Of the many photographs taken the day before yesterday by Andrew Baker, the semi-official photographer, of Rory Stewart’s visit to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, I like this one the best, because it expresses his empathetic understanding of the potential fate of the Bell Foundry, now stripped out and in deep danger of being turned into […]
A brief public appearance by Rory Stewart in front of the Bell Foundry:- As expected, he completely understood the importance of the Bell Foundry in terms of retaining traditional craft skills, whilst simultaneously allowing them to develop in a modern way, using new technology: work which he himself has been doing in Afghanistan. Let’s hope […]
Things are hotting up with the Bell Foundry with Rory Stewart visiting at 2.45 tomorrow. I hope as many people as possible will be there to demonstrate local and national support. It shows that he intuitively recognises the value of traditional industries in the local culture of London communities and that London should not turn […]
For those of you who, like me, have lost track of the ins and outs of the planning process for the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, I have provided a brief digest of the last three years since news of its impending sale was first announced on 2 December 2017. What I think the narrative demonstrates is […]
I was asked last night for the current situation on the Bell Foundry. Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, has told Tower Hamlets that planning permission to turn it into a hotel is temporarily suspended whilst he and his officials consider whether or not to call it in. He […]
I went on a small pilgrimage this morning to see the Whitechapel Bell Foundry with an ardent visiting campanologist. I had learned something of the interest and enthusiasm of campanologists for the fons et origo of bells all over the world, but I hadn’t known that there are 80,000 bell ringers in Britain alone, that […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
