Demolition Diary

This page and the following pages is intended to be a log of the changing face of Brick Lane and the surrounding area, which is my neighbourhood, in the heart of London's East End.

'The incremental creep' is a phrase we coined during the campaign to save Spitalfields Market from aggressive expansion by the Corporation of London's developer, Spitalfields Development Group (SDG), and now Hammerson Plc, which is also aggressively seeking to build a range of tower blocks in the heart of Shoreditch, on top of the old Bishopsgate Goodsyard site.

Prime contender for the title of evil Emperor Ming, is one Mike Bear, Chair of SDG and also a partner in Hammerson Plc, who is behind much of this unsolicited development plan for the area which is set to blight Shoreditch. The man has pocketed and directly benefited from all of the developments so far, and even had the nerve to purchase a flat for himself in the new Elder St garden development, which overlooks the old market buildings in Spitalfields. It is as if he thinks he has an unwritten right to patronise the local people, without shame.

To add to his cheek, Michael Bear has also been campaigning recently to become Lord Mayor, head of the medieval, feudal and anachronistic Corporation of London. His greed and vanity knows no end. This man also took out a contract with a PR company on me when I was acting as press officer for the SMUT campaign for four years (1999-2003) in an effort to try and dig up dirt on me and besmirch my reputation. This was presumably because we were having so much success in terms of winning the PR battle. For a while we had the developers running scared. On numerous occasions, Mike Bear's simpering secretary, Sue Brown, tried to get me to attend their officers for a meeting with him to 'talk things over'. Like most developers who are charming to your face, they are busy signing contracts as soon as your back is turned. We didn't trust him an inch.

The campaign to save the market from demolition and redevelopment had survived for 15 long years. As such it was the longest campaign of its kind ever to run in London. At various points, direct action activist groups, the Green Party, George Monbiot, BBC London and numerous others had thought about ways in which they could possibly act to help save this landmark, piece of valuable heritage and public space. But it was our small SMUT campaign group of about 15 local people who in the end knuckled down to fighting the developer's plans over the last 5 yrs of the campaign.

Following the sad demolition of the 1928 extension of Spitalfields Market (which had oddly enough survived the 1945 Blitz!), Mike Bear and his fellow consorters conspired to demolish the nearby Bishopsgate Goodsyard, as the next piece of the jigsaw puzzle, or development 'pie' SDG had its eye on.

Despite a campaign which went to the High Court twice to challenge the developers and a Grade II* listing of the Braithwaite viaduct by the then Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, this magnificent structure (which was the 4th oldest railway structure in the world) was eventually demolished by the greedy and zealous philistine developer. Cue heartbreak for a lot of railway heritage enthusiasts.

A structure of a billion bricks incorporating a series of intricately vaulted arches was suddenly demolished overnight following consent from Hackney Council. To this day, it is not clear whether any of the listed Braithwaite viaduct has actually survived, because you cannot see clearly beyond the developer's hoardings.

During the campaign to save the Goodsyard, I had dinner with the transport correspondent of The Times, who just happened to live at the end of my road in Dalston at the time. Because the Prince of Wales had taken an interest in the Goodsyard heritage aspect of this story, and because the offices of his Foundation were in nearby Charlotte St, in Shoreditch, the Prince was prepared to write letters to the developer and speak out on the subject. The result was a front page story in The Times the following day. A coup for us - at least temporarily - in terms of rubbishing the developer's intention and the lack of consultation by Tower Hamlets and Hackney Council on a masterplan for the area.

During the proceedings in the High Court, demolition 'experts' Murphy's sent a couple of thugs to beat up the old man from the Victorian Railway Heritage Society who was fronting our campaign, as he was travelling home on the train, the night before he was due to appear in the High Court. They beat his legs with a couple of iron bars, in an effort to cripple him - and so that he could hardly walk. In the end, he made it into court the following day in a parlous state. The Judge was so shocked and rightly appalled by what had happened that he ordered the plaintiff (the Corporation's developer) to pay the victim half of the court costs.

During all of this, the Government's Regeneration Advisor, who was also a Commissioner for English Heritage approached me in Spitalfields Market one Sunday. He asked me if I would leak this story about the old man being threatened to the press, because he knew that if he did it, he would risk losing his job. I needn't have worried because the Evening Standard was already on the case and had written it up.

Eventually the old man was bought off by the developer who offered him £40k to take his hands off the case. Of course, being a pensioner, he accepted the no doubt, much needed funds and shut up. Plus ca change.

The incremental creep continues apace however, with new, aggressive tower block developments being proposed for the Goodsyard site on Bethnal Green Road and opposite the Rich Mix Centre at the top of Brick Lane. Secondly at Dalston Junction, more development has been planned on the site of the old Dalston Theatre, another listed building which


For interesting campaigns I've been involved in and I'm currently involved in, check out

Current campaigns:
www.bethnalgreencentre.blogspot.com
www.savethelight.co.uk
www.saveshoreditch.com


Past campaigns:
http://opendalston.blogspot.com/
Spitalfields Market Under Threat (used to be www.smut.org.uk but domain has since been fleeced by pornographers who are now trying to sell the domain - really!)
Save Bishopsgate Goodsyard