‘They’ve already taken Aldgate’: London’s Bangladeshi community fighting to save Brick Lane from gentrification

Brick Lane has been at the heart of the East End for hundreds of years, from the Truman Brewery’s glory days as beer capital of the world to the rows of iconic curry houses that have been owned by Bengali families for decades. But now, locals fear that the heart of Shoreditch may be ripped out with the development of the brewery site.

The Save Brick Lane campaign is battling to prevent high street shops from being built, with thousands of people fighting to preserve the culture of the diverse community. In new developments, the coalition has been granted a Judicial Review to push forward in their campaign to save the area – however, they need to raise £20,000 to cover the legal costs.

READ MORE: ‘I led the biggest Bengali-led protest in Britain following the racist murder of Altab Ali in East London’

It comes as last year a planning application was approved by Tower Hamlets which permitted a development with four floors of corporate offices over large retail units on Brick Lane (on part of the Old Truman Brewery site). After this, over 7,000 objections were received by the council, highlighting the damage the development would do to the local community and the character of the area.

Tasnima Chowdhury says the campaign has a chance of winning

Campaigners argued the development will push out working class ethnic minority communities in the area as rents could rise. Despite thousands of objections, the application was given consent at a planning committee in the presence of three councillors – which the coalition says was not democratic.

Campaigners are now able to challenge Tower Hamlets Council – a High Court judge said: “The Claimant’s grounds are arguable and merit consideration at a full hearing.”

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Campaigners are now able to challenge Tower Hamlets Council about the development

A Save Brick Lane crowd-funder explains: “The harm that will be inflicted to Brick Lane if this development goes ahead will be irrevocable and it paves the way for the rest of the Old Truman Brewery to be developed in the same way – serving the interests of the owner at the expense of local people and the special character of the area.”

The NijjorManush campaign group is part of the coalition to Save Brick Lane

The NijjorManush campaign group is part of the coalition to Save Brick Lane

The plans involve a controversial shopping centre, which will see the old Truman Brewery buildings redeveloped into office space and high street chains. The legendary ‘curry mile’ is currently home to hundreds of family-owned curry houses and cafés, and has become known as ‘Banglatown’ locally and across the city due to its Bangladeshi roots.

Campaigners have reached a new development in saving Brick Lane

Campaigners have reached a new development in saving Brick Lane

Speaking to MyLondon, Tasnima Chowdhury,25, who is the co-founder of NijjorManush, an independent campaigning group that seeks to empower Bangladeshis said: “Being Bengali I have a lot of family scattered across Tower Hamlets, I have seen the impact of social cleansing and gentrification impacting the people I’m related to, especially small businesses.

“I work for a union representing small businesses and their biggest concerns are always rent – it always jumps up by these huge developments.

Brick Lane is home to independent businesses and curry houses

Brick Lane is home to independent businesses and curry houses

“The development will ruin the historical aspect of Brick Lane and giving the green light to this development gives the green light to other developments. We are fighting against a billionaire and the council – it’s another example of the city roaching in, they’ve taken Aldgate already and that had a significant impact.

“We were approached by local residents asking us if we could in anyway raise awareness or stop this development from going through, we led on the campaign and got into a coalition with seven other organisations.

“We looked at options and decided we will need to go through legal channels, so we needed to initially raise £10,000 which we did in just two to three weeks, these were given to planning lawyers to see if we even have a case, they found three grounds and the high court granted us a judicial review -the judge said we can be heard at a full hearing.

Unzela Khan, Race and Diversity

Now that you’re here – let me introduce myself.

I am the Race and Diversity Correspondent for MyLondon, and I enjoy writing about stories to do with ethnic minorities.

The stories I’m most proud of are ones where I can get an insight into the experiences of individuals, such as this powerful independent woman who fled Eritrea and ended up opening her own salon in Brixton.

I also love supporting ethnic minority owned businesses and finding out about owners’ own experiences and inspirations behind their menus, for example the story of this Chinese bakery.

My own interests and experiences also weave into my stories so that readers can get an insight into my South Asian heritage, as you can see from this story about Karak Chai which I’m ever so passionate about!

Although I was born and raised in London, I would say I’m very connected to my own culture as a British Pakistani who is fluent in Urdu.

This year I became a finalist for the British Muslim Awards in the Media Achiever of the Year category – and I hope to make a difference every single year with my work.

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“This was a massive achievement, it means legally we can win this – we have to raise £10,000 first which is for legal fees, the other £10,000 is incase we lose this, we’ll have to pay that to the other side.

“It will go to court and I do believe we have very good grounds and merit to win this. I believe we can win this, it’s about keeping the momentum up, we can see from anti gentrification campaigns including Save Latin, that there is a big space to win these kind of campaigns, it will require a lot of push and effort.

A Tower Hamlets Council spokesperson said: “The scheme approved by the Development Committee would provide affordable workspace at 45 per cent market discount, as set out in the draft Spitalfields Neighbourhood Plan. There wouldn’t be a new large open plan office space, or loss of existing shops, restaurants or other businesses.

“The building is proposed on the site of what is currently an open car park and it will also be lower in height than the neighbouring buildings on the Truman’s brewery. It is also estimated that the scheme on completion will provide over 700 jobs.

“We await the outcome of the judicial review.”

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