Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of bell casting to the east of the City of London when he lived above the gatehouse in Aldgate and the earliest record of bell founding in Whitechapel is 1360. Yet last night a decision was made by Tower Hamlets Council which could draw this noble foundry history to an end after seven centuries in this place.
I arrived at the Town Hall for the meeting to decide the fate of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry with a sense of foreboding and unfortunately this was not dispelled. It was obvious something was amiss when the international petition of over 20,000 people to save the foundry, another of over 2000 residents of the borough and 780 letters of objection to the hotel proposal were passed over by the planning officer in the blink of an eye. Instead, careful attention was paid to the points raised in the five letters of support received for the bell-themed boutique hotel proposal for the foundry.
The emphasis throughout was on how the hotel scheme guaranteed the preservation of the listed eighteenth-century buildings, while the most significant heritage asset – that of the foundry usage itself – was dismissed as having being extinguished when it shut two years ago. As if a theatre is no longer a theatre when a play is not being performed.
Bippy Siegel, the New York plutocrat who bought the foundry to redevelop it as a hotel, sat in the council chamber presiding as his silver-tongued minions played their roles to deliver his desired outcome. Bippy recently bought a stake in the Soho House chain and this Whitechapel development with its rooftop swimming pool has all the characteristics of a Soho House property.
In Bippy’s first proposal, the foundry buildings were to become restaurants and bars. But when this attracted public objections and UK Historic Building Preservation Trust published their alternative proposal for a revitalised foundry, he amended his scheme to include some of the elements of the UKHBPT scheme. His second application deliberately played down the boutique hotel and played up ‘re-instating the foundry.’ In this version, the new hotel is separate at the back of the site and the front buildings become creative workshops with a coffee shop overlooking a small foundry.
Yet Councillor Leema Qureshi spoke for many when she said, ‘I am not convinced by the benefits of the Raycliff scheme. The history is going to be wiped out.’
Bearing in mind UKHBPT’s award-winning track record at Middleport Pottery which has led the regeneration of Stoke, she asked if Bippy’s company, Raycliff, had undertaken any projects of this nature before. The council adviser informed her that this question was not relevant to the application in front of them, but I believe the answer is that Raycliff are solely in the hotel, restaurant and hospitality business.
It would not be hard for Raycliff – once their hotel tower is built – to revert to their original plan of absorbing the foundry buildings into the hotel, using these spaces for bars, restaurants and a private members’ club. And by then, it will be too late for anyone to object and the opportunity of continuation of real foundry usage in Whitechapel will be gone forever.
Some attention was paid by the councillors to the UKHBPT/Factum Foundation scheme to continue a proper working foundry and it was queried why they had not submitted their own planning application if there were really serious. Yet UKHBPT/FF want to continue the previous use and therefore require no planning permission.
The debate over the issue of Optimum Viable Use grew rather convoluted, starting from the unproven position that the previous use was no longer viable because the foundry shut in 2017 and concluding that Raycliff’s proposal is the Optimum Viable Use because it is ready to go and it protects the building.
Yet Councillor Dan Tomlinson made the most important statement of the evening when he said, ‘If we approve this now and we don’t give attention to the people who are proposing an alternative scheme, then we have missed that opportunity forever.’
It was like watching the execution of an innocent man where everyone agreed that – bearing in mind the lack of evidence – the most prudent option was to execute him anyway because the noose was ready and it ensured there could be no future harm.
They voted three against and three in favour, with the chairman using his casting vote to approve it. Then the council chamber broke up in disorder.
In fact, while the Planning Consent had been voted on and approved, the Listed Building Consent had not been voted on by the committee. In the uproar, Chairman Abdul Mukit had a brief discussion with the council advisor about whether they should assume the result was the same for both the Planning Consent and the Listed Building Consent. Astonishingly, they agreed to do so without this vote even taking place.
I walked to the station with Nigel Taylor who worked at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry for forty years. ‘It does not end here,’ he declared to me in exasperation, before running for his train.