Below is the email I received from the East London Mosque, outlining concerns about current proposals to convert the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and details of the campaign to preserve this historic East End site.
2 July 2019
Dear Puru Miah,
Preserving the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
I am writing to you about the current threat to the historic Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
The new owner, Raycliff Whitechapel LLP, has applied for permission to redevelop the site as a 100-bed hotel, private members club, restaurant, bar, café, shop, and workspaces. The proposal claims to retain a “viable and sustainable working bell foundry”, but this is misleading, as it is reduced to a small shop and studio in a corner of the restaurant and café.
The unique heritage activity of this site of world renown and significance would be forever lost to our nation.
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry has been based in Whitechapel since the reign of Elizabeth I. Until very recently, it was Britain’s oldest manufacturing company, a working community and a repository of invaluable craft skills. It is one of London’s and the UK’s finest cultural and heritage assets, casting the celebrated Liberty Bell in 1751, Big Ben in 1858, and more recently the Olympic Bell for the 2012 London Olympic Games – the largest harmonically-tuned bell in the world.
The Raycliff proposal should be refused because:
· The application represents an almost 90% reduction in foundry related activities.
· There was no attempt to market the site as a foundry either prior to its closure or subsequently.
· It would ‘harm’ this nationally important heritage asset by reducing the Foundry to a hotel, café restaurants and other leisure uses.
· A viable bell foundry and leisure activities are incompatible and cannot be expected to coexist in the same building or space.
· The proposal will replace a genuine working foundry with a film of a working foundry.
· The Foundry was deliberately closed two years ago, in the hope of making the planning permission easier for an alternative use of significantly greater commercial value.
There is an alternative proposal that will save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry!
Fortunately, an economically viable, environmentally and socially sustainable working foundry can continue to operate from the site of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust (UKHBPT) and Factum Foundation have formed a partnership to continue the foundry business at the Whitechapel site. Through this partnership, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry can again become a viable foundry specialising in bells, but also producing special edition artworks in bronze and other materials.
Factum Foundation, with the UKHBPT, will refurbish, reequip and renovate the foundry, preserving the Grade II* listed buildings, intact and serving their original purpose. The aim is to revive the Foundry and bring bell casting into the 21st century.
An important part of the initiative is the creation of a centre for the study of historic casting as well as the development of apprenticeships and educational schemes. State-of-the-art equipment will be employed to record the shape and sound of bells throughout the UK to build a publicly accessible archive and research centre. The foundry would create 40–50 jobs, together with apprenticeships and skills training.
The UKHBPT has the necessary experience as Britain’s pre-eminent industrial heritage charity, owning assets such as Middleport Pottery, the oldest working Victorian Pottery. As UKHBPT has found in Middleport, the high-end pottery brands which are made in Britain are appealing to the international market. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry brand is of similar quality. Factum Foundation are a global leader for digital technology in conservation. Its mission is to use technology to inform, assist and bring new life to craft skills.
This proposal ensures for Tower Hamlets, London and the UK the productive and beneficial continued use of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, preserving and enhancing this national treasure.
The East End Preservation Society set up a petition to ‘Save The Whitechapel Bell Foundry’; to date, there have been over 16,000 signatures – this shows the extent of community support.
We hope that, like us, you will not want to lose this opportunity to preserve and develop the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Please add your voice and support, we’re sure you can make a difference.
Yours sincerely
Dilowar Hussain Khan
Director of Finance and Engagement
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