Email to Gillian Nicks at Hackney council planning dept re proposal to build a hotel on the site of The Foundry bar

Dear Ms Nicks –

Once again I find myself having to write to express my concern about yet another worrying development in our beleaguered borough. The Foundry Bar is a contemporary classic and a much welcome haven from the rampant commercialism of downtown Shoreditch. The values and ethics that the management of the Foundry display are those that echo the ideas and attitudes of Hackney residents past and present, the very same which have made the borough such a popular destination for the arts and music avant-garde.

It seems that this popularity is the borough’s downfall however, as now we are now told The Foundry is to be turned into an hotel, despite there already being one literally opposite. It would be nice to think that modern day Hackney Council will stay true to the borough’s modest and bohemian roots and reject the application, or at least reach an agreement that the developer must keep the Foundry as part of the development or re-house the bar nearby. It would also be nice to think that Hackney council will work hard with all the relevant stakeholders (which by the way includes us: the customers of the Foundry) to agree an outcome which doesn’t wash away one of the few bits of character Hackney has left. However I can’t see the developer being too happy with this idea, which means they will resist such a suggestion with all their might, and this in turns means Hackney planning having the guts and will-power to stand their ground and do the right thing on behalf of the tax-payers they represent. Sadly, based on past experience, this seems unlikely, but I’d love to be proved wrong. Maybe, this time, finally, I will be.

Regards,

Jon Theo
E8