Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 1 of 15
Foundry arts space set to make way for
18-storey hotel
Beloved centre of London's alternative art scene for a decade is
set for demolition, but six-metre Banksy mural to be preserved
Esther Addley
The Guardian, Thursday 4 February 2010
The Foundry pub and art venue, run by Tracey and Jonathan Moberly, is to be
demolished and replaced with a hotel and shopping complex. Photograph: Sarah Lee
Pete Doherty used to host its poetry nights, the band Hot Chip formed there, and artists
from Banksy to Gavin Turk have adorned its walls and propped up its bar.
But now the Foundry, an east London gallery and pub that for more than a decade has
served as a focal point for the area's alternative art scene, is set to be demolished after
the site's owners drew up plans for an 18-storey hotel and retail complex.
Hackney council last night approved plans to pull down the building which houses the
much-loved if rather ramshackle space in Shoreditch close to the edge of the City,
despite protests from the gallery's founders that it performs a vital artistic function in
the London borough.
In what its supporters regard as a particularly ironic twist, the council intends to salvage
a wall painted with one of the biggest Banksy murals in Britain, even as the remainder of
the building is demolished. The planned redevelopment, part of the Art'otel chain, will
also incorporate gallery and retail space and a spa.
Foundry founders Tracey and Jonathan Moberly expect to be evicted by April, when the
site will be cleared for the construction of a circular tower block by award-winning
architects Squire and Partners. The Moberlys said they were "pretty resigned" to the fact
that the art space would close, and had no objections to the conduct of the architects or
the developers, Park Plaza hotels. "That's fair enough. This isn't our building, we've been
renting, and they have been supportive in helping us look for another premises," said
Tracey Moberly.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 2 of 15
The tubular design for
the hotel on the Foundry site
But the couple are angry with Hackney council, which they accused of refusing to
designate the Foundry as an artistic space, which they say would require the council to
seek to resettle it in other premises, preferring to refer to it in planning documents only
as a pub.
The council has also specified its intention in the planning officer's report for the "safe
removal and retention of 'Banksy' art work" – a six-metre high painting of a rat with a
knife and fork over which the building's owners have constructed a protective wooden
covering. A spokeswoman for Squire and Partners said: "The aim of the client and
design team is to permanently locate the artworks on site, in one of the public galleries
at ground floor – this is to be agreed with Hackney council."
A council spokesman said it would not comment on any aspect of the development
ahead of the planning meeting.
The Moberlys, an artist and a former art publisher, opened the gallery in the former
bank building in the late 1990s, intending it to be a place where any artist, regardless of
experience, could exhibit free of charge. The couple opened a bar on the ground floor to
cover their expenses, but have always considered its two basement galleries and
performance spaces, linked by graffiti adorned walls, to be the building's main focal
point. They have forged long-standing links with artists in Russia and Haiti and
regularly display works by international artists.
The comedian and activist Mark Thomas, who has performed there, said the Foundry
was "one of the most truly artistic spaces in London". He described its battered sofas
and graffitied walls as "the fixtures and fittings of London's underground art scene" and
the Moberlys as "the Saatchis of alternative art" in the capital.
"What's unique about it is their ethos that anyone can exhibit there, from Gavin Turk to
a student who just happens to have an interest in maps, or something," Thomas said.
"It's totally unique. And now in its place we'll have another hotel, another shopping
mall, another huge cinema."
"If you go there you realise that it's not like any other space in London," said Turk.
"Shoreditch has become so commercialised, like the new West End, and there isn't really
anywhere that runs like the Foundry does."
Darren Coxson, a co-founder of a welfare charity for London bike couriers, said his
colleagues loved the Foundry for other reasons – namely that it offered so much space
on its pavement outside to park their bicycles.
"We are quite a transient, international community and the non-corporate, artistic
atmosphere fits with the courier lifestyle. For me, these modern developments
completely take away the character of an area," he said.
But Squire and Partners said there was also "significant local support for the scheme,
which will help regenerate this part of Shoreditch".
The Moberlys are looking for alternative premises, but are eager to stay close to the
area's transport links and diverse community. "We'd like to dig our heels in and stay in
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 3 of 15
this area," said Tracey Moberly. "It's not going to be easy, but it has to be possible."
First, however, they would like to talk to Tate Modern about the possibility of relocating
the gallery's subterranean graffitied walls, where early murals by Banksy and New York
street artists Faile have been scribbled over by countless art lovers, poetry fans and
drinkers.
The Astoria, London
Last year the famous 2,000-capacity music venue next to Tottenham Court Road
underground station was pulled down along with 13 other buildings to make way for the
capital's Crossrail project. Originally built as a cinema in 1927, it later hosted concerts
by many major names including David Bowie, Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys.
Kensington Market, London
The three-storey building on the usually conservative Kensington High Street was a
magnet for bright young things and trendy tourists in the 1970s and 1980s. It went
through many fashion phases, from hippie to new romantic via punk but went out of
favour in the 1990s. In 2005, it was replaced by a five-storey office building.
The Haçienda, Manchester
The legendary Manchester nightclub owned by Factory Records and New Order opened
in 1982. Madonna gave her first ever performance in Britain there in 1984. During the
Madchester years of the late 1980s and early 1990s the club became a focal point of acid
house and rave culture – it was considered by many at the time to be the most famous
club in the world. Financial and drug troubles closed it down in 1997. It was finally
demolished in 2001 to make way for an apartment block.
The Venue, Edinburgh
Scotland's longest-running live music and club venue played host to Nirvana, Coldplay
and Scissor Sisters and many others but its Calton Road warehouse became too
expensive for its owners who failed to find a suitable alternative building in the centre of
town. The Ingleby Gallery opened its white cube space there in 2008.
Luc Torres
Ads by Google
Buy Banksy Prints
Get 2nd Banksy At Half Price Banksy Specialists Rated No1
www.CanvasTown.com
Building Home Extensions
Affordable Home Extension Services. Quick & Stylish. Call for a Quote!
www.BuildingCompanyLondon.com
Banksy Canvas Art
over 80,000 designs to choose from Fast delivery prices from £19.99
www.mohka.co.uk
Comments in chronological order (Total 50
comments)
Comments are now closed for this entry.
Staff
Contributor
davidstraight
4 Feb 2010, 12:54AM
the death knell for shoreditch
Recommend? (14)
Report abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 4 of 15
Clip |
Link
Alfonzo
4 Feb 2010, 2:54AM
That proposed building looks... well, it's beyond words. Just depressing.
It looks like we're going to have to say goodbye to the artists and hello to the art buyers the people who claim to value culture as they mow it down, throwing bank notes as they
go.
In a phrase? Kill yourself.
Recommend? (30)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Mediamogul
4 Feb 2010, 3:05AM
sigh
Recommend? (8)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
littleroom
4 Feb 2010, 3:55AM
sigh
Recommend? (5)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
BillytheSyd
4 Feb 2010, 4:43AM
It was over six years ago that I used to stand behind 'arty types' in Old Street post office
as they transferred their PO boxes to Dalston before trudging off to Jaguar Shoes to rage
against the dying of the light. You want to get yourself up to Clapton, that's where the
real art scene is going to shit these days.
Probably.
Recommend? (8)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
LeopoldButtersScotch
4 Feb 2010, 6:03AM
That proposed tubular design goes really well with the council flats on the right. I left
London a few short years ago and I am really sad to hear that the Foundry will be torn
down, and soon. This place was a truely iconic underground London venue/gallery/bar.
What a big shame! Hopefully the Moberlys get some space in the area to do their thing
again. I also hope after they've left, an absolute stonker of a squat party gets thrown in
there. Do it properly and make all the former artists proud before the place gets knocked
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 5 of 15
into Barney Rubble. Hackney Council are a bunch of . . . . . . . . twats!
Recommend? (11)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
TheIdiotsAreWinning
4 Feb 2010, 6:30AM
Bummer. OK it's a shithole, and most of the art was appalling, but there was nowhere
else like it and I had some great times there. Where will the worm lady recite her poetry
now?
Fail
Recommend? (10)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
tomsopinions
4 Feb 2010, 6:40AM
Oh well no biggy we can go and talk art and politics in starbucks - who needs character
and diversity - hell pretty soon wholl need money - every little helps - take this as a
warning!!!!!!!!!!!!!! get toghether make art !!!
Recommend? (3)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
stumbuffer
4 Feb 2010, 7:25AM
I spit on your hotel
Recommend? (5)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
discgolf
4 Feb 2010, 7:25AM
that proposed building looks... well, like it derives from a dark place
up from where burocrats normally put their broomsticks. Oops!
Recommend? (2)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
ruse
4 Feb 2010, 7:27AM
bollox
Recommend? (2)
Report abuse
Clip |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 6 of 15
Link
hinnerskov1
4 Feb 2010, 7:28AM
Staff
I used to drink there, work there and live there. Amazing to think there will now be a
posh spa where we once had an electric shower cobbled together with gaffer tape and
bin bags.
Recommend? (1)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
BlahFlowers
4 Feb 2010, 7:40AM
Well Shoreditch was pretty rubbish anyway, but The Foundry was one of the few places
worth venturing into the debris to visit, may the hotel replacing it be a massive
commercial failure.
Recommend? (4)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Trouserpress
4 Feb 2010, 7:44AM
Fast forward to 2013 and the Guardian are talking up the 'Penge Renaissance' centred
around a bracnh of Fast Frames, an ironically dangerous boozer and a minimart that
sells Delice de France croissants.
Recommend? (4)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
SaucyJack
4 Feb 2010, 8:08AM
This former Foundry staff member will always fondly remember a balmy summer night,
sitting outside the Foundry on beer barrels, with the Moberlys and some Russians,
drinking neat vodka and listening to Soviet work anthems on an antique gramaphone.
Recommend? (6)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
edroolette
4 Feb 2010, 8:11AM
I spent the millennium eve party at the foundry. ten years later and its going. yet
another depressing sign off the passing of better times...
Recommend? (1)
Report abuse
Clip |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 7 of 15
Link
usualsuspect83
4 Feb 2010, 8:13AM
so they are saving the banksy? Dont they realise that just makes it worse? Not that I
dont like banksy, but just because someones got famous doesnt mean its more worthy
than the rest. The rest together is more than a million banksys, its a sense of
community....
Recommend? (18)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
sinjin
4 Feb 2010, 8:13AM
Here are a few good reasons for knocking the place down.
"Pete Doherty used to host its poetry nights, the band Hot Chip formed there, and artists
from Banksy to Gavin Turk have adorned its walls and propped up its bar".
Great news! the Foundry is going. A kick in the teeth for art, yeah right.
Recommend? (7)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
usualsuspect83
4 Feb 2010, 8:14AM
We used to go there every new years eve before going to wang.... sad day indeed!
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
dcmtr
4 Feb 2010, 8:19AM
Hooray!
Recommend? (2)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
antonyJ
4 Feb 2010, 8:27AM
Lo the inevitable.
Pete Doherty and some tat doesnt make something an 'art space'.
Hello Kingsland Road then...
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 8 of 15
nabsy
4 Feb 2010, 8:36AM
art space?
it's a dingy bar where wannabe shoreditch types with expensive bikes and rich parents
hang out.
some of the graffiti in the toilets made me smile though.
Recommend? (2)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
discolo
4 Feb 2010, 8:47AM
I'm very sorry to hear this, I know the foundry well and I'm surprised it has lasted so
long. Hackney council have never wanted the kind of "Culture" that places like the
foundry,,, cultures. The whole anarchist/self sufficient thing does not fit in with the
continuing gentrification of Hackney. No matter how much the council want to support
it. Remember London Lane, the Samuel Pepys, the Hackney homeless festival, London
fields Lido??? I could go on and on about how they've helped relocate and assist the
alternative community, but you've heard it all before,and so have they.
I hope the Moberlys do dig their heels in, thats also a Hackney tradition in their
community.
Recommend? (7)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
IsRight
4 Feb 2010, 8:51AM
Good graffiti in the bogs and a nice wall of old battered tellys near the stairs.
Not been in here for a while but always enjoyed it when I did, used to have a Guiness
before venturing onto fob close by on a Saturday night. Sorry to hear it is going.
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
alexhogg
4 Feb 2010, 9:08AM
What a bunch of moaning minnies!!
Arts communities have always been transitary and always will be.
Lick your wounds for a few days then get your arses up to Clapton.
Recommend? (7)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
letshavefacts
4 Feb 2010, 9:09AM
Looks to me like another piece of our querky British heritage has been mown down by
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guardian Page 9 of 15
international blandness and profit.
One day you won't be able to tell which country you are in.
Recommend? (2)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Girafa
4 Feb 2010, 9:14AM
It's not enough to say that art communities have always been transitory - the Foundry
is/was a reliable oasis of ramshackleness in an overly sanitised world.
I always had the impression of spontaneity there, as though they'd just set the place up
about an hour before I arrived.
Recommend? (4)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
alexhogg
4 Feb 2010, 9:28AM
CLAPTON POND I tell you...CLAPTON POND!!!!
Recommend? (4)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
alexhogg
4 Feb 2010, 9:31AM
GIRAFA: "I always had the impression of spontaneity there, as though they'd just set the
place up about an hour before I arrived."
Maybe they saw you coming.
Recommend? (1)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Girafa
4 Feb 2010, 9:44AM
@Alexhogg - "Maybe they saw you coming"
heh heh I'd like to think so: Quick, Girafa's coming, he's at Old St roundabout already!
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
sinjin
4 Feb 2010, 9:57AM
Yes the old good days of the Foundry. Like the time when a girls scarf went up in flames
due to the height of the candles on there tables, and the way me and another bloke saved
her from a certain fire ball death. I fondly remember this moment, and the moment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guard... Page 10 of 15
when no-one form the Foundry took any notice or did anything, great days. Good ole
Foundry, will be sorely missed for their disregard for substance.
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
casinowilhelm
4 Feb 2010, 10:01AM
no point going to shoreditch any more - with the closure of the foundry it has completed
its transition into the new upper street, ie basically any old shitty city centre drunken
warzone.
Recommend? (3)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
amhurstbrigade
4 Feb 2010, 10:08AM
I've spent many a fine night there being bitten by fleas listening to my mates Michael
and Pete doing their set and although latterly the place became as much a tourist venue
as the rest of the Hoxton/Shoreditch/OldStreet triangle it will be missed. However as an
artist I was priced out of Shoreditch in 1993 not 2003 - we may well be on our way to
Clapton Pond but that's only a stopping place - I predict all London artists will be
relocated to Canvey Island and the bridges will be demolished - just before the sea level
rises by 2m~~~
Recommend? (5)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
hogarthterminal
4 Feb 2010, 10:15AM
underground a myth
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
leonzos
4 Feb 2010, 10:16AM
My first exhibition in London was here. The foundry has a policy of no CV's, no artistic
intervention or curation - just put your work up.
No doubt the corporate operated gallery in the basement of the hotel they are planning,
will have some snooty middle class curator, with a masters in art history, and a
penchant for the conceptual and overpriced. In other words like every other gallery
down Vyner Street.
Well done hackney council for bowing to the money. Hope they paid you all well. The
thing that galls most of all is that the whole Shoreditch/Hoxton area would be an
undesirable area to live and stay in, were in not for the pioneering artists who made it
trendy all those years ago - starting with the foundry.
Talk about gentrification.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guard... Page 11 of 15
The whole of Shoreditch is now a homogenised mess of semi trendy bars and hotels,
pints starting at £4.50.
Recommend? (5)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
JDS928
4 Feb 2010, 10:33AM
Sums up Shoreditch perfectly: its time has been and gone. Now there are more L-plate
wearing hen parties here on weekends than in Leicester Square. Let the shiny buildings
replace what is there so the idiots can keep paying £8 for a glass of blush wine and the
rest can move on and start the next place. London is only great because it keeps having
to reinvent itself.
Recommend? (4)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
verte
4 Feb 2010, 10:34AM
I live in Clapton Pond and it's already getting expensive...
Shoreditch died a few years ago and the rot is slowly spreading to Dalston, which is now
almost as unaffordable as Shoreditch, sadly.
Recommend? (1)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
ollBOT
4 Feb 2010, 10:37AM
its a toilet tube, great!
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
vertical
4 Feb 2010, 10:58AM
I would happily donate money towards the cremation of anything by the late Gavin
Turk. Late because he played the Duchamp game 80 years on and still gets these kind of
pathetic eulogies.
Is there a PayPal account I can send my money to?
nb. Warning to Hackney Council: Behind this new architectural facade is a tower of
straw bales, which the developers will reveal in four years' time to everyones'
bemusement. Do not give it planning permission.
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guard... Page 12 of 15
CoralieP
4 Feb 2010, 11:38AM
How depressing
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
gaialive
4 Feb 2010, 12:32PM
Shoreditch? Sure-Bitch more like...
It's been dead for years, as anyone who was involved at the beginning already knows...
What's the big deal about The Foundry anyway? More 2nd hand business trading on the
creative juices of the unknown, the forgotten, the untouchables and the unattainable.
It's no small irony that it is to become a boutique hotel, since in a perverse reading of it's
cultural history, that's all it ever was anyway.
So now all the media savvy cronies want to cry crocodile tears, over a social dynamic
that they provoke, nourish and sustain?
Sure-Bitch!
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
TimFoolery
4 Feb 2010, 1:40PM
I'm gutted like the rest of you, even though I had TWO pub bikes nicked from the railing
outside there. The second one didn't even have a saddle!
However, some posters in this thread sound more than a little bitter. And confused.
How can you extol the virtues of a space that fostered an open community yet berate all
the johnny-come-latelys for not being there at the beginning, sharing one half of
Strongbow, when most kids I saw in there before Christmas were eight years old in the
late '90s? Why all this talk of the next hot coolspot (Clapton, your time has come - lucky
you!) when it seems like nothing can ever be as good as it was in the past? It is not more
important to piss on something first, than to love it for what it is, you know.
Recommend? (5)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
AnotherFineDay
4 Feb 2010, 1:53PM
Anybody remember the Cooltan Arts centre in the old dole office in Brixton ? We were
all kicked out years (and years ago), the building then left empty for ... years and years.
What's there now ? A huge, empty space, growing nothing but weeds and buddleia.
Though maybe that's better than another, horrible, hotel.
It's always the same - money, money, money, money, money.
Recommend? (1)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guard... Page 13 of 15
Rexhamster
4 Feb 2010, 2:44PM
I went there once.
It was pretty rubbish
Get over yourselves
Recommend? (3)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Medalla
4 Feb 2010, 4:26PM
The Foundry performed an important part in the cultural life of London. Many artists
exhibited their art works there. Several of those artists will be remembered long after
The Foundry has gone.
The Foundry hosted several exhibitions of London Biennale artists, including the Eros
Arrows show curated by Marisol Cavia and the 2nd Drawing Exhibition curated by
Giacomo Picca assisted by Cecilia Madureira. Adam Nankervis, director of the nomadic
MUSEUM MAN, performed there. So did Rino Telaro and many other international
artists. Marko Stepanov made a drawing entitled 'Water Under the Bridge' in the gents'
toilet. Salih Kayra of Cyprus showed his first film there.
Thank you, Tracy and Jonathan Moberley.
I wish you both great success in your next cultural project.
All the best from David Medalla, Director of the London Biennale
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Up2Here
4 Feb 2010, 6:39PM
I've had many many interesting nights at The Foundry.
There's really very little in the way of genuinely left-field venues left across London and
any still standing seem to be on an invisible hit list if they are.
In turn they are normally replaced to make way for things London(ers) doesn't really
need by companies (often from abroad as is the case here) who are after making a bit of
fast cash helped by councils who are operating in much the same way, manned by
councillors who are to put it kindly, don?t really have the locals? interests as priority.
The alternatives we?re presented with ideas like this are, as we've clearly seen,
atmosphere free corporate sheds full of tasteless corporate concessions like the O2
erected as legacy fodder for suburban dwelling ministers who only go out once a year
anyway.
Blankly put, would anyone really make a bee-line for a hotel in Old Street?
It's not the safest of places for a tourist to wander around with his wife and wide-eyed
bunch of nippers. (we always have a bit of a laugh when we see the overnight stayers
emerge from the Holiday Inn for a night on the town here in Croydon...I'd love to know
where they end up!)
Also, The mere fact that it's being marketed as an "art'otel" IS acknowledging &
patronising lip service to the fact that the area does actually need a place like The
Foundry for people to display...If it ain't broke...
All that we see is going to replace it, is this bizarre eyesore which is not in any way good
for locals or for that matter, the skyline.
It will also presumably be charging way over the local average for its services and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guard... Page 14 of 15
operating on a much more exclusive basis than anything there already.
I?d also be very keen to see if the mentioned ?retail space? is going to be exclusive and
independent, or just another replication of high street chains in bite size concession
form.
To top this, Just as the Crossrail debacle in Central London has put countless people out
of work and now defunct businesses were given almost no notice or compensation when
they had to clear away.
The same will happen when the Old Street plans are inevitably extended to move on
mini-cab firms & fast food outlets.
?And I don?t even want to begin reminding everyone of the mess and chaos that was
brought to the traffic & pedestrian systems in the West End while their plans were in full
swing.
Squire and Partners saying this is to help regenerate this part of Shoreditch is a pretty
vague statement, I think we all really know how things like this work in London these
days, and it's got very little to do with providing for the greater part of the London
population.
Let me just thank The Moberley?s for the great times I've had there.
There's never been any monkeys on the door searching down your pants before they let
you enter, no Coke fuelled gangs in there out for a shanking spree and no crazed
girlfights happening on every floor, I've always felt safe there and now will have one less
reason to leave my South London cell for a simple bit of sociability & fun on a weekend
in an ever growing erosion of a London that had a bit of character and individuality.
If I was Banksy, I'd pop down for the big last night party and knock the mural down as a
protest myself?The whole thing sucks.
Recommend? (3)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Modshavnofriends
4 Feb 2010, 11:43PM
Now if we can only find someone to knock down the Hoxton Bar and Grill.
Recommend? (2)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
bleen
5 Feb 2010, 9:21AM
so long and thanks for all the fish....Abandon ship
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
verityseer
5 Feb 2010, 11:01AM
Your headline is boring, try Faux Boho Shoreditch Shithole To Shut: Pictures
Recommend? (1)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010
Foundry arts space set to make way for 18-storey hotel | Art and design | The Guard... Page 15 of 15
Localresident
5 Feb 2010, 9:21PM
As a local resident in Shoreditch, this is welcome news. Like many urban-dwellers
throughout the UK, most residents here are fed up with being surrounded by bars and
the problems they bring. Foundry is primarily a bar, and just because it is more
authentic than some, it cannot claim exemption from the bar scene which has caused
such chaos and worse in the area. Indeed almost every bar round here claims they are a
special case and are somehow not part of the problem, but of course this is nonsense:
the binge-drinkers who invade every weekend make little distinction between one bar
and the next, and frankly the graffiti which adorns half the Foundry's internal walls
probably just encourages them!
However things are improving, as the non-bar side of the economy takes hold - shops,
boutiques and amenities for local residents, exactly the sort of places which art'otel's
clientele will support, which in turn will make the area nicer and encourage more people
to live here. The hotel itself will have a beautiful art gallery, which will start to transform
the look and feel of that whole - currently very messy - stretch between there and Old St
roundabout.
Welcome, art'otel.
Recommend? (0)
Report abuse
Clip |
Link
Comments are now closed for this entry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close
08/02/2010