In the great tide of London’s redevelopment which seems to have been let rip during COVID, such that central London is now populated only by construction workers (have you tried travelling on the Central line at 6.15 ?), we seem to have given up on any idea of systematic conservation in favour of turning London into Hong Kong. Luckily, I like Hong Kong, but I also liked the low-rise, historically complex, Victorian city that London used to be, now disappearing under huge anonymous blocks of high-rise, with ungovernable planning consents.

The death of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry is only emblematic of the death of the old city, thanks to the new policy of Historic England to encourage and work with developers and accept payment from them for their advice, which used to be called a conflict of interest, but is now just the way to get things done:-