Council votes to oppose Truman Brewery redevelopments

The council have voted to oppose plans to redevelop Truman Brewery buildings after a passionate community campaign to halt the plans

Tower Hamlets Council will argue against three major redevelopments on and around Brick Lane at a planning inquiry in October.

Owners of the Truman’s Brewery buildings in Spitalfields want to redevelop three sites on Brick Lane, Ely’s Yard and Gray Eagle Street. The final decision will be decided by the government’s Planning Inspectorate following October’s inquiry.

Councillors voted to oppose the developments at a planning meeting yesterday (Thursday, 31). Residents and campaigners urged them to ‘say no to private developers and investors who prioritise profit at the expense of our community’.

The largest of the three applications would demolish several buildings at the Truman’s Brewery site between Brick Lane and Spital Street, as well as a ‘cash and carry’ in Spital Street.

In their place, it would build five new buildings with offices, 44 homes, a restaurant, a cinema, a supermarket and a market. Six of the homes would be let at affordable rent levels.

The Boiler House and Cooperage buildings would be retained and refurbished for event spaces and a microbrewery.

Saif Osmani, of the Bengali East End Heritage Society, called on councillors to reject the proposals. He said the plan ‘looks like something out of a bland, AI-generated cityscape’.

Osmani said, ‘You cannot replicate Brick Lane. It’s a living, breathing, historic place shaped by centuries of migration.

‘Hugenot, Irish, black, Jewish, Bangladeshi and Somali communities have all contributed to making this a vibrant cultural landscape. Now rising rents and gentrification are pushing these communities out.’

Faysal Ahmed said he was ‘born and bred on Brick Lane’ and the promise of ‘just six social homes’ would be ‘a slap in the face of everyone in this community’.

Ahmed added: ‘Please say no to private developers and investors who prioritise profit at the expense of our community.’

Council planning officers recommended that councillors on the strategic development committee back the plans.

Their report to the committee acknowledged that the development would ’cause harm to the character and appearance’ of the area.

But they argued that this would be outweighed by the benefits. The report said: ‘The proposal would deliver a high-quality, mixed-use development that would contribute positively to the regeneration of the Truman Brewery Estate and the wider Brick Lane area.’

But councillors at the committee voted to oppose the scheme instead. Committee chair Amin Rahman said the council should oppose it on the grounds of heritage harm, inadequate affordable housing, a negative impact on local businesses and failure to respect culture and identity.

Councillors also voted unanimously to oppose the redevelopment of Ely’s Yard on Dray Walk, just to the west of Brick Lane, and the construction of a new data centre to the west of that on Grey Eagle Street.

The Ely’s Yard development would involve constructing an office building of up to six storeys with a ground-floor market.

Planning officers said the development would be acceptable in terms of its size and impact on the character of the area. They also said it would generate jobs, and 10% of the new workspace would be ‘affordable’ at a discount of 45%.

But Cllr Rahman said the scale and massing wouldn’t respect the low-rise character of Ely’s Yard. He also said the harm to the heritage of the area wouldn’t be outweighed by the public benefits.

Planning officers recommended that councillors oppose the data centre. They said its design would make it an ‘incongruous form of development in this location’.

Councillors voted to accept their recommendations.

The committee’s votes would ordinarily have determined whether the applications were approved or rejected. But Truman Estates has appealed to the Planning Inspectorate to make the decision, arguing that the council had not determined the application in time.

Instead, councillors had to vote on whether they would have approved or rejected the plans if they were in a position to determine the application. Their decisions will form the basis of the council’s case at the hearing in October.

Representatives of Truman Estates did not attend the meeting to make their cases for approval.

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