Below is my submission to the Planning Enquiry on the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. For more information: https://bit.ly/30XTj85
BY EMAIL: [email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]
Dear Planning Inspector,
RE: Whitechapel Bell Foundry (APP/E5900/V/20/3245430 and the LBTH application reference numbers PA/19/00008 (FPP) and PA/19/00009 (LBC))
I am writing to ask the Inspector to recommend to the Secretary of State, following this public inquiry, that the Raycliff scheme be refused.
The applicant, Raycliff Whitechapel LLP, the current owners of the site, have submitted a planning application to convert it into a boutique hotel and hospitality venue. The applicant’s scheme submitted in 2018 did not contain a working foundry, and they make no legal
Commitment to continuing casting bells on site. If the application is granted, this will result in the loss of Britain’s oldest single-purpose industrial building where Big Ben, the Liberty Bell, Bow Bells and many of the world’s great bells were made. A loss of manufacturing history going back to the 16th century.
The viability of the site being converted to boutique hotel is questionable, as there are a large number of hotels in the Whitechapel area, and given the current economic uncertainty following the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas keeping the site as the foundry is viable, as evidenced by the number of organisation that have tried to acquire the foundry with the sole intention of continuing founding and bell casting in Whitechapel including Reform Factum, both of whom have a very good track record, retaining the skill of bell casting in the area.
This view of the application by Raycliff is shared by the wider local community, over 25,000 people objected to the scheme. This anger and objection to the application is also demonstrated by the local Mosque, the East London Mosque, who were never consulted about the hotel nor were the local community they serve.
Finally, I will like to elaborate further on the Public Interest argument in rejecting the Rycliff application to convert the Whitechapel Bell Foundry to a boutique hotel. An argument strengthened by the specific historical and current realities of Tower Hamlets and the East End. In articulating this view I would be drawing on my experience as a resident and elected local councillor. A summary of the argument being that, greater the impact of a proposed planning change, greater the wide-ranging views need to be taken into account of stakeholders and the residents in any decision.
Tower Hamlets is the third richest local authority area in England, bordered by the City of London, with the financial district of Canary Wharf located within its borders. Yet the Borough has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country, the largest concentration of intergenerational overcrowding, with one of the highest deprivation levels amongst the over 60s. Problems of poverty and deprivation which I deal with on a daily basis via the phone, face to face through my twice-weekly surgery and home visits in the weekend. In those many conversations, a common theme which occurs again and again, lessons from the rich history of the East End, act as a reference point in discussing possible solutions. The collective memories of the East End and their physical manifestation through its architecture act as a source of strength for a section of our population who have been in effect left behind in poverty by our public institutions.
Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, defined poverty, as a mental state of hopelessness. A definition, reinforcing the consensus, that cultural enrichment is a key tool in tackling deprivation. To illustrate this point, I want to give a practical example from experience as a local councillor. In my ward where I am a councillor, I have a large social housing estate, with around 800 households. Nearly a quarter of the households have an annual income of less than £18,000. The memory of a resident pensioner, who was born on the estate was essential in galvanizing residents in organising the threat of a rent strike to force the landlord to carry out essential works. The story she narrated was the origins of the school located in the middle of the estate, which was once an empty playing field. To meet the growing demand for education, the residents demanded that school be built on the vacant land. When the answer came back that there was a lack of funds, the estate collectively raised the necessary monies from their own pockets.
The borough is dotted with estates like the one above, in sight of the gleaming skyscrapers of our financial centres. Despite decades of regeneration and development, inequalities have increased not decreased in Tower Hamlets. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed these inequalities, resulting in high levels of infection and mortality rates. To put this into perspective, Tower Hamlets has a population of around 324,000, yet in a city of 9 million inhabitants, it has recorded over 10% of all deaths in London. At one point at the height of the first wave, the dead from the Borough were being turned away from local cemeteries. At the same time, those same grieving families are facing the social impact of the pandemic, in the form of a recession, which according to some is in the same magnitude of the Great Depression.
As we face the much-dreaded second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic this winter, the Public Interest arguments are strengthened and should be applied in their broadest sense and be used to reject the Raycliff application and allow the site to be preserved as it has throughout history, as a fully functioning Bell Foundry. Using the same Public Interest argument, interpreted in its broadest sense, the Planning Enquiry should also set a framework for protecting all sites of significant historic interest in the East End, and establish a framework for a designated area be declared a heritage site of international significance. A suggested boundary for such a site, in the west, starting from the edge of the City of London and incorporating Bricklane and its adjacent areas, the northern boundary starting at the Boundary Estate, with the southern boundary being Whitechapel Road. A boundary containing landmarks and architecture which tell the story for the struggle of our democracy from the suffragettes to the struggle against fascists, but also the struggle for a more egalitarian society with buildings such as Toynbee Hall and the Whitechapel Library, the struggle to imagine another and East End. Thus acting as a permanent source of strength and inspiration for the many communities that make the rich tapestry that is today’s East End.
“Our days shall not be sweated from birth until life closes—
Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses.”
Yours Sincerely,
Cllr Puru Miah
Mile End, London Borough of Tower Hamlets
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