Uncategorized

Death of Shoreditch Part III

It’s on like Donkey Kong. In the one corner we have the faceless developers and the somewhat difficult to pin-down councilors and in the other we have pretty much everyone else. The plans that I discussed in my ‘Death of Shoreditch’ article, i.e. building a giant structure next to the imposing Broadgate Tower are still in the throws of being agreed, despite quite a few respectable people in the development field opposing the plans. However, this my friends, is only the start of it…

Thanks to the Wired New York Forum for this image, click here to see their thread on all the current London developments.

Apparently the details of the Broadgate scheme are slightly different than I first thought. The plans include 600,000 sq foot of office space, 310 residential units and a 80 room hotel. Well, whilst this does clearly represent a mixed-use scheme, I can’t help but think it’s a litttttle top-heavy on the office side of things. 600,000 sq foot is epic. If I was the developers on this one, going into a recession, I’d be thinking twice about the viability of speculatively building that amount of office space, which is on the city fringe. Especially when you consider some of the other high profile office developments going on.

The second piece of the jigsaw is the development planned on Bethnal Green Road, near the Trois Garcons restaurant and near the start of Brick Lane market on a Sunday. This, along with the prospect of ancillary developments had East End uber-resident, Tracey Emin, up in arms. The development will bring nothing to the local area, which in my opinion, is a bastion of how independent stores, when given time, can prosper. The whole area is culturally diverse and a truly unique place, a real testament of what can be achieved artistically, architectually and commercially. The new development will do nothing to add to this success story, it will cast a shadow over it. The thought of 400 new flats being built on the site fills me with fear, because the fact is, that it’s not affordable housing, it’s going to be £300k-£400k flats being bought by wankers. Wankers kill individuality. Wankers demand generic goods and despise anything that is different, Wankers like donating money to Live 8 but refuse to help those in their community that are suffering and turn a blind eye. Wankers don’t contribute to the community.

So what to do? E-mail Shay Bugler (lulz name) at Tower Hamlets Council to object to the Bethnal Green Development and e-mail Andrew Dillion at Hackney Council to object to the Broadgate Hotel.

Also you can check out both the Open Shoreditch and the Save Shoreditch websites to get information about the latest activities and could, if you’re really keen, print off this poster and get it put up in your local pub, cafe, bedroom.

1 Comment

• On 08.13.08 The Worship St Irregulars » The Death of Shoreditch - Part IV wrote these pithy words:

  [...] Death of Shoreditch Part 3 [...]

have your say