Published:
9:31 AM November 1, 2021
A £9million government windfall has been won to regenerate Whitechapel Road ready for London’s new Elizabeth line.
It is being used to spruce up the street market outside Whitechapel station to meet the transformation that’s about to hit the East End with Crossrail’s project completed next year.
Today’s street market down Whitechapel Road
– Credit: Luke O’Donovan
That’s followed by Tower Hamlets Council’s new town hall complex on the old London Hospital site and a new shopping precinct drawn up in the Whitechapel Masterplan.
Money has been found for public works like improving pavements, street lighting and more greenery after the local authority successfully applied jointly with TfL for £9,300,000 Whitehall “investment funding”.
More modern market stalls are on the cards with better facilities for managing market waste that ends up as litter every day. There’s also cash for essential repairs to shop fronts as well.
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“This is a welcome investment,” mayor John Biggs said. “It will go towards the improvements needed to the Whitechapel Road to make it more accessible and boost local businesses.”
Whitechapel Market greengrocery stall
– Credit: Mike Brooke
The successful bid for a slice of Whitehall’s “levelling up” fund follows months of hard lobbying.
TfL’s commercial development director Graeme Craig said: “Whitechapel station has already seen a significant transformation reopening the station entrance. The area will benefit more when the Elizabeth line opens next year.”
Street improvements outside stretch from the traffic-lights at New Road and Vallance Road to the junction with Cambridge Heath Road and Sydney Street, Whitechapel station one side and the planned new town hall on the other.
Future town hall in Whitechapel’s converted old London Hospital
– Credit: LBTH
Plans to reboot Whitechapel have been around for a decade which developed into a strategic masterplan by 2014 with a new civic hub, public open spaces, 3,500 new homes and 5,000 jobs.
Cllr Rabina Khan said at the time: “We want to make sure Whitechapel is a thriving community by 2025.”
The masterplan included a total make-over for the Whitechapel Road with trees lining the busy A11 thoroughfare.
Quarter-mile stretch of planned street improvements
– Credit: LBTH
https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local-council/whitechapel-masterplan-makeover-8451412
