Public Homes On Public Land
Stop the Monster!
Readers may recall that five years ago there was a plan to built a line of towers of luxury investment flats for the international market along the Bishopsgate Goodsyard which would cast the Boundary Estate into permanent shadow. In 2015, the Mayor of London called in the planning application to give it his approval personally but, fortunately, he ran out of time while he was in office and we were saved from this scheme which would have permanently blighted Spitalfields and Shoreditch.
Now that development has reared its ugly head again and, although it is not quite as bad as before, it is still a monster as you can see above.
Taking their inspiration from the Boundary Estate nearby, Weavers Community Action Group are saying that since this is public land it should instead become the location for public homes. If designed by an architect of vision this could become a flagship project, bringing hope to Londoners at the time of the capital’s worst housing crisis.
All are welcome at a public meeting to launch this campaign next Thursday 30th January at 7:30pm at St Hilda’s Community Centre, 18 Club Row, E2 7EY. Below you can read more about the monster development and how to object.
The Boundary Estate was Britain’s first Council Estate
Click on this image to enlarge
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The Bishopsgate Goodsyard Development
A Riverside Walk In the Eighties
David Rees sent me these photographs – published here for the first time today – that he took in the streets within walking distance on either side of the Thames when he worked at Tower Hill in the eighties.
Cathedral St, SE1
“I took these photos when I was working at Trinity House in the early eighties just before the ‘regeneration’ of the London Docks. Crossing the river, it was five minutes’ walk to Shad Thames and ten minutes’ walk to the Liberty of the Clink. Walking east, it was ten minutes via St. Katharine Docks to Wapping where the streets smelt of cinnamon and mace on late summer evenings.” – David Rees
Winchester Sq
Borough Market
Borough Market
Borough Market
Rochester Walk
Nelson’s Wharf from Old Barge House Stairs
Anchor Brewery
Clink St
Mill St
Hays Wharf
Weston St
Church of the English Martyrs seen from Chamber St
Longfellow Rd Mission
Essex Wharf
Holland St
Wapping Old Stairs
Queen Elizabeth St
Billingsgate Market
Chambers Wharf
Crown Wharf
Green Dragon St
Free Trade Wharf
Oliver’s Wharf
Oxo Tower
St Benet’s Wharf
Photographs copyright © David Rees
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A Public Inquiry For The Bell Foundry
I am overjoyed to publish the news that – further to the Holding Order that he issued in December – yesterday Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government announced there will be a Public Inquiry into the future of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
After three years of campaigning and all the letters that you the readers of Spitalfields Life have written, this is a highly gratifying result.
The UK Historic Building Preservation have been invited to present their proposal for the future of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a proper working foundry at the Public Inquiry. This will redress the glaring omission at Tower Hamlets Planning Committee Meeting when this scheme was passed over without due attention in favour of the bell-themed boutique hotel. The hotel developers and their planning consultants may have been able to walk all over the council, but they will not be able to do the same at a Public Inquiry
When announcing the call-in yesterday, Robert Jenrick wrote, ‘In general, planning applications are only called-in if planning issues of more than local importance are involved.’ This comment reveals the Secretary of State’s recognition of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry’s national and international significance.
We will keep you informed once the date for the Public Inquiry is set and report upon it as it progresses. At this moment, let us celebrate that we now have real hope of saving the Whitechapel Bell Foundry to cast bells here in the East End for future generations to ring across the world.
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The Secretary of State steps in
A Letter to the Secretary of State
Rory Stewart Supports Our Campaign
The Fate of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Nigel Taylor, Tower Bell Manager
Four Hundred Years at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Pearl Binder at Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Dorothy Rendell at Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Hope for The Whitechapel Bell Foundry
A Petition to Save the Bell Foundry
Save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
At Barts’ Great Hall
Yesterday’s clear January sunshine offered the ideal light for a visit to the Great Hall at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Smithfield. This North Wing was the first part rebuilt by James Gibbs in his modernisation of the medieval hospital between 1738 and 1769 which delivered the elegantly-proportioned quadrangle at the heart of the complex. Here in the Great Hall three thousand names are recorded of the benefactors who made this possible.
Now an independent charity, Barts Heritage, has been formed to care for the Great Hall and the Hogarth Staircase, and renovate them in time for the nine hundredth anniversary of the hospital in 2023. I was privileged to have these magnificent airy chambers to myself yesterday and record the charismatic patina in advance of their forthcoming restoration.
The staircase painted with murals by William Hogarth
John Soane is recorded among the three thousand names of benefactors
Portrait of St Bartholomew over the fireplace
Looking out onto James Gibbs’ courtyard
Napkins and tablecloths for fancy dinners
The North Wing at St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Remember the Poor’s Box
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Spitalfields Market In The Eighties
Nearly thirty years have passed since the Fruit & Vegetable Market which had operated since 1638 left Spitalfields and now it has passed into legend. Yet I am frequently regaled with tales of the characters who inhabited this colourful lost world that has receded in time as the old market and its attendant buildings have been altered and rebuilt.
So you can imagine my delight when Stefan Dickers, Archivist at Bishopsgate Institute, showed me this photo album of portraits of market traders from the eighties, crammed with such vivid personalities it resembles a series of stills from a lost BBC comedy series of the era.
The fat album with gilt edges comes with its own box and a lock and key. Inside, a letter of dedication explains that it was presented by the Spitalfields Market Tenants Association to Charles Lodemore in 1987 upon the occasion of his retirement after thirty years as Clerk & Superintendent to the market. The photograph above shows the view across the Market from his office.
It was Marion Bullock, Charles Lodemore’s daughter, who presented the album to the Bishopsgate Institute. We do not know who took these characterful pictures and very few of the subjects are named, so I call upon my readers in the London fruit and vegetable business to come forward and help us identify these portraits.
Photographs courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
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The Sclater St Weavers Houses
Weavers houses at 70-74 Sclater St built 1718-20
The terraces of lavish silk merchants’ mansions in the streets by Christ Church in Spitalfields are celebrated eighteenth century survivals, but the modest dwellings of the weavers who actually wove the silk are less visible and less appreciated, though no less significant in telling the history of this place.
Last year we were delighted when Historic England listed a pair of 1760s weavers’ houses at 3-5 Club Row in response to a campaign of letters by readers of Spitalfields Life, at the time the buildings were threatened with demolition.
Now the spotlight has fallen upon 70-74 Sclater St. These three brick-built weavers’ tenement houses were constructed 1718-20 and form the last remnant of a terrace. They are of three storeys and a cellar, with staircases to the front. Each floor comprises one room which served as both a working and living space. Number 70 was refronted in 1777 and is subtly different from its neighbours.
Anyone that knows Sclater St market will recognise these houses, shored up with girders and smothered in graffiti. Neglected and forlorn, these three hundred year old houses have been permitted to fall into spectacular disrepair yet they a crucial part of the history of Spitalfields. Possibly constructed when Sclater St was laid out in the eighteenth century, they have been there longer than anything else and sit today within the Brick Lane Conservation Area.
The terrace is part of the contested Bishopsgate Goodsyard site and, if the current proposal goes ahead, it will be swallowed by an office development. This entails repairing the front walls of the houses but destroying the rear wings, yards and outhouses, which are rare survivals and form an integral part of these buildings.
In an attempt to prevent this destruction, the Spitalfields Trust has submitted an application for listing to Historic England, offering the Trust’s expertise to assist in repairing the houses in their entirety. As with the Club Row houses, it will be invaluable if readers can write letters of support for listing to Historic England.
Please email ApplicationsSouth@HistoricEngland.org.uk
‘shored up with girders and smothered in graffiti, they have been permitted to fall into spectacular disrepair’
Yard with original outhouses and pantiled roofs at the rear of 70 Sclater St
In the seventies, a lot more of the terrace was standing – 70-74 Sclater St are the last houses with pitched roofs to the right (photo by Dan Cruickshank)
70-84 Sclater St, showing more of the terrace intact (photo by Dan Cruickshank)
Looking west down Sclater St, 70-74 can be seen towards the end of the terrace on the left (photo by Dan Cruickshank)
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Piotr Frac’s New Window
Contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie went along to St John of Jerusalem in Hackney to record stained glass artist Piotr Frac installing his new window in commemoration of parishioner June Pipe who worked for Penguin Books all her life.
Last summer we visited Piotr in his workshop and we are thrilled to see his talent gaining well-deserved recognition through this latest commission that he won as a result of a competition. I took the opportunity to pop over to join Piotr in the crypt of St John on Bethnal Green for a cup of tea early one morning before he started work for the day and hear all about it.
“St John of Jerusalem is a beautiful church near Victoria Park and they contacted me to take part in a competition for designing and making a window. Of course I agreed and luckily I won the competition!
I did not know June but I was given plenty of information about her life, her work and her interests, as well as her involvement with the church. On the basis of this, I created a design. She had a large collection of Penguin Books and she was passionate about fonts and calligraphy, so I tried to capture a sense of this in my window. But I realised that you cannot show all aspects of person’e life in a window, you have to find a way to extract an essence of who they were.
My first sketch was entirely illustrative of June Pipe’s life and the committee at the church really liked it, but I realised that it was too literal and so my design became more abstract. Creating this window was quite a long journey but I am happy with the finished result. The competition took place in 2017 and then my design had to pass several committees. It was complicated because there is not one person who makes the decision and this is compounded by the fact you working in an historic building. There are already three memorial windows in the church so my window had to sit alongside them and suit the life of the church too.
Then I had to collect the right glass. This was quite challenging because I used antique glass that is unique and I sourced it from France, Germany, England and Poland. I wanted to use materials from all over Europe to create this window, so it brings the countries together in harmony.
I do not have huge windows here in my workshop, so I can never predict how the light will work with the glass when a new window is installed. Even when a stained glass window is installed, the light will change all the time during the day. So there is always an element of surprise. Each time when I come back at a different time of the year or a different time of day, the window will look different.
When I installed my window in St John of Jerusalem, the sunlight was shining right through it and it made the colours appear very delicate but, when I returned on a duller day, the window surprised me by how intense the colour was. I know these things but, every time I look, it is almost like the first time again.”
Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie
Contact Piotr Frac direct to commission your own stained glass window
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