick Lane became the location for anti-fascist marches and protests.
Banglatown was established by the nineties, acknowledging Brick Lane’s significance as the heartland of the British Bangladeshi community. At its peak in 2008, there were around sixty outlets selling Indian, Bangladeshi or Punjabi food.
Spitalfields has suffered a tsunami of soulless corporate development spreading from the City of London, inflicting ugly steel and glass blocks at odds with the narrow streets of old brick buildings here. First it was Spitalfields Market, then the Fruit & Wool Exchange and Norton Folgate. Now the wave has reached the Old Truman Brewery.
In spite of local protests, the City of London has successfully used its power to impose land grabs, expanding its financial industries into Tower Hamlets.
Councillors voted unanimously to reject the Fruit & Wool Exchange and Norton Folgate developments but were overruled by Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, who used his powers to approve the proposals on behalf of the City.
The Fruit & Wool Exchange was home to small local businesses that have been replaced by an international law firm with vacant shops beneath.
Over ten years, the City of London bought up the leases of around forty properties in Norton Folgate. British Land plan to replace these with large floor plate offices and have destroyed over 80% of the fabric of the site which sits entirely within a Conservation Area. Their outdated economic model may be rendered obsolete by the onslaught of Covid 19.
Find out more on:
https://battleforbricklane.com
The owners of the Old Truman Brewery want to build a shopping mall with four floors of corporate offices on top in generic architecture that is too tall and bulky, and inappropriate in the Brick Lane Conservation Area. Where it meets the terraces of nineteenth century housing in Brick Lane and Woodseer St, it is out of scale and causes up to 60% loss of light.
It is an approach that is irrelevant to a post-Covid world in which many more people work from home and shop locally or online. It threatens the cultural quality of Brick Lane that has evolved over centuries, making it a beloved destination for Londoners and visitors alike.
It offers nothing to the resident community in Spitalfields whose needs are for genuinely affordable housing and workspaces. We ask that the owners the Old Truman Brewery recognise the social responsibility which comes with ownership of such a large property.
We ask them to abandon this piecemeal approach and contribute instead to the creation of a development plan for the entire brewery that takes the community into account. We ask that this bad proposal is withdrawn, so that a wide-reaching consultation can be undertaken for a sustainable plan for the whole Old Truman Brewery site.
The crisis brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic demands new ways of thinking and looking at the city.
Just as, after the Great Fire, buildings were constructed of brick and, after the Blitz, prefabs were introduced as short term housing, in future we need to rethink how we build to respond to the needs of the population.
Laying aside the misguided Woodseer Street proposal, there are better possibilities which could serve the needs of the local people and respond to the post-covid world.
Currently the Old Truman Brewery is like a fortress which closes up at night. But it could become permeable, linking the north and south of Brick Lane, creating a cultural and commercial meeting place serving the diverse communities which surround it.
Our coalition have worked with locals to develop a community vision which includes open space, roads and pathways and uses. These have been shared with the planning committee but has not been considered.
We’re currently seeking legal advice to challenge the council’s planning committees decision.
The planning application received 7,487 letters of objection (a phenomenal number), a letter of opposition signed by 140 Brick Lane traders and a letter of objection signed by 556 local residents. Despite this overwhelming public rejection of the scheme, 2 Councillors approved the application at a planning committee of only 3 people.
We, the coalition, do not feel this is democratic. We are raising funds for the initial advice of a solicitor as to whether there are grounds for challenging the approval of Tower Hamlets Council to grant planning permission for redevelopment of 140, 146 Brick Lane and 25 Woodseer Street, London, E1 6RU under reference PA/20/00415/A1.
Brick Lane, its character and community are important, that much has been proven, we now need your help by supporting our challenge.
Pledges can be made here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-brick-lane/
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