We went to an event tonight at Here East, an amazing set of new industrial spaces out in the Olympic Park near Hackney Wick, to see the way that new technology can be applied to the traditional techniques of Bell casting, in order to demonstrate that, if United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust are allowed to take the Whitechapel Bell Foundry over, they can introduce new, clean, environmentally friendly processes of casting, as well as invaluable systems of apprenticeship and training (there is apparently a big skills shortage in this area).  

Current technology uses a ceramic shell, based on aerospace, which allows for more detail in the surface.   In the past, it would have been done with loam through sand-casting. Prehistory meets hi-tech:-

Those of you who, like me, have never upgraded from the old round Reading Room will be reassured to know that the new British Library retains many of the same characteristics, except, of course, that there are many more readers now that you don’t have to demonstrate your academic credentials and the public areas, which are strangely even more packed than the reading rooms – I assume because they provide somewhere warm and dry for students to sit at their laptops. Most of the books I ordered have to come from Boston Spa, but not all. What I particularly noticed is a different level of concentration if everyone is reading: a collective concentration, uninterrupted by chitchat and the mobile phone. I need to re-learn it.

I went to renew my reader’s ticket at the British Library today and realised that I have never actually used the new British Library, but am a veteran of the old Round Reading Room where I sat, but not every day, at S6 or thereabouts, until I discovered that the atmosphere was quieter and more rarefied in the North Library, where one had access to rare books. Luckily, my name was still logged on the system, except my birth date was recorded as 12th. December 1900. I understood why the lady at the desk looked at me a touch sceptically. It’s quite nice to be back in the special quiet of a library reading room, undisturbed by anything except the sound of distant coughs.

There was a good, but perhaps too brief, discussion of the issues surrounding the development of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry on Front Row tonight, beginning with the sounds of some of the most famous bells cast in Whitechapel, including St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Clement Dane, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.

Gillian Darley and Stephen Clarke made the case for keeping it as a working foundry instead of turning it into (another) luxury hotel, based on the model of the transformation and successful renovation of Middleport Pottery, which has been such a success: keeping it as a business, introducing new technology, keeping changes to the building to a minimum, opening up new markets in China, and encouraging school and public visits.

As Gillian said, it’s an issue for cultural heritage, not just built heritage, and Historic England can’t say it’s not their mandate because it’s what they did so successfully in Middleport.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000c4xg

When I read Boris Johnson’s dog-whistle appeal to anti-immigrant feeling this morning – presumably closely in line with the Tory’s election strategy to appeal to northern, working class Brexiteers – I couldn’t help remembering that Johnson is himself the grandson of a Turk, Osman Kemal, and great grandson of a German, Hubert Freiherr von Pfeffel.

Isn’t it a tiny bit distasteful that he should be appealing to aggressive British nativism at this juncture ? Doesn’t his appeal to anti-foreigner feeling carry a few risks with it ?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/election-2019-johnson-vows-end-to-migrants-treating-britain-as-their-own-nczv7r97n?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1575855443

I am re-posting this interview between Owen Hatherley and Emma Dent Coad, because it is such an incredible relief at this stage of the election, when there has been so pitifully little discussion of real policies, particularly about public housing, one of the key issues facing all three parties, to read the views of a historically well-informed and well-qualified candidate, who is in danger of being squeezed out:-

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/12/defend-emma-dent-coad

Last time I discussed the saving of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in the late 1970s, someone suggested I read Alec Forshaw’s book on 1970s London: Discovering the Capital, an engaging and extremely informative book about the character of London in the 1970s in the heyday of demolition, Council redevelopment and a general lack of interest in its historic character, written by Alec Forshaw, who worked in Islington’s planning department and became its head of conservation. I have now done this. The book makes clear how attitudes began to change in the late 1970s, not least thanks to the 1978 Inner Urban Areas Act, which provided public funding to protect and preserve inner city industrial buildings. I assume that this was what it made it possible for either the GLC or Tower Hamlets to provide funding for the preservation, repair and extension of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1979. I now realise that this was before English Heritage was established (it was established in 1983), so James Strike may have been employed by Tower Hamlets or the GLC or even by the Hughes themselves with grant aid.

Whatever the exact circumstances – and I hope one of my readers will know more – it is sad that such a determined effort to protect traditional manufacturing in the inner city, including, presumably, substantial public investment, is at risk of being wiped out forty years later. It is also at least possible that conditions were set on what would happen in the event of the eventual sale or closure of the Bell Foundry. Once again, I hope someone in Tower Hamlets or the GLA has checked this out.

I have been asked by a reader who prefers to remain anonymous to remind readers that there does already exist a fully funded alternative scheme for retaining all the craft skills of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, which Historic England has inexplicably (or negligently) chosen to ignore.

It has been drawn up by the United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust, jointly with Factum Foundation who have experience of running a foundry in Madrid and the great advantage of being very well connected with artists, so not being dependent solely on the sale of church bells for the viability of their business plan.

United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust are uniquely well placed to take on the bell foundry, because they have recent experience of running a similar industrial site, Middleport Pottery, in Stoke-on-Trent, which won every prize going for the sensitivity and interest of the project, which was overseen by Ros Kerslake, now the Chief Executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund. If there are doubts about the viability of their proposals, which I know there have been, it’s worth noting that their Founding Patron is H.R.H. The Prince of Wales who has a long track record of involving himself in projects involving the development of craft skills. So, it’s hardly a fly-by-night organisation.

Factum Foundation is the charitable arm of Factum Arte, a brilliant and inventive operation based in the suburbs of Madrid which has a great deal of experience in retaining and developing historic craft skills, with the aid of new technology. I know that there are people, including the Hughes family, who think that the new technology is alien to the traditions of the Bell Foundry, but it is essential to the commercial viability of their proposals. And I should declare an interest, but not a commercial one, in that my son works for Factum Foundation and it was I who got them involved, knowing that they have the relevant skills.

So, Historic England have been, and still are, faced by a choice between, on the one hand, well-established, not-for-profit charities with the best possible experience of developing an industrial site in a creative way and, on the other hand, a rapacious New York speculator who has offered the Hughes family a small shrine to bell making, while demolishing half the site and building a hotel next door.

Which scheme has Historic England chosen to endorse ? The one from the property developer.

I thought it might be helpful to know a bit more about James Strike, the conservation architect who was responsible for adding the big industrial extension at the back of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry so sensitively in the early 1980s, which Historic England is now happy to see demolished in order to enable the site to be turned into a luxury hotel.

Well, blow me down, guess what ? He was the in-house architect for none other than English Heritage, the predecessor body of Historic England. He is a great expert on architectural conservation, with particular experience and expertise in adapting historic buildings for current use, and author of Architecture in Conservation, published in 2012.

In other words, the building that Historic England are now happy to see demolished as being of ‘no architectural or historic interest’ was put up by their own in-house architect, grant aided by the GLC, precisely in order to allow the Bell Foundry to continue to flourish.

Perhaps we could have James Strike’s views on this topic ? Or has he signed the Official Secrets Act, like the rest of Historic England ?

I apologise for persevering in exploring the issues surrounding the decision to support the demolition of the rear section of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as being of ‘no architectural or historical interest’.

As I understand it, the Historic Buildings Division of the Greater London Council intervened in the late 1970s, recognising the exceptional architectural and historical importance of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. They provided the Hughes family with funding to build a new extension at the back to keep it as a going industrial concern. There presumably will have been legal conditions attached to this funding, which may not allow its sale and demolition by an American developer.

I hope and assume that someone at Historic England has checked the files, which are held at the London Metropolitan Archives, because they are going to look a tiny bit casual, or negligent, if a great deal of documentation emerges as to how important historians and industrial archaeologists regarded the Bell Foundry in the late 1970s, whereas now the London Advisory Committee apparently supports the idea that part of the existing building can simply be demolished as of ‘no architectural or historical significance’ and the rest of it is turned into a late night drinking parlour in order to facilitate public access.