Comments on: Whitechapel’s Theatrical Terrace

By: Irene Lilian Pugh

Irene Lilian Pugh — Mon, 03 May 2021 15:30:13 +0000

Thank you Charles, for reminding me of the corner tobacconist shop in Valance Road where I used to purchase a three corned lolly. I even remember the Jewish man who served in the shop. A tall bell built man – always wore a white apron.
Sadly committee members are mainly from foreign parts – therefore its not their history.

By: Ken Stewart

Ken Stewart — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 07:49:39 +0000

Same going on everywhere. The Eagle Brewery Tap in Poplar High Street was demolished even though there were parts dating back hundreds of years. So any fantastic facades everywhere in East London left too rot.

By: Annette Keith

Annette Keith — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 09:29:20 +0000

Our old theaters, movies and old time silent films with actual organ, were closed in Benton Harbor MI USA. A group of construction company owners, architects and funds are trying to rebuild the theaters and old stores into town homes above the old theaters. atk

By: Mark Sohn

Mark Sohn — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 22:12:49 +0000

How wonderful!; I was noodling around Google maps and suchlike for a story I am writing (Sherlock Holmes chasing Jack the Ripper for the morbidly curious) and looking at old maps its easy to see how you could move unseen through this landscape. What maps cannot show, however, is the beauty of the buildings… not the godforsaken slums or rookeries where ordinary, decent people had to tread water to survive, but these magnificent old edifices. I quite forgot my work for half an hour thanks to the Author, but sadly the ‘vision’ of the council of how the area could look (Presumably if they want to recreate Logan’s Run) jarred me back to reality. I’m not a Lahndaner-my Wife is a Newham girl, however and my dear Mum was from Islington. I pity the people of Whitechapel if this is what had to be removed to make way for glass wedges. The transluscent, anonymous people shown in a few of the images seem a perfect comment on how your council sees you. The past is not always pleasant-much of the area was clearly an insult to its residents… but why destroy such beauty?.

By: Jason Neely

Jason Neely — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 20:43:19 +0000

Tower Hamlets Council is moving ahead with the demolition of 3-11 Vallance Rd — a row of 142-year-old buildings in Whitechapel — on the grounds they pose a safety risk due to their condition.

Yet note the final clause of their planning application (PA/13/03069):

“This structural review has been prepared on the basis of a visual only
review of the particularly elements noted in the scope of works together
with the noted documentation. A full structural survey of the building or
associated elements was not carried out…”

So… It’s structurally unsound …but we haven’t actually done a structural survey. Astounding.

See it (to believe it) here:

http://planreg.towerhamlets.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Report-846490.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=846490&appid=&location=VOLUME5&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=1

Jason Neely, E1

By: Aysha

Aysha — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 10:25:47 +0000

I just went past it on Sunday and saw all the boarded up windows & thought what a shame they never restored that building & let it just rot. I loved the detail of the arches. I used to see that tree growing out the window and always wondered how that tree got so big!

I’m all for change & regeneration, but I also believe in appreciating history too.

By: Vita

Vita — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 12:26:57 +0000

The battle lines must be drawn….it’s taken years to save Wilton’s and look at it now…thriving and the most diverse and exciting performance venue. Sadly there is limited resource both in financial terms and campaigners to save all our threatened buildings. A quest to turn around the juggernaut of ‘progress’ can be a life’s work when clearly the input from professionals under the guise of authority employees is anything but impartial.

By: JS Newby

JS Newby — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 11:28:26 +0000

To be clear, I am opposed to preserving everything of age on principle, merely because it is old. I have no wish to freeze the capital in aspic, creating some sort of unnatural Victorian ‘theme park’. London has always been a city of diversity and continual evolution. Our built environment needs to represent this. Future generations have as much right to inherit – and make choices about – the architecture of this age, our own, as any other.

Yet I am acutely concerned about the overall sense of a built environment’s proportion, its relationship with people and the feel of an area for those who live and work around it. Architecture needs to recognise the importance to people of being human in scale, with appropriate levels of ornament and detail.

Just because modern technology means our architecture can build at a Brobdingnagian scale, does not mean it always should do – nor that the effect such size may have on local communities and cohesion is necessarily always good/neutral. Surely architecture that is human in scale is likely to be more humanising in the way people interreact with it? If so, we need to be able to get the balance right between the new giganticism and a the more traditionally measured, familiar and empathetic.

Maintaining this terrace is about getting such a balance right. It is essential to ensuring that the new development acknowledges its interaction with the community of humans into which it intrudes, along with their history, identitiy and emotional needs.

By: ZW

ZW — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 10:08:13 +0000

Marvellous article, and makes me sad to have missed this wonderful area before it was hammered by WWII German bombs. It’s still possible to walk round and spot where the bombs fell… Have emailed to object. Suspect it won’t do much good, as THBC are not interested in any past other than the ‘new’ one they are busy creating. Of Swansea, it was said that what the Germans started, the town planners finished. Same here.

By: Michelle Gales

Michelle Gales — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 09:22:40 +0000

This research is wonderful. But this project MUST be rethought. The most important aspect is that destroying architectural heritage is destroying memory. And that is something which affects our conscience of our being part of society. Photographs cannot replace stone. But economically as well, these big modern structures are shabby in one generation unless huge amounts are spent on upkeep. Restoring old buildings, modestly —but keeping as much of the original structure as possible, not tearing out the insides and pouring in concrete instead— is the most economical solution in the long run. The advantage of older buildings is that they can be repaired as cells, whereas big structures are “all or nothing”. Older buildings also have advantages for being energy saving —less hot in summer, cold in winter than concrete. And insulation can be added whereas for modern buildings if it is not in the original plan, too bad. As one comment pointed out, it is so difficult for small businesses to find premises. These small units are a precious resource for that reason too. Restoring and maintaining architectural heritage makes so much more sense. Finally the City is a Common Good. It should not be periodically pillaged for these short sighted private profit making ventures.
Please go back on this project and find a way to do more modest and respectful restoration. Future generations will be grateful.