Truman Brewery v Save Brick Lane: What you need to know about the campaign to save the East End as we know it

A set of new, even bigger plans to turn Brick Lane into a monolithic retail centre has reignited the long-running battle between property tycoons and residents – here’s why we should care about Truman Brewery v Save Brick Lane.

Things are hotting up on Brick Lane, and it’s not the salt beef beigels.

The Save Brick Lane campaign, a coalition of local community groups, is fighting new redevelopment plans by the Truman Brewery owners for a large section of buildings on and around Brick Lane. Having already taken previous controversial plans to the Supreme Court in 2020, the campaign is now intensifying its efforts against the latest, more ambitious proposals.

This long-running battle has been dogged by scandals. Indeed, its plot reads like Eastenders for local authorities complete with tax-evading property magnates, mysteriously absent councillors, strong-arming tactics, Mayors with all to play for, and a marginalised community that’s not the push-over it first seemed. 

Such is the controversy around what is arguably the single most influential planning application to impact Tower Hamlets that we commissioned a five-part investigative series to throw light on Truman Brewery v Brick Lane. 

It’s a story that raises fundamental questions about the planning process, the influence of developers, and the future of London’s diverse communities. 

What’s at stake

There’s a reason the Truman Brewery development has caught the imagination of the world with the New York Times, The Guardian, Tribune, BBC, Evening Standard and countless industry publications all publishing deep-dive articles into the saga. 

It touches on some of the most pressing issues facing modern society and the outcome could set a seachange in the power struggle between corporates and communities. 

The Truman Brewery complex is a huge stretch of buildings, yards and warehouses across Brick Lane and Banglatown. Steeped in onion layers of history, the complex was once home to Britain’s largest Brewery. 

The Truman Brewery plot was purchased in the 1970s by members of the Zeloof family, garment industry moguls who moved to London from Israel in the 1970s. They are thought to have bought the entire plot for roughly £10 million.

A large Bengali community was established in the 1970s on the southern end of Brick Lane which connects to Whitechapel High Street, famously producing the Brick Lane curry houses. By the 1990s, the area was dubbed Banglatown. 

Relationships between small business owners and the Zeloof family were at first symbiotic – large pockets of their plots were rented to small independent businesses, many of them British-Bangladeshi. 

The increasing trendiness of the area has been a boon for small business owners who enjoy better foot traffic, and increasingly larger plots from the Zeloofs’ extensive retail portfolio are being rented out as office spaces or to name-brand shops. 

In the last few years, property prices have soared, tripling between 2010 and 2020. The Zeloofs have chosen increasingly to prioritise the bigger bucks, putting in large-scale planning applications for huge shopping malls and office blocks. 

Brick Lane’s community is now arguing that its character and heritage are at risk of disappearing completely – sterilised by rows of steel and glass retail filled with commuters with no neighbourhood connection. 

Save Brick Lane’s current campaign

On 19 August 2024, during the summer holidays, the owners of the Truman Brewery submitted three separate applications to the Tower Hamlets Council, intending to start work in the same area in 2026.

The consultation period has now ended and the target date for internal discussions at the council is 9 December 2024.

The largest section of the new proposed development is to the east of Brick Lane (marked in turquoise in the below illustration) and will cover a large portion of the land bounded by Brick Lane, with Spital Street to its east, Buxton Street to the north and Woodseer Street to the south.

Seventy per cent of the new proposal will consist of office, workspace, retail and food and beverage locations, according to an analysis by the Save Brick Lane coalition.

The yellow buildings in the illustration indicate the plan submitted in 2020 and awaiting judgment from the Supreme Court. The blue buildings are existing refurbishments of Truman Brewery buildings. 

Save Brick Lane has criticised the new application with concerns about foot traffic, cultural preservation, and lack of benefit to residents. In addition, the proposal is criticised for not meeting the conditions of the Council’s Masterplan for Brick Lane and Banglatown, especially the stark lack of public housing.

Truman Brewery v Save Brick Lane timeline

The Save Brick Lane campaign has been active since 2020 when the Truman Brewery owners originally submitted plans for the large-scale commercial development of Brick Lane. 

The development was to stretch almost the entire length of Woodseer Street including a new street called ‘New Dray Walk’ to connect to the existing Dray Walk. It would comprise a shopping mall, new offices and retail units.

The plans were controversial – residents complained the development would accelerate gentrification and increase rents without benefiting residents. There were also concerns that Brick Lane’s cultural heritage was at risk and that the proposed buildings were ugly and would block out light. 

‘New Dray Walk’ was criticised for potentially siphoning the regular flow of traffic out of Brick Lane, which would negatively impact local businesses that rely on foot traffic. 

The Save Brick Lane coalition was formed to oppose the development in 2020 by residents and seven community groups: The Bengali East End Heritage Society, The Spitalfields Trust, Nijjor Manush, House of Annetta, East End Preservation Society, Spitalfields Life as well as the East End Trades Guild – an alliance of 350 small independent East End businesses.

Demonstrations were held to protest the development, and an astounding 7,051 letters of objection were submitted to Tower Hamlets council. 

The campaign received extensive media coverage, and the Council deferred the development in 2021. However, later that year, the Council approved the development with minor changes.

The Council at the time was a Labour government, under Mayor John Biggs. In 2022, Lutfur Rahman of Aspire was re-elected as Mayor. His re-election was in large part due to his support of the the Save Brick Lane campaign, according to local blogger The Gentle Author who runs the ‘Battle for Brick Lane’ website and has been a major voice in the campaign,

‘Labor was voted out of power because of that campaign,’ The Gentle Author said, ‘the Council are working with them in solidarity.’ 

The Spitalfields Trust brought a judicial review against the Council in June of 2022 on the grounds that the original council meeting had been unlawful because it didn’t allow a member to vote remotely. 

However, the Judge at the High Court upheld the decision. The Spitalfields Trust then appealed to the Court of Appeal, which similarly dismissed the case. The case went to the Supreme Court on Thursday 25 July 2024. 

The case is still pending awaiting a verdict, which could take several months. 

The campaign relaunched its efforts on social media and crowdfunding for legal funds in the lead-up to the Supreme Court case in July 2024, spearheaded by community groups Nijjormanush and House of Annetta, as well as The Gentle Author. 

On 11 September 2024, the Tower Hamlets Council formally adopted the Spitalfields and Banglatown Masterplan as a Supplementary Planning Document. The Masterplan was created alongside extensive public consultation and is largely approved by the members of the Save Brick Lane Campaign.

Among other promises, the Masterplan includes the agreements to prioritise social housing in Spitalfields in Banglatown, as well as protecting cultural heritage and encouraging mixed land use.

Why we should care

To some of us who don’t live near Brick Lane, what happens on the road famous for welcoming waves of immigrants to the UK over the centuries might seem far removed. However, developments of this scale set precedents that have a ripple effect across the whole borough with the potential to erase many of the things we love about where we live.

To many of us, ‘David and Goliath’ planning battles might seem hopeless. Fights against developers happen the world over, year-in year-out, with the same outcomes – eventually, the developer wins. However, there are signs that this particular battle, which has gained media attention globally, may have a different outcome.

The cast of characters in this drama is unusual. The network of community groups fighting the plans is particularly well-organised and well-practised. The minority culture at risk of being washed out of Brick Lane has unusually strong economic importance and is led by an unusually recusant Mayor, and the wider society in which the drama is unfolding is unusually feisty, proud and protective – the East End.  

This all lends itself to an unpredictable outcome; one in which the person on the street may have more hope to influence than usual. True, the developers behind the Truman Brewery have been nibbling away at parts of Brick Lane, but with half of its approved plans subsequently blocked by the courts and half yet to be approved, there’s still a lot on the table and those who wish to object now have a small window of opportunity to have their say.

What you can do now

Save Brick Lane is currently fundraising to challenge the new development, and in October of this year opened a free exhibition at the Kobi Nazrul Centre. 

The exhibition explains the new proposal, as well as the Masterplan. It is accompanied by visual models of the proposed developments. The exhibition is open every Saturday and Sunday from 12 – 4 pm,  so you can see for yourself the potential changes to the area.

If you’d like to support the Save Brick Lane campaign, you can donate to their ‘fighting fund’ and send a letter of objection to the Council here: Battleforbricklane.com/get-involved

If you liked this read The Truman Brewery development: The community reaches boiling point