Save Shoreditch Campaign Exhibition

Thursday 3 July to Saturday 3 August 2008
Kemistry, 43 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3PD
Mon-Fri 09.30-18.00; Sat 11.00-16.00

Stop the Shadow - stop the City's take-over of London’s vibrant cultural heartland.

Proposed massive tower blocks on the City Fringe will dominate, overshadow and blight homes and businesses across Shoreditch and Brick Lane

The image above was produced by the major City developer, Hammerson, to illustrate its vision of a "City Fringe Masterplan". Hammerson has planned massive developments in south Hackney and Bethnal Green. They plan to extend a curtain of towers from Shoreditch High Street eastwards across the Bishopsgate Goodsyard to Brick Lane with buildings up to and exceeding 50 storeys.


The Save Shoreditch Campaign demands:
LOCAL CONSULTATION
A BRAVE NEW MASTERPLAN FOR THE AREA
RESPECT FOR OUR LOCAL HERITAGE AND THE PEOPLE’S NEEDS

Add your voice to those of the local actors and artists who openly support the Campaign including: Stephen Berkoff, Dinos Chapman, Adam Dant, Tracey Emin, Ralph Fiennes, Patrick Hughes, Cornelia Parker, Rachel Whiteread, Tim Noble and Sue Webster.


The exhibition is part of the OPEN Shoreditch campaign to promote excellence in the quality of the built environment.

The Hackney way: Decide first. Ask questions later.

On 4th June Hackney Council began its long awaited public consultation on the proposed new boundaries for the Shoreditch Conservation Areas. Designation of conservation areas prevents uncontrolled demolition and ensures that any adverse impact of new developments on the distinctivness and character of an area is considered. Changes to conservation area boundaries are therefore of great importance to landowners, developers and to local communties.

Councils are legally obliged to review their conservation areas periodically and to consult the public before approving any changes to them. On 25th February Hackney Council finally considered an independent expert’s appraisal of the buildings of Shoreditch. The appraisal contains recommendations to extend Shoreditch’s conservation areas to include additional buildings. The appraisal commented, for example, that The Light at 233 Shoreditch High Street “makes an important local contribution to the historic townscape character through its continuity of scale, architectural character and quality of design and contruction”. Other buildings were also recommended for inclusion.


However The Light stands on land which Hammerson propose should be redeveloped as a 50 storey towerblock. Hackney Council also owns part of the development site.


The Council's Cabinet Member for Regeneration, and its Director, both recommended that The Light, and additional buildings, should not be included within the new conservation area boundaries. The landowners will therefore not need to seek any approval for their demolition. All the additional buildings identified are, like The Light, also affected by outstanding redevelopment proposals. Indeed some of them have already been demolished.

None of this would be apparent from reading the Council’s public consultation leaflet. It appears to show that it is the independent experts, and not the Council, who are recommending that they be excluded from the Conservation Areas. No explanation is given.

The Council Solicitor’s advice on the form of public consultation was to “ensure that it reflects the Cabinet’s position namely that the premises remain outside the Conservation Area”. The Council is, in effect, consulting on whether it should now change its mind instead of first awaiting the public's views before adopting its "position" - namely to exclude these important buildings and thus allow their uncontrolled demolition.

“Con”(noun) a complicated confidence trick planned and executed with great care; (verb) to deprive of by deceit; (colloquial) abbreviation of public consultation.

Local MP, George Galloway, supports Save the Light campaign

Watch the Save the Light campaign meeting, with George Galloway MP.

"It goes right to the heart of the lives that people lead and the legacy we leave to future generations."

Click here to read the speech of Lord Low of Dalston, Patron of OPEN, in a House of Lords debate on architecture and design. Thursday 27 March 2008.

Labour's block vote for The Block

On Thursday 13th March 5 Labour Councillors on the Tower Hamlets planning committee voted as one to approve this property developers' application to built 12 to 25 storey towerblocks at Sclater Street/Bethnal Green Road. The committee members from the Conservative, Respect and LibDem parties voted against it, but were outnumbered by 5 votes to 4


The proposed development will tower over the local conservation areas and the local community. A 70 metre long wall of 12 to 20 storey towers coming right up to the edge of the pavement will permanently cast deep shadows over the narrow Bethnal Green Road and beyond. Hundreds of local residents and businesses, the long-established local artistic community and English Heritage strongly objected to the proposal. Developers will claim the approval as a precedent paving the way for further soulless development. It jeopardises meaningful input from the community into plans for the future of this historic area.
The week had seen extensive press coverage which you can read about here and here.


The only justification the community has been given is the London Mayor’s support for tall buildings and the "City Fringe" draft planning document which sees the Bishopsgate Goodsyard as an ideal location for tall buildings. This document has neither been consulted upon nor approved. Mayor Livingstone now has 14 days to consider the application and decide whether to overule the committee's decision.
But we are losing confidence in the Mayor to do the right thing when we read stories like this and this
If you want to understand what's at stake for our community then watch the videos made by OPENshoreditch members here or click on the link "Stop the block. Save the light" above.

One man, two opinions

When recommending that The Light should not be protected from demolition by its inclusion in the Shoreditch Conservation Area, Hackney Council's Conservation Officer advised its Cabinet on 25 February 2008 that "it does not form an integral part of the pattern of Victorian commercial buildings and small scale workshops to the rear that have been identified as forming a significant characteristic of this part of the conservation area".

The Light before redevelopment

Curiously this uniform pattern of building type appears to have entirely disappeared from the Conservation Officer's view five days later when, in a memo dated 30 February (sic), he advised the Council’s Planning Officer that the context of the proposed 51-storey Bishops Place development, which would involve demolition of The Light, " is one of extremely varied streetscapes, contrasting massing and dramatic changes of scale...different types of urban fabric"

The Light extinguished after redevelopment

The Conservation Officer's two contrasting views of the area can, of course, have nothing to do with the fact that his employer, Hackney Council, stands to make a small fortune as the landowner of part of the site if it gives planning permission for the demolition of The Light and its redevelopment as Bishop's Place.

Council documents show that its windfall is not to be spent on improvements for Shoreditch people - it's earmarked for a swanky new Town Hall extension in Mare Street. One hopes that when residents emerge from the shadows of Shoreditch, to go and pay their Council Tax in Hackney, they will feel a sense of civic pride in what the Council has created.

Shoreditch and Brick Lane under threat

Click here to find out what you can do