D-Day For Norton Folgate
Reflecting the wider significance of the battle for Norton Folgate, my post today is co-published with Guardian Cities
Please come to the meeting of Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee when the fate of Norton Folgate will be decided tonight, Tuesday 21st July at 7pm, at the Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, E14 2BG
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Some simply stepped out from their front doors into the street, but most came from around the capital and a few even travelled across the country to be there. More than five hundred people joined hands around Norton Folgate as a symbol of their wish to see the old buildings restored for reuse rather than demolished by British Land. There were young and old, there were families and dogs, and among them was Stanley Rondeau, whose Huguenot ancestor came to Spitalfields in 1685.
Londoners are growing increasingly frustrated at the wave of large developments which are being foisted upon them and this event permitted the opportunity of expression for those who feel disenfranchised. Most of the towers that are currently proposed for London have been devised to serve the international property investment market rather than provide genuinely affordable homes for Londoners, of which there is a chronic shortage.
Similarly, the vast floor plates of British Land’s development in Norton Folgate are best suited to the corporate financial industries of the City of London and are likely to be occupied by a single tenant. This is already the case with the Spitalfields Fruit & Wool Exchange development of which the entire office space has been leased to an international law firm. Significantly, this redevelopment was imposed upon Tower Hamlets by Boris Johnson, overruling the unanimous vote of the borough planning committee twice, and the fear is that he will act in the same undemocratic way to further the interests of British Land in Norton Folgate.
The Spitalfields Fruit & Wool Exchange was formerly home to several hundred small businesses for whom there is a lack of office space in the capital. If the nineteenth century warehouses of Norton Folgate are redeveloped and only their facades remain affixed like postage stamps onto the front of new buildings, the raised land value will ensure that the rental costs exclude all but large corporate tenants. But Tech City in Shoreditch evolved quite naturally in post-industrial buildings that once housed furniture factories and other small-scale manufacturing, and it would serve locally-based businesses if the old warehouses in Norton Folgate could be restored in a similar fashion.
Thus Norton Folgate has emerged as a key battleground in the current conflict over the future of London, as the potential for the city to become an arid forest of perfume-bottle shaped towers serving the requirements of international capital supplants the historical continuum of the lively metropolis – where rich and poor live cheek by jowl, where newcomers can build a life, and where large and small businesses thrive side by side. This is the sense in which the current battle is one for the identity of London.
Sitting at the boundary of the City of London, Norton Folgate is a former medieval Liberty created when the Priory of St Mary Spittal was dissolved at the time of the Reformation. As an autonomous entity governed by its own residents, the Liberty of Norton Folgate was independent both of the rule of the City of London and of the Church. And, even though the Liberty was absorbed into the London Borough of Stepney in 1900, the spirit of independence is not forgotten and there are those who still claim that Norton Folgate’s autonomous political status was never formally abolished.
In a strange precursor of the current situation, British Land attempted to demolish part of Norton Folgate in 1977 but were halted by a group of young Conservation activitists, including Dan Cruickshank, who squatted in the eighteenth century weavers’ houses to stop the bulldozers. The Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust was born and with the help of Sir John Betjeman they saved the neighbourhood, emerging as one of Britain’s most-respected Conservation trusts through the following decades.
Now British Land faces the Spitalfields Trust in Norton Folgate again. Yet the Spitalfields Trust was essentially honed as a machine to stop British Land and many current members of the Trust took place in the first battle, only now they have forty years of experience challenging developers behind them and maintain close contacts with some of Britain’s foremost planning lawyers. Recently, multi-billionaire Troels Holch Povlsen stepped forward to support the Spitalfields Trust by providing significant funds as a war chest for any forthcoming legal battle with British Land. Thus the lines are drawn.
In the nineties, the City of London successfully extended its territory into Spitalfields when the former Spitalfields Fruit & Vegetable Market was redeveloped as a corporate plaza for the financial industries that is already looking dated and worn. This was followed by the redevelopment of the Spitafields Fruit & Wool Exchange which is currently underway, but – like a posse of old warriors – the Spitalfields Trust has chosen to stand up at the boundary of the City to say, “Enough is Enough!” and they are better equipped than anyone else to take on the adversary.
The Spitalfields Trust’s defeat of British Land in Norton Folgate in 1977 was a seminal moment in British Conservation history when public opinion recognised the necessity to balance ‘progress’ in the form of new development against the need to preserve national heritage. With the wellspring of popular feeling against exploitative development at this moment, it is possible that Norton Folgate may become the testing ground yet again in which commercial imperative is set against cultural significance. Additionally, whatever happens in Norton Folgate will affect other looming developments such as the nearby Bishopsgate Goodsyard and – in this sense – it may also become a crossroads that defines direction of future policy in urban development.
British Land seek to demolish more than 72% of the fabric of their site in Norton Folgate which lies entirely within a Conservation Area. If this were to go ahead, then any Conservation Area might be at risk of similar treatment and the term risks losing its meaning. As with the proposed Smithfield Market redevelopment and the Strand terrace, that King’s College sought to demolish, English Heritage is also supporting the developers in Norton Folgate and finds itself on the wrong side of public opinion for the third high-profile case in London in a row. Yet the recent turnaround, when English Heritage changed opinions over the Strand, advocating the retention not the demolition of the buildings when the Secretary of State called a Public Enquiry, renders their advice of dubious currency.
The five hundred people who joined hands around Norton Folgate wanted to express their love of London and its history, of its diverse life and infinite variety. As more of the vast developments currently threatened in the capital are enacted, the passions of Londoners will continue to rise and prospective candidates for the next Mayor of London would do well to pay attention. Tonight, Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee meets to decide upon the British Land proposal for Norton Folgate but, whatever the outcome, it is unlikely to be the end of this story.
Sandra Esqulant of The Golden Heart & Robson Cezar, King of the Bottletops
Photographs by Sarah Ainslie, Colin O’Brien & Edie Sharples
Please come to the meeting of the Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee when the fate of Norton Folgate will be decided tonight, TUESDAY 21st JULY at 7pm at Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, E14 2BG
Follow the Campaign at facebook/savenortonfolgate
Follow Spitalfields Trust on twitter @SpitalfieldsT
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Taking Liberties in Norton Folgate
The Seven Ages Of Rodney Archer
In Rodney’s study
I am sure you wish to join me in sending greetings to Rodney Archer the Aesthete for his seventy-fifth birthday today. To celebrate, he is opening an exhibition at his house which illustrates the Seven Ages of Rodney and also inaugurating the Oscar Wilde Room as a shrine to his favourite writer, supplementing the fireplace from Wilde’s house in Tite St, which was installed in Fournier St many years ago, with his prized collection of Wilde memorabilia.
For the last year, Rodney has been collaborating with Artist & Curator, Trevor Newton, to stage shows at his old house as a way to display and sell off items from his vast collection that he has accumulated from the markets in Brick Lane and all over the East End since he moved into Fournier St in the eighties. If you would like to explore the world of Rodney for yourself and wish him happy birthday in person then drop an email to info@31fournierstreet.london to arrange a visit.
At first, the infant…
Then the whining schoolboy…
And then the lover…
Then a soldier…
And then the justice…
Rodney as he will be in 2046
Rodney’s inner sanctum
Oscar Wilde’s fireplace takes the place of an altar in Rodney’s shrine
Rodney’s collection of Oscar Wilde memorabilia
In Rodney’s study
In Rodney’s garden
In Rodney’s arbour
THE SEVEN AGES OF RODNEY is at 31 Fournier St from Tuesday 28th July until Saturday 15th August at the following times – 10-4pm on Tuesday 28th & Thursday 30th July, 2-4pm on Saturday 1st August, 10-4pm on Tuesday 4th & Thursday 6th August, 2-4pm on Saturday 8th August, 10- 4pm on Tuesday 11th & Thursday 13th August & 2-4.00pm on Saturday 15th August.
Numbers are limited and visits are by appointment only.
To receive an invitation, please email info@31fournierstreet.london saying when exactly you would like to visit and how many will be in your party.
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Kirby’s Eccentric Museum, 1820
Each time I visit collector Mike Henbrey, he shows me something extraordinary from his collections and he certainly did not disappoint yesterday when he pulled two volumes of Kirby’s Eccentric Museum from the shelf for me to take a look
John Biggs was born in 1629 and lived in Denton in the county of Bucks in a cave
This wonderful boy, who in early age outstripped all former calculators, was born in Morton Hampstead on 14th June 1806
In Mme Lefort the sexes are so equally blended that it is impossible to say which has predominance
This gentleman was a bookseller in Upper Marylebone St, remembered today as Shelley’s bookseller
The parachute here represented was used by Monsieur Garnerin at his ascension in London
Thomas Cooke was born in 1726 at Clewer near Windsor as the son of an itinerant fiddler
Robert Coates Esq, commonly called ‘The Amateur of Fashion’
The giant Basilio Huaylas came in May 1792 from the town of Joa to Lima and publicly exhibited himself
Mr James Toller and Mr Simon Paap are presumed to be the tallest shortest men in the kingdom
Miss McAvoy, who distinguished colours by the touch, was born in Liverpool on 28th June 1800
Mr Hermans Bras, designated the gigantic Prussian Youth, was born at Tecklenbourg in 1801
Thomas Laugher, aged 111 years, and known by the name of Old Tommy
Petratsch Zortan in the 185th year of his age, he died on 5th January 1724
John Rovin in the 172nd & Sarah his wife in the 164th year of their respective ages
The turnip represented in the plate grew in 1628
The parsnip here represented grew in 1742
The radish here represented was found in 1557 in Haarlem
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Mike Henbrey, Collector of Books, Epherema & Tools
Vinegar Valentines for Bad Tradesmen
Joining Hands On Sunday In Norton Folgate
PLEASE COME AND JOIN HANDS WITH ME to create a circle around Norton Folgate as a symbolic gesture of our shared wish to see these buildings restored for new use instead of being demolished by British Land.
Three days before Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee meet to decide the fate of Norton Folgate on July 21st, we want to show that large numbers of people care sufficiently to turn up and create a human chain around this historic neighbourhood.
JOIN HANDS TO SAVE NORTON FOLGATE ON SUNDAY 19TH JULY 3PM
1. Please register at the desk in Elder St when you arrive. The desk will be open from 2pm.
2. Please join the line which will start forming from the corner of Elder St and Folgate St at 2:30pm, extending around Norton Folgate on the route shown on the map.
3. Please join hands at 3pm and stay holding hands while a camera travels the length of the line. Please tweet selfies of yourself while in the line #savenortonfolgate
4. Please stay on the pavement at all times and do not obstruct passage of traffic along Blossom St. Similarly, we ask you to show gracious respect to the residents of Norton Folgate, by permitting them access in and out of their homes and by not impeding customers at The Water Poet and Tune Hotel.
5. The Gentle Author would like to give you a copy of The Gentle Author’s London Album as a gesture of gratitude for your support of the campaign to SAVE NORTON FOLGATE. Numbered tickets will be given to the first 500 to sign in from 2pm and these can be exchanged for a copy at Batty Langley’s hotel in Folgate St shortly after 3pm, once the camera has passed along the line.
This event has the clearance of the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police, reference number CAD 2631
Please come to the meeting of the Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee when the fate of Norton Folgate will be decided on TUESDAY 21st JULY at 7pm at Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, E14 2BG
Click here for a simple guide to HOW TO OBJECT EFFECTIVELY prepared by The Spitalfields Trust (Objections close 20th July)
Follow the Campaign at facebook/savenortonfolgate
Follow Spitalfields Trust on twitter @SpitalfieldsT
You may also like to take a look at
Taking Liberties in Norton Folgate
A Portrait of Gary Arber by Sebastian Whyte
A year after Gary Arber closed his print works and W.F. Arber & Co passed into East End legend, it is my pleasure to present this sympathetic portrait by Sebastian Whyte entitled, STATIONARY
Photo of Gary Arber in his comp room in 2010 by The Gentle Author
Read my stories about Gary Arber
Colin O’Brien & His Leica Camera
Colin O’Brien is giving a lecture on his photography at the Leica Store, 27 Bruton Place, Mayfair, W1 on Wednesday 29th July 6pm. Afterwards, he will be signing copies of LONDON LIFE, his recent monograph which is newly published by Spitalfields Life Books, and we will be giving away fifty prints of Colin’s Clerkenwell car crash photograph. There are only a limited number of tickets available and they are free. Click here to book yours
“I am not entirely sure how I came to be the owner of my prized Leica Model 111a with an Elmar f3.5 lens manufactured in 1936. Rumour has it that an Irish chauffeur who lived in Victoria Dwellings found it on the back seat of the Rolls Royce he drove and conveniently forgot to mention it to his employer. He must have seen me with my old box camera and offered the Leica to my parents for a nominal sum. These sorts of deals with expensive merchandise being sold ‘off the back of a lorry’ were not uncommon.” – Colin O’Brien reveals how he obtained the Leica camera with which he took many of his famous photographs.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY OF COLIN O’BRIEN’S LONDON LIFE
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Visit The Old Naval College At Greenwich
As part of the HUGUENOT SUMMER festival you can visit the unseen spaces of the Old Naval College hosted by Curator, Will Palin, on Monday 20th July from 1:30-5pm. Click here for tickets
Water Gate at Greenwich
When Queen Mary commissioned Christopher Wren in 1694 to build the Royal Hospital for Seamen, offering sheltered housing to sailors who were invalid or retired, she instructed him to “build the Fabrick with Great Magnificence and Order” and there is no question his buildings at Greenwich fulfil this brief superlatively. Early on a summer morning, you may discover yourself the only visitor and stroll among these august structures as if they existed solely for your pleasure in savouring their ingenious geometry and dramatic spatial effects.
Since the fifteenth century, the Palace of Pleasaunce commanded the bend in the river here, where Henry VIII was born in 1491 and Elizabeth I in 1533. Yet Inigo Jones’ Queen’s House built for Anne of Denmark and the words ‘Carolus Rex’ upon the eastern extremity of the Admiral’s House, originally begun in 1660 as a palace for Charles I, are the only visible evidence today of this former royal residence abandoned at the time of the English Civil War.
It was Wren’s ingenuity to work with the existing buildings, sublimating them within the seamless unity of his own grandiose design by replicating the unfinished fragment of Charles’ palace to deliver magnificent symmetry, and enfolding Inigo Jones’ house within extended colonnades. The observant eye may also discern a dramatic overstatement of scale in architectural details that is characteristic of Nicholas Hawskmoor who was employed here as Wren’s Clerk of Works.
From 1705, the hospital for seamen provided modest, wood-lined cabins as a home-from-home for those who had spent their working lives at sea, reaching as many as two-thousand-seven-hundred residents at its peak in 1814, until superceded in 1869 by the Royal Naval College that left in 1995. Today the University of Greenwich and Trinity School of Music occupy these lofty halls but, in spite of its overly-demonstrative architecture, this has always been a working place inhabited by large numbers of people and the buildings suit their current purpose sympathetically .
The Painted Hall is the tour-de-force of this complex, guaranteed to deliver a euphoric experience even to the idle visitor. Here the Greenwich Pensioners in their blue uniforms ate their dinners until James Thornhill spent eighteen years painting the walls and ceiling with epic scenes in the classical style celebrating British sea power and it was deemed too grand for anything but special occasions. Yet down below, the home-made skittles alley brings you closer to the domestic lives of the former residents – who once enjoyed fierce after-dinner contests here using practice cannon balls as bowling balls.
Exterior of the Painted Hall
The Chapel
King William Court
King William Court
The Admiral’s House was originally built as a residence for Charles I. Abandoned in the Civil War, Queen Anne commissioned Wren to rehabilitate the unfinished palace as part of his design for the Royal Hospital for Seaman which opened in 1705
Inspired by the Elgin marbles, the elaborate pediment in Coade stone is a tribute to Lord Nelson
Exterior of the Painted Hall
Pump and mounting block in Queen Anne Court
The chapel was completed to Wren’s design in 1751 and redesigned by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart in 1781
Plasterwork by John Papworth
Queen Anne Court
In the Painted Hall
Begun in 1708, Sir James Thornhill’s murals in the Painted Hall took nineteen years to complete
Man with a flagon of beer from Henry VIII’s Greenwich Palace
Man with a flask of gin from Henry VIII’s Greenwich Palace
The Skittles Alley of the eighteen-sixties, where practice cannon balls serve as bowling balls
Entrance to the Old Royal Naval College
The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, is open daily 11:00 – 5:00 Admission Free
