Tom takes on fight to save Poplar Labour Exchange
A RETIRED schoolmaster takes on developers tonight in a bid to preserve an original 1930s Labour exchange in London’s East End. Tom Ridge is fighting to save the old Poplar employment centre in Limehouse at a local authority planning meeting
A RETIRED schoolmaster takes on developers tonight in a bid 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, is now fighting to save the old Poplar employment centre in Burdett Road, Limehouse.
Developers want to tear it down to make way for an 11-storey tower block of flats and shops, which is going to be decided at tonight's Strategic Development committee of Tower Hamlets council.
Tom is addressing councillors at 7pm to try and persuade them to throw out the proposals and have the building, which has been empty for three years, locally 'listed' and be include it in a conservation area.
You may also want to watch:
He has support from the 20th Century Society, Save Britain's Heritage and the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society who insist the building, originally put up by the Office of Works in 1933, has historical and architectural merit.
But he is up against Town Hall planning officers who have already recommended that the redevelopment next to the Limehouse Cut canal would allow "more efficient use" of the land.
Most Read
- 1 Murder arrest after woman stabbed to death in Whitechapel this morning
- 2 Fury as family homes vanish when Isle of Dogs landlord converts to bedsits
- 3 Man sentenced after teenage boy groomed on Snapchat to sell heroin
- 4 Two men arrested after police officers assaulted in Limehouse rave
- 5 Police hunt after stabbing in Cable Street: One man hurt
- 6 Airbnb house party violence leaves police officer with broken finger
- 7 'Racist consultation' protest rejected on Tower Hamlets street closures as Labour sticks to its manifesto
- 8 Leyton Orient boss is expecting more transfer movement in the window
- 9 Council fined for Alexia Walenkaki's playground death in Mile End and says sorry to family
- 10 Ethnic communities not taking up Covid jabs, Tower Hamlets Mayor warns