S.P.A.R Report Spitalfields (December 15)

The Society has been monitoring this demolition since the summer, note the delicate mass of steel rebars to the right.
This development is, as expected, contested ground

Local campaigners have been fighting to stop Spitalfields Market’s 1929 London Fruit Exchange (LFWE) from being redeveloped.
However as this shows it is now nearly completely demolished, only the facade on Brushfield Street opposite the market still remains.
The City and Exemplar Properties have flattened the exchange from the south removing what was a multi-story car park

The new development will be over two blocks, what was Dorset/Duval
Street will be built over, this was where in Miller’s Court, Mary Jane Kelly
was murdered, seen as the final Ripper Murder in 1888
(from our East London history correspondent)

The rear facade is all that remains, the London Fruit Exchange was home to over 80 small businesses,
and is due to be turned into a 32,000 sq ft six-story office block with commercial space
S.P.A.R is insisting they keep some of the rubble visible within the new development

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S.P.A.R Report Battersea (November 15)

Although Society members were not allowed any further, this site is part of Battersea Power Station Development Corporation’s extensive plans for Battersea’s Nine Elms area. They have stated there will be 839 new homes, with around 15 per cent of them ‘affordable’, they are saying around 370, with 220 below market prices, still likely to be 80%, most likely available to those earning over £50,000! The ‘affordable’ homes will likely be close to the busy Nine Elms railway line, far from the luxury flats found nearest to the Thames and Power Station

This rubble was encountered on one of the Inspiral London Walks
Further details here: http://inspirallondon.com/

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Piccadilly in Rubble

A member caught this fine example of hanging rubble when passing
Piccadilly on the Climate March, 29 November
The Society is always on the look-out for unusual rubble formations.
If you photograph any sightings email them to
preserveadmirablerubble (@) gmail.com

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AGM Dalston Report (October 15)

The Society’s AGM (Annual General Meeting) was
at “The Poor Door” exhibition at A-side B-side Gallery in Hackney from 1 – 11 October
Brian Guest (above) was re-elected General Secretary for another year
and members brought many excellent rubble examples

Here Brian Guest speaks to long-time Hackney residents
On screen the S.P.A.R film shows the demolition of three tower blocks
in Stepney, we had a member visit the AGM who used to
live in one of those blocks, they wrote an account of their time there

Members drew the admirable rubble they had seen in
Hackney and elsewhere over the previous year

Tinsel Edwards (curator of the exhibition) and some of the other artists talked about the
London’s housing crisis at ’The Poor Door’ on 10 October 2015.
Brian Guest was also in attendence

Tinsel has said: The title was inspired by the furore over the development at One Commercial Street in Aldgate, which was built with two separate entrances. Luxury marble floors, chandeliers and concierge for the wealthy city workers, and a side-alley door for the ‘affordable’ housing tenants. The Poor Door is a growing trend in new housing developments in London, this divisive phenomena seems reminiscent of the Victorian era.

S.P.A.R says homes for all, and rubble for all seasons

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