2021-09-12 Save Brick Lane funeral procession
52 images Created 30 Sep 2021
London, UK. 12th September, 2021. Local residents and supporters of the Save Brick Lane campaign and Nijjor Manush, a Bengali and Bangladeshi campaign group, take part in a funeral procession along Brick Lane organised in protest against the ongoing gentrification of Shoreditch. Campaigners are protesting in particular against plans to develop part of the Truman Brewery into a shopping centre and 5-storey office building as the first step in the redevelopment of the entire former brewery site as a corporate plaza. 140 small businesses are currently based at the Truman Brewery. The funeral procession, which was preceded and followed by speeches in Altab Ali Park and outside the Truman Brewery, was the final in a series of such community demonstrations to be held prior to discussion of the planning application by Tower Hamlets Council Development Committee on 14th September. A council decision had previously been deferred in response to concerns from local campaigners that rents in Brick Lane would be pushed up by the development, so driving out the small traders and independent businesses for which the area is known and much loved. Tower Hamlets experienced more gentrification than any other London borough between 2010-2016.
