Poplar Labour Exchange gets another lease of life in Tower Hamlets

A RETIRED schoolmaster and other residents last night persuaded councillors to preserve an original 1930s Labour exchange in London s East End.Tom Ridge, a local historian who successfully championed the preservation of the Bancroft Archives at Mile End

A RETIRED schoolmaster and other residents last night persuaded councillors to

preserve an original 1930s Labour exchange in London's East End.

Tom Ridge, a local historian who successfully championed the preservation of the Bancroft Archives at Mile End last year, pleaded with the development committee at Tower Hamlets to save the old Poplar employment centre in Burdett Road, Limehouse.

Developers wanted to tear it down to make way for an 11-storey tower block of flats and shops.

But councillors voted unanimously to reject the plans.