A seemingly rare victory for old London against the developers occurred this week, when a planning committee voted not to allow British Land’s plans for Norton Folgate. I didn’t write about it at the time as, well, if I wrote about every building under threat here we’d never cover anything else. It gets depressing. If you don’t know it, Norton Folgate is a small area on the edge of Spitalfields that you pass if you get the bus from Liverpool Street to Shoreditch. You know, on one of your big hipster nights out at the cereal cafe or what-have-you. If you want to know more of the ins and outs of the case then here’s a good summary. Or just stare at this gif I made:

Yes, I was so angry I made a gif for the first time in my life. Direct Action! I actually did go past it on the bus, yes on my way to a hipster haunt, just this week. And although the part that faces the road is certainly run down, it’s a wonderful visual breather to be able to see the sky again after the unfriendly high-rises of the city. It’s the first time on that street that you get to feel like you’re at the proper scale again, rather than a scurrying ant. I’m so glad it’s been saved.

I’ll leave the last word to reader Madeleine, who posted this pithy comment to last week’s post on the threat to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. “Oh I can’t bear it – everything of character in London now needs saving from dastardly clueless property developers; homes, studios, shops, markets etc – I would ban all property developers from London. Good news about Norton Folgate and Spiegelhalter’s today though so well worth fighting those philistines!” Thanks for commenting – you said it all.