Comments on: At The Custom House

By: James Emerson

James Emerson — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 10:27:41 +0000

The best way to object is on the City of London planning portal – see
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/planning/view-or-comment-on-a-planning-application

– there were only 12 Public Comments there on Wed 17 feb at 10.20

By: Jennifer Newbold

Jennifer Newbold — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 21:54:44 +0000

Objection sent.

The crassness of commercial developers knows no bounds. I do hope that the City planners take a good look at the SAVE Britain’s Heritage proposal. That is a conversion that I could get behind.

By: Sue Mayer

Sue Mayer — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:06:39 +0000

GA thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I have fired off an email.

I am depressed as nobody seems to think that historical buildings are worth saving in a sensible way. We are hell bent on destruction and a few people making lots of money in the process.

I love anything Georgian so even more depressed.

By: Jill Wilson

Jill Wilson — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 09:50:58 +0000

I will write a letter of objection today and suggest a few more imaginative uses for the Customs House which has so much potential to be a real community asset. As you rightly say it is much too important a building to be converted into yet another unwanted luxury hotel, especially as it will destroy some unique architecture in the process.

It will make a change lodging objections to the Corporation of London rather than Tower Hamlets. But judging by the excrescences which they have allowed to by built in the City in the last few years (the Walkie Talkie building must be the worst!), I have a horrible feeling that financial gain is even more of a driving force for the Corporation than in TH.

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

By: melissa delano

melissa delano — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 21:00:25 +0000

I sent my objection… stating that many cities are facing this very same issue. Would it not be a better alternative to create spaces that would include locals and visitors alike…work/live/classrooms, small museums, etc. Why not include the whole community? Here in Santa Fe New Mexico the old Saint Vincent Sanitorium/hospital was converted into a Drury Hotel that we now refer to as the “Dreary”…honestly, aside from providing some low wage jobs this enterprise in no way benefits us. Instead of thinking short term hows about creating something that benefits everyone for generations to come? Dang!!! Wouldn’t it be great for a change if life were about more than the almighty buck???

By: john kent

john kent — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 19:40:52 +0000

There are plenty of hotels in London and only one custom house. There is a lot of history attached with this building that contains the first and greatest long room in HM Customs.

There is no customs museum and this would be a far better use for the building

By: Dick Mathews

Dick Mathews — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 18:42:22 +0000

I worked for HM Customs and Excise from 1969 until I retired in 2004, by which date it had merged with the Board of Inland Revenue to form HM Revenue and Customs. And I was employed in the Custom House for several years at the start of my time in the Department in a room at the western end of the building on the first floor, with a wonderful view of the river. Getting into work in the morning involved dodging between the fish-laden barrows to get across the then-cobbled and much narrower Lower Thames St, entering through the main doors at what is of course actually the back of the building which were guarded by two top-hatted uniformed staff whose official title was ‘beadle’, and ascending in a tiny lift (with an operator).
The building was badly damaged in an air raid in December 1940 and the East Wing when I worked there had been rebuilt internally with an extra floor, although the exterior matched the western end.
From the House of Commons – Treasury – Fifth Special Report [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmtreasy/706/70604.htm] you’ll see that the department was heavily criticised for the way in which it disposed of its estate to an offshore property company. There was an extensive investigation by the journalist Paul Foot in Private Eye. From that article I quote “On 9 March 2001 the Inland Revenue and Customs jointly issued a press release announcing the signature of a contract to sell its buildings and those of Customs on 2 April ‘Under the terms of the STEPS contract the ownership and management of the estate transfers to Mapeley Ltd who are required to provide the departments with serviced accommodation over twenty years’.” (I have a photocopy of the late Paul Foot’s 11 page investigation – I doubt it’s online anywhere.) It must be significant that this planning application comes at the end of that 20 year period – so what makes you so sure that the freehold is in public ownership?

By: Linda Hird

Linda Hird — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:48:41 +0000

Once again GA thank you for bringing this to our attention. I had no idea of the plans for this stunning building. Surely not another hotel? I will object at once!

By: Jane Manley

Jane Manley — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 16:04:48 +0000

I went for a job interview here in the early 1980s for a pretty lowly job as a typist. I remember being grilled by a selection panel who asked all manner of things including what newspaper I read. My fate was sealed when a lady asked ‘Has it always been your ambition to become a civil servant. Perhaps my answer was not what they wanted. Suffice to say I didn’t get the job

By: robert silverman

robert silverman — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 15:10:36 +0000

worth writing about british efforts to stamp out slave trade in 1850s or so when it was rampant in africa – and your articles should be collected into hardbound volumes where for example the contents could be viewed easily in written (hardbound) text (where the subjects for 50-100 topics could be scanned in 10-20 seconds) – by a boston, USA resident not yet to London