Skip to content

D-Day For Bishopsgate Goodsyard

December 3, 2020
by the gentle author

This is a momentous day for the East End. Today Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will be making his decision on the monstrous Bishopsgate Goodsyard development, which both Tower Hamlets and Hackney Councils have rejected in its current form.

Click here to watch the Mayor of London make his decision live at 2pm

Click here to watch the People’s Hearing which took place on Monday

Click here to download the report of the People’s Hearing

Looking east along Bethnal Green Rd

Looking east along Bethnal Green Rd

Looking east along Quaker St

Looking east along Quaker St

Looking north along Norton Folgate

Looking north along Norton Folgate

Looking north along Commercial St

Looking north along Commercial St

Looking south along Shoreditch High St

Looking south along Shoreditch High St

Looking east along Great Eastern St

Looking east along Great Eastern St

Looking west along Bethnal Green Rd

Looking west along Bethnal Green Rd

Looking north up Shoreditch High St

Looking north up Shoreditch High St

Looking north up Elder St

Looking north up Elder St

You may also like to read about

A Brief History of the Bishopsgate Goodsyard

14 Responses leave one →
  1. Douglas Brett permalink
    December 3, 2020

    One wonders why, with the mass exodus of workers from city centres, this dreadful edifice should be built. Commercial rents are collapsing as office workers work from home and retail premises are standing empty. There is no need for this eyesore. Except of course to fill the developers pockets.

  2. Dianne permalink
    December 3, 2020

    It is of considerable horror that those who seek to destroy London’s charm no longer seem able to find architects with any skill. How anyone could even contemplate raising these ugly boxes which, ten minutes after completion will join the plethora of future and eventual slum buildings is beyond me! If further “advancement” of open areas needs to be done, surely there must be SOME artichitect with empathy and design flair who could devise something with style and honour those buildings with which it must blend. What on earth are they being taught these days??

  3. Dave Carter permalink
    December 3, 2020

    I really don’t think Sadiq Khan will make the right decision,
    he is after all a ‘dead man walking’ ! & wants to leave ‘something’.

  4. Ian Silverton permalink
    December 3, 2020

    Good luck with your London Mayor Khan today,hear he has killed off the London Cab trade big time with his cycle lanes,but as you all voted him in,that’s what you wanted,or is it? Seems as an outsider now too London your being over run with somebody else’s idea of how you should all live,remember this happening before to the poor old East End,never was the same again in looks and the people,very sad time looking back, but looking forward to seeing or reading how this person the Mayor serves his citizens in there hour of need!! So far not impressed with news of poor old London and its deprived citizens. Pictures show an area was bought up in,but do not remember the roads being so narrow back then, nice to see though. Good luck London and Bishipgate Goods Yard such memoirs you would not believe!! Thanks GA,and keep well.

  5. December 3, 2020

    Poor London – this developement is soul less and ugly – all I can see are pound signs
    filling the coffers of the developers. Will be watching at 2 pm with trepidation.

  6. Michele Scarr permalink
    December 3, 2020

    What a monstrosity. Can they not at the very least find something more visually appealing and in keeping with the architecture of the area. I can’t even understand why a building of that size is necessary right now when there has been a flight from London and buildings are standing empty. It is unnecessarily dwarfing all the buildings around it and casting a very ugly shadow over the east end. Lets hope the right necessary is made.

  7. Niall permalink
    December 3, 2020

    Really hope this gets rejected, an utterly pointless scheme in the current climate. A shame to see the mass destruction of the area around Norton Folgate already.

    Ian Silverton – cycle lanes killing the cab trade? Come off it, the cycle lanes haven’t gone nearly far enough, there are far bigger concerns at play here.

  8. Katherine Grier permalink
    December 3, 2020

    Keep up the good work calling attention to these monstrosities. We have similarly awful developments on this side of the Atlantic. Downtown Washington, D.C. has been destroyed by out-of-scale boxes — parts of NYC ditto.

  9. Jill Wilson permalink
    December 3, 2020

    In response to Dianne’s comment I agree that it is very depressing that there don’t seem to be any architects who can think beyond the ‘spreadsheet’ designs which are destroying London.

    However there is some hope that things will change with the current crop of architects in training. I went to a lecture by one of the very few humanitarian architects practicing now Peter Barber, and it was absolutely packed with students very keen to hear all about his different approach.

  10. Andy Holliman permalink
    December 3, 2020

    A lot of negativity towards Sadiq Khan on here, latest opinion polls seem to suggest he’s on course to win by a lot, he’s popular with a lot of people – and unpopular with quite a few others but on the the whole seems to be doing a better job than some recent incumbents at least. Interesting that despite yougov giving him a 20 point lead the Sun and the Express report he’s well behind in the polls, can’t think why they wouldn’t like him.

  11. Lesley permalink
    December 3, 2020

    I am so sad that this horror has been approved. Another nail
    In the London coffin. Well done all those who objected. The Mayor stood no chance against big business. In my opinion it is a architectural horror show.

  12. mlaiuppa permalink
    December 3, 2020

    Not sure how it works over there, but over here they allow developers to do this because it generates tax revenue. The buildings are taxed and likely the taxes are higher than what was there previously. More money in the city coffers.

    As always, follow the money.

    Sadiq should be careful about what he leaves. He may not like his “legacy” if this monstrosity of destruction is what he chooses.

    Developers should be wary moving forward with pre-Covid plans too. We are entering a new normal and what they are planning may not be sustainable or profitable.

  13. Jill Wilson permalink
    December 4, 2020

    Very depressing result yesterday despite some brilliant points made by various objectors to the scheme who have been working incredibly hard to try and let local voices be heard. However the big business bully boys have won yet again….GRRRRRR!!!

    It beggars belief that Sadiq has green lighted the monstrous new office block when it has become obvious that working patterns have altered considerably due to all the new technology, not just the pandemic which has accelerated the changes already happening.

    The Reclaim the Goodsyard campaigners have christened the blocks Godzilla and likened them to a dinosaur from another era. I wonder if they will actually become known to posterity as Sadiq’s White Elephant?

  14. December 5, 2020

    Terrible & appalling decision by Sadiq Khan’s office : it will, quite simply put, destroy both the past & the future of not only that part of Bethnal Green & Shoreditch, but also of much of the inner East End. Such decisions will also, in the not so long run, destroy human life in our cities : it would, at a time of crisis, have been wonderful to have been given a decision of sanity and beauty, but instead we are being given one of destruction and obliteration, of both memory and hope.

Leave a Reply

Note: Comments may be edited. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS