Spotlight on Shoreditch: Full Circle

An unprecedented construction boom is set to strike Shoredtich in the next few years, transforming (perhaps beyond repair) our beloved neighbourhood.

That concerns Alternative London, deeply.

On Shoreditch High Street alone, there are five such exclusive residential and retail developments under the Hackney and Tower Hamlets Councils, which are planned to populate the area in the very near future, subject to legal conditions.

All photos by Jason Di-Candilo @billthebadger

Here’s a snap-shot of what’s to come and what’s already under way:

Principal Place: A 50-storey tower with 243 apartments, and a 15-storey office complex developed by US-based Brookfield and Canada’s Concord Pacific to sit adjacent to the Broadgate Tower, on the corner of Worship Street and Shoreditch High Street.

Avant Garde: A 74 metre tower was recently completed by Telford Homes on Bethnal Green Road with 257 apartments (with a £3 million penthouse).

Shoreditch Village: Homes, offices, retail, shops and a market will soon exist in the old car park at the back of the Village Underground (the famous Shoreditch venue with the two old tube carriages on the roof) and be called Shoreditch Village.

The Stage: 385 homes as well as retail and business units will be built over the foundations of one of London’s earliest theatres (where Romeo and Juliet was probably first staged some reports rumour). Plans reveal that the archaeological remains will be preserved and incorporated into a visitor centre and small theatre.

The Goodsyard: This is the largest development of all by Hammerson and Ballymore, which is proposed at the site of the former Bishopsgate goodsyard. It will add 3.7 sq ft of residential, retail and office space including up to 2,000 new homes.

Norton Folgate: The two acre area from Blossom Street to Fleur de Lis Street and the the Elder Street Conservation area was established in 1977 to block an attempt to destroy a street of houses dating back to the 1720s. Now it could be demolished and turned into office space, shops and 40 apartments under plans lodged by British Land.

This grand scale gentrification has been nick named the ‘Canary Wharf-isation’ of Shoreditch because before long – if plans persist – Shoreditch will become another Canary Wharf; a hub of grey and sterile residential properties and high-rises.

In fact, collectively these five developments will account for 3,051 new residential units across 5.5m sq ft of new residential, retail and office space, according to the Londonist.

Conversely, the Olympics East Village (the former Athlete’s Village) is a residential development with a total of 2,800 units.

This is just how BIG these developments are.

What will that do to the Shoreditch we know and adore?

And when you thought London had enough skyscrapers, these developments will add more. The Goodsyard, if approved, will have four towers of more than 30 storeys and a fifth with more than 20 storeys. Opposite will be the Principal Place residential development standing at 50 storeys and not far away, The Stage at 40 storeys.

According to Andrew Harris, Urban Studies lead at the University College London, said: “I always thought the greatest transformation [in Shoreditch] happened in the late 90s. It’s incredible to think the momentum hasn’t stopped since. What we’re seeing now [in Shoreditch] is development on a much bigger scale.”

Shoreditch has always been subject to great change. During the 16^th century, Shoreditch was home to wealthy bankers and diplomats who worked in the city. Then in the 1980s, there was a widespread de-industrialisation of inner London turning Shoreditch into a site for light industry. In the 1990s, vacant Victorian warehouses and industrial spaces (a byproduct of over de-industrialisation) brought artists, fashion designers and other creatives to the area because of the cheap rent.

It has maintained this reputation since.

It is hipster central and collectively, great things are born from innovative communities such as Shoreditch including pop-up restaurants, social campaigns, unconventional exhibitions, wholesome food markets and creative spaces (with arguably the best coffee).

Mr Harris suggests Shoreditch may be going full circle: “[Shoreditch] was an upmarket suburb for people to live close by the City of London. In some respects, it’s returning to its pre-industrial role,” he says.

For more information, visit The end of street: Questionable‘development’ for the East End as part of this blog series.

Call to Action

If you are just as alarmed of these plans for Shoreditch, join the Skyline Campaign.

On March 29, 2014, a joint statement expressing concern about the London skyline was signed by more than 70 public figures including sculptor Anothony Gormley, presenter Griff Rhys Jones and Royal Academy’s Charles Saumarez Smith.

Will you add your name?

Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, is sitting in the power seat and could potentially stop these developments in their tracks. Send him an email or letter, and make this issue the top of his priorities:

Boris Johnson

Mayor of London

Greater London Authority

London SE1 2AA

Telephone: 020 7983 4100

Fax: 020 7983 4057

Email: mayor@london.gov.uk

We would love to hear from you.

How do you feel about these planned developments? How can we make a difference?

Share your thoughts in the comment box below.

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Leah Davies is a purpose-filled writer, human rights activist and coach for budding wordsmiths, who is driven to cultivate change through our stories. Her social business Paper Planes Connect is a place to celebrate our difference and to unite in our sameness. Using her experience as a journalist and international development worker, she supports the social conscious to platform their voice and create change, both big and small.

Email: leah@paperplanesconnect.com 

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The end of street? : Questionable ‘development’ for the East

What makes East London (aka East End) so special?

Why is it that when people talk of this part of the city they instantly become more animated and excitable?

Is it the buildings? The services? It’s proximity to the city center? The convenience of its tube stations?

I’m guessing not. In a city that touts some 8.6 million people and is growing at a rate of almost double England as a whole, the East End has until now remained in a world of its own.

Described as a ‘perennially trendy haven for anything street – whether it be art, food or fashion’ by Trip Advisor, the East End is home to counter cultures: arty types, intellectuals, migrant communities, indie hipsters and fashionistas, and is renowned globally for respecting and allowing alternative lifestyles to thrive and coexist harmoniously.

All photos by Jason Di-Candilo: @billthebadger

To give you a bit of background, Alternative London in 2010 first started by showing a handful of people around East London and its streets. Today there are many similar guided walking tours which attract tens of thousands of tourists to Shoreditch and surrounding communities every year, but the irony is that the very sites and places people come to London to see are being demolished in place of hotel companies. The upcoming developments on Leonard Street and Blackhall Street are just two such examples.

Thrift and vintage stores, creative spaces, quirky venues, organic and locally sourced food markets, culturally diverse restaurants and cafes, and of course, the street art set the East End distinctively apart from the rest of London.

It has character. A unique, unrepeatable personality.

In the 1990s, Shoreditch was severely under-developed and hosted more derelict buildings than one could count. It was the place for squatters, gypsies and hippies. For better and for worse, gentrification of the post-industrial grit has meant that Shoreditch, Hackney, Clapton, Hoxton and Dalston are some of the coolest and trendiest areas of London today.

Seamless pockets of its history remain conserved, but there is a major peril that is likely to change the East End as we know it - forever.

We are being told to ‘brace ourselves’ for an influx of hotels and luxury apartment developments by foreign investors. Over the next two years, seven new hotels are planned to open in Shoreditch to cater for, yes, a steadily growing tourist population, but at the expense of the magnetism of the East.

In fact, if you take a look at the top 20 places to visit in Shoreditch on TripAdvisor, you will come across bars, restaurants, walking tours (including us!), cafes, community centres, workshops, theatre and performances – all prime sites for these intended developments.

Alternative London prides itself on being an award winning London tour company which takes you into the heart of the vibrant East End to explore the past and present of the capital's cultural and creative hub. But the question is:

How long will this remain the case if there is no cultural and creative hub to explore anymore?

In 2013, the Ace Hotel was among the first of these new types of developments. The light industrial buildings of the East have become rich pickings for developers like Nobu Hospitality Group, Gansevoort Hotel Group, CitizenM and Z Hotels. Warehouses and industrial sites will be re-purposed into luxury hotels (and by luxury, I mean £175+ per night!) totaling a further 1500 or more hotel rooms to the area.

At present, Shoreditch currently has about 700 hotel rooms from existing properties like the Hoxton, Holiday Inn Express and Premier Inn.

So why the push? And, to what end?

Research by property consultant GVA reveals that land values have risen considerably in the traditional tourist areas of west London because of residential developers, luxury retailers and arts venues. Hotels are left to compete for a smaller slice of properties along with office buildings and as a result, hotel operators are drifting to the east – known as the ‘growing East London city fringe market’ - where it is easier to find suitable sites at more affordable prices.

This hotel boom is accompanied by plans for a number of huge ‘mixed-use projects’, like the Bishopsgate Goodsyard development, which will see a series of towers built along the site off Bethnal Green Road. Academics studying the area have called it the ‘Canary Wharf-isation’ of Shoreditch. Then there is the re-development of the Fruit and Wool Exchange by Exemplar, which is proposing to deliver 320,000 sq feet of office, retail, restaurant and café space in the heart of Spitafields. Demolishing at sites such as at Willow Street, just off Great Eastern Street, has already begun.

Several initiatives and campaigns are building momentum as the local community unite and rally on behalf of their home, including the Skyline Campaign, the East End Preservation Society, Spitafields Trust, Save Norton Folgate and More Light More Power.

Rachel Munro-Peebles, co-chair of the Shoreditch Community Association (SCA), says:

“We have so many [developments] due to be built in the area, we wonder whether the council has forgotten about the people who live and work here, families, young couples… the extreme transient growth, along with the tsunami of licensed premises, may lose what we have to come to love so much.”

This is the very real risk that the East End has to confront if development plans to become a lucrative hotel niche go ahead.

Over the coming months as part of a blog series, we will share with you the finer details of these planned developments, the foreseen impact and the perspectives of the community. Now is the time to raise our voices and speak up about our concerns before the East End loses the charm and charisma we all fondly love.

Call to Action!

If you are just as alarmed of these plans for London’s East, make it known and contact Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor by sending an email or letter:

Boris Johnson

Mayor of London

Greater London Authority

London SE1 2AA

Telephone: 020 7983 4100

Fax: 020 7983 4057

Email: mayor@london.gov.uk

The word ‘development’ implies progress, but we sternly question whether these developments improve the East. In fact, we argue the opposite.

It is our collective action, which will make all the difference.

In the meantime, we would love to hear from you. In the comments below tell us:

Why is the East End so special to you?

We want to hear your stories and opinions.

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Leah is a passionate storyteller, a multi-skilled communications specialist and a devoted human rights activist. She writes to ignite meaningful connection, to arouse curiosity, to push boundaries, to live large, to speak up, to create change.

She is deeply fuelled by a desire to create ideas and build visions to make this world a better place. A place where we can each equally follow our dreams - regardless of the place we were born, our religious affiliations, our sexual identity, our access to education. Everything in fact to do with the status quo. After studying the causes of conflict and division in society, Leah now uses storytelling to unite people, to create community and to open opportunities for collective action.
 
Her website, Paper Planes Connect, is a place to celebrate our difference and to unite in our sameness.

Website: www.paperplanesconnect.com 

Email: leah@paperplanesconnect.com 

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