The Battle For The Truman Brewery
Just some of the proposed office blocks the Truman Brewery
Readers will recall our campaign in 2020 to stop the owners of the Truman Brewery building an ugly shopping mall, but now they want to build massive office blocks across the site as well, we need to challenge this too.
Last time, we mobilised 7,487 letters of objection to the shopping mall, yet two councillors approved the application at a planning committee of only three people. Since then we have been fighting to challenge the legitimacy of this decision, taking our case to the Supreme Court.
Everything has changed now the new Tower Hamlets Council are onside. They have produced a Master Plan for the site that reflects local interests by advocating for social affordable housing across the site.
We want the needs of the community to be prioritised in the redevelopment of the Brewery. We reject this soulless corporate style development that will push up rents on Brick Lane, driving out independents and undermining the long-established Bangladeshi community.
Please help by writing an objection to the Truman Brewery development, using this simple guide below.
REASONS FOR OBJECTION
*The Truman Brewery’s development will be a gated office plaza which offers almost nothing to local stakeholders and the community.
*This proposal offers only a tiny amount of social and affordable housing which does not even begin to meet the need for homes in the area.
*The open space is small and has gates restricting access.
*It is geared to the workers in the new offices who are unlikely to be local people. The development offers too little for local small businesses and inadequately addresses the need for affordable workspaces.
*The bulky blocks cause harm to the Conservation Area and the setting of listed buildings, failing to respond to the character and heritage of Spitalfields.
HOW TO OBJECT EFFECTIVELY
You can help us stop this bad proposal by writing a letter of objection to the council as soon as possible.
Please write in your own words and head it OBJECTION.
Anyone can object wherever they live.
Members of one household can each write separately.
You must include your postal address or your objection will be discounted.
Quote all these Planning Applications
PA/24/01450/A1
PA/24/01451/A1
PA/24/01439/A1
PA/24/01475/NC
Send your objection by email to: development.control@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Or by post to: Planning Department, Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 160 Whitechapel Rd, London, E1 1BJ.
The proposed line of office blocks on Buxton Street would overshadow Allen Gardens public park
You can learn more about the Truman Brewery’s development proposal and Tower Hamlets Council’s Master Plan by visiting the free exhibition at the Kobi Nazrul Centre, 30 Hanbury St, E1 6QR, every Saturday and Sunday 12-4pm from 19th October.
The Save Brick Lane campaign is a coalition of local community and heritage groups including Bangladeshi East End Heritage Society, East End Preservation Society, East End Trades Guild, House of Annetta, Nijjor Manush, Spitalfields Life and Spitalfields Trust.
Having spent a lot of time trying to make sense of the plans so that I can make a model for the exhibition I can testify that the whole development is much too dense and overpowering, and a waste of such a wonderful opportunity to do something more imaginative on such a special site.
The developers have also been quite sneaky by calling the offices ‘work spaces’ which makes them sound much less corporate and more creative.
But I have a horrible feeling that if it went ahead as proposed it would end up like Broadgate and the horrible soulless development behind the Wool Exchange facade.
There must be better alternatives which would reflect and enhance the unique character of Brick Lane and the surrounding area.
I assume too that the existing independent market stalls in some of the brewery buildings would all be lost? Is that an inevitability, whatever else happens?
(Sigh) They just don’t give up do they? They just go away, have a few coffees and jiggle around the plans a bit to come up with something ‘the same but different.’
Time to Marshall the troops…
Done! Thank you for organizing this, GA.
I just submitted the following:
OBJECTION to proposed development
Robin Blench
12:10 PM (0 minutes ago)
to development.control
This email is in reference to the following planning applications: PA/24/01439/A1, PA/24/01450/A, PA/24/01451/A1, PA/24/01475/NC.
The sheer size of the proposed development with its overshadowing, massive blocks is an insult to the very nature of the Conservation Area with its numerous listed buildings, its rich character, its manifestation of English heritage.
There is a desperate need for homes for local people in the area, and the development simply does not address this; rather, the amount of affordable housing proposed is risible, as is the amount of open–and restricted–space. Should the developers be successful, it is clear that rents in the area will increase dramatically, as we have seen in other parts of London.
The wants and needs of the present thriving community, which include the owners of small businesses, are simply not addressed. The office plaza being considered is emblematic of the greed and avarice of London’s developers uncaringly trampling on the rights of the less fortunate.
Robin Blench
I don’t live in London but do intend to object. Through the gentle author’s blog, I am enthralled to read of the history of Spitalfields and it’s inhabitants. The proposed development needs to be appropriate so that it blends into and is right for this community. Not a gated bland overdone affair. Come on people get behind this important issue.
As usual the rich builders want to be richer for their own huge buildings. Most people much prefer their old buildings which are much more interesting.
Objection made and emailed. Bastards. It’s all about money and as we know love of money is the root of all evil. Let’s leave it there.