In the words of this month’s guest editor Emma Warren, neighbourhood space is “an engine room” – a place where community is founded, creativity is born and the next gen is inspired. But in London, this space is under threat. It seems like every week there’s a new proposal to overhaul and redevelop these areas. While these plans are presented as positive regeneration projects, in reality, they are threatening to change the very fabric of London.
Just look at what’s happening to Brick Lane. The street, famed for its curry houses, bagel shops and vintage markets, is now slated to become home to London’s latest data centre. The controversial £500m plan, which is part of a wider development proposal for the Truman Brewery, was given the green light in August. The Brewery itself will be converted into offices, with a cinema, supermarket, flats and a market on surrounding sites. A derelict building on Grey Eagle Street will be developed into a data centre.
The decision has been met with huge backlash, led by Tower Hamlets council who had pushed for the land to be used for hundreds of homes instead; in this development, there will be 44 flats, with just six for social rent.
The Truman Brewery
Save Brick Lane
It’s easy to believe the dream of the project: new businesses, swanky new architecture and support for the UK’s AI industry with what the government has designated as “critical national infrastructure”. But it’s developments like this which are stripping London of its soul.
Nijjor Manush, a socialist organisation for Bengalis and Bangladeshis which is among those leading the Save Brick Lane Campaign, summed it up in an Instagram post: “This isn’t regeneration – it’s displacement. We need homes, not office blocks. We need community spaces, not malls that kill off local shops.”
The Brick Lane development is part of a wider pattern emerging across the city. More and more independent, grassroots spaces are being lost to so-called ‘regeneration’.
Places like The Cinema Museum in Kennington, which is currently on a mission to raise £500,000 by December in order to secure its future. The museum faced potential closure in 2018 when developers purchased its historic building – a workhouse where Charlie Chaplin lived as a boy – but was saved with the help of a petition which garnered over 70,000 signatures. It hopes that by raising this money, it will be able to buy its property outright, strengthening its position for when future developers come knocking.
Over in Peckham, the home of the beloved SET Social also looks to be at risk, as property developer Cherwell Group plans to convert the community space on Nigel Road into low-rise apartment blocks.
And that’s not all. Traders in Brixton have launched the Buy Back Brixton campaign in an attempt to save the Market from being bought by big businesses. In Dalston, there’s an ongoing 24/7 occupation to protect the displacement of Ridley Road Market. Meanwhile, the Lewisham Peoples Assembly is currently fighting to protect Lewisham Shopping Centre from a £1.5billion redevelopment.
For others, it could be too late. Gabriel’s Wharf on the South Bank has been a popular shopping spot since 1988. It was created as a temporary use site, meant only to be a short-term activation before a permanent development, but it has stood proud for nearly four decades. It has grown into a community of independent shops, makers, artists, food businesses, some of which have been there for over 20 years.
But now, the businesses have been told they must leave. Coin Street Community Builders, a social enterprise focusing on developments in Waterloo and North Southwark, has given them until 27th September before they must pack up, clearing the Wharf for a new meanwhile use (the temporary occupation of vacant space). Coin Street says the Wharf’s condition makes change unavoidable, however, plans for the site’s future are still vague, and it’s a tough pill to swallow for the tenants facing evictions.
A spokesperson for the Gabriel’s Wharf Tenants Association (GWTA) said: “What is particularly difficult for us is that there is no permanent redevelopment ready to begin. The long-term plans for the site is understood to be many years away. We have repeatedly asked why the existing businesses cannot remain for longer, whether the Wharf could be repaired or managed differently, and what was done to avoid displacing us. We still don’t feel those questions have been properly answered.”
Gabriel’s Wharf’s closure is another example of London losing a place that grew organically, rather than being built to a brief.
GWTA said: “We feel Gabriel’s Wharf is one of those slightly accidental bits of London that could never really be recreated from scratch. This is not poorly recreated grassroots, this is original grassroots.”
The traders have launched a social media campaign and a petition. But, for them, a real solution is something much bigger.
“We think London needs to get much better at recognising the value of places before they disappear. Cultural and community value should be part of decisions about redevelopment, not something we mourn afterwards.”
Gabriel’s Wharf
The Artist’s Garden
Time is also running out for The Artist’s Garden in Temple. It opened in 2021 as the world’s first sculpture garden dedicated to displaying work by women artists and has since grown into a thriving free public gallery working in partnership with Westminster Council. Places of London, TfL’s commercial property arm, wants to close the site on 1st October to carry out “urgent repairs”.
However, as Claire Mander, the founder of theCOLAB, the charity which curates and runs The Artist’s Garden explains, the garden is a Westminster public space – protected by legislation which has stood for over 100 years. So, she claims, TfL should not have the power to evict.
Like many of the places under threat, The Artist’s Garden provides a home to those often overlooked elsewhere across the city – only 13% of public sculptures in London are by women artists. Its removal means eliminating a vital platform for female artists, and, crucially, a free public space.
Claire said: “It is important to retain public spaces for the public – which are free to enter, well looked after, not commercialised or de facto controlled by private enterprise or treated as profit centres or reduced to being just ‘publicly accessible’.
“Public land is at the core of civic, cultural and community life. We need to urgently find alternatives to constantly uprooting and shunting on embedded projects.”
The Artist’s Garden is hoping to change its fate through a petition and crowdfunder.
But these organisations should not have to rely on their own campaigns. We must have stronger protections in place for spaces like these. The existing Asset of Community Value registration is well-meaning, but ultimately limited. Developers tacking on a cinema or shopping mall to their housing development does not equate to years’ worth of community. We need these spaces where people of all backgrounds can build connections authentically – not with the manufactured assistance of a large corporation.