pic: Adelle Kalakouti
Residents are split over a plan to resurface Brick Lane with tarmac in preparation for this year’s Olympics.
The controversial face-lift will include new lighting and the complete resurfacing of its famous underfoot bricks.
Tower Hamlets cabinet member for the environment Shahed Ali said: “The new asphalt surface on Brick Lane will be smarter, easier and cheaper to maintain and will help distinguish space for pedestrians from traffic.”
But Brick Lane businesses have greeted the council’s decision with mixed feelings.
Anna Sims of Heba vintage clothes shop told EastLondonLines: “It is a good thing, it needs modernising and repairing. Brick Lane has its history but it is renowned for being grubby. It will still pull the vintage crowds, a road is just a road at the end of the day.”
But Mohammed Maksudul Kabir, owner of the Banoful Cake House, disagrees: “Before, when the road was made of brick it was nicer. Now it is going to lose its character and tradition, it’s going to be like a normal road. There is no need to waste money on that.”
Local supermarket owner Junel Khalikue said: “The bricks go perfectly with the name Brick Lane. We like it.”
Restaurant and shop owners have welcomed the regeneration but say the works have had a negative effect on business since they began this week.
Others expressed satisfaction with their efficiency, saying works in the past had taken too long.
The resurfacing project, taking place over the next five weeks, will cost about £300,000. It is funded by Transport from London and developer contributions.
Cretins
Not only is this a total waste of 300k but how on earth can they this be justified? Part of its character is it’s look and feel, including the bricks!!
So they are wasting £300,000 destroying a piece of London history?
Keeping things the way they are and
maintaining some historical sense is the direction society is currently moving. Can’t wait for 20 years time when they realise their mistake and re-brick the whole thing…for a lot more than 300k
Shocked that they are spending £300,000 on this madness and in one of the poorest boroughs in London all for an event that is only running for 8 weeks, surely the money could be better spent! I imagine some lucky contractor is laughing all the way to the reclamation yard!
ABSOLUTELY not needed WASTE of Money that could be spent on badly needed services. I would like to know who thought this was a good idea and who approved this in the Council.
No bricks on Brick Lane, just in time for the Olympics? Just when tourists will be piling into London in search of landmarks and cultural destinations. The money would be better spent on the creative and cultural ecosystem that defines the essence of the Lane. You have to wonder how these decisions are made and how much public consultation was involved. We have been just off Brick Lane for the last 12 years and we like it just as it is – well almost. The Lane is already cordoned off, no doubt for Brick removal, so it is too late for a Save the Bricks campaign. But what about using the bricks to build something else? Our organisation (CIDA.co.uk) would be happy to assist. We’ll be contacting Cllr Shahed Ali; wish us luck.
Clearly none of you have to drive or walk up and down Brick Lane everyday. There is no distinction between the pavement and the road and drivers reguarly drive on the ‘pavement’. The bricks have been dug up so many times by contractors the whole road surface is a disaster and is in desperate need of replacement, if it’s an event like the Olympics that spurs this on then so be it. Bricks are not a suitable road surface on a busy, reguarly dug up road, like Brick Lane. I welcome this project. P.S. It’s not called Brick Lane becuase the road is laid with bricks!
A better solution would be to pedestrianize the whole street, at least on the weekends when the pedestrian traffic is such hat it’s almost impossible for an automobile to get through.
Cars on Brick Lane are the problem, not the pedestrians.
It’s a shame that this has been done in such a clinical matter. Maybe a better solution would have been to consult local groups before going ahead and paving over.
It would make sense to pave it with bricks again, though there is no history to the bricks on the lane – as Edward stated earlier – it’s simply a coincidence.
This is a good thing guys! The bricks aren’t historic cobbles they’re modern, but they are in bad shape and not suitable. Every time I go to Brick Lane there is roadworks, it’s a mess,this is a step in the right direction….saying that, 300 grand seems way over the top. I need to start a tarmaccing business!
Crazy and it’s TFL paying the £300,000 which means commuters are paying for it through increased tube/bus prices
not only is it a waste of 300k immediately, but like every surface that is laid in this country it will require regular repair due to being done badly in the first place. Stop trying to dress East London up to be something it’s not! It’s beautiful as it is, this Olympics is coming at the expense of the soul of the capital!!
leave the bricks alone!!!
Was this decision made my someone in touch with the local community? It seems a shame that individuals so detached from their community have control of public finance.
Interested in signing the petition to save the Brick Lane bricks? Have a look here: https://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2012/02/petition-to-save-the-brick-lane-bricks-launched-by-locals/
Everyone seems to have short memories as the stone ‘sets’ were actually laid quite recently as part of refurbishment of the area . . . Section 106 money perhaps . . . anyway the job was badly done, utilities companies soon messed it up more until the street is a bit of a death trap . . . However what is a scandal is that the original work is not simply being repaired . . . Where are all the sets going? They are probably worth the £300,000 cost . . . !!!
What are these people talking about?!
Do they really “feel that replacing the cobbles with tarmac will rob Brick Lane of its famous history”?
Since when do modern concrete “cobbles”, which were only laid a few years ago, represent the Lane’s “famous history”? Brick Lane gets its name from the fact that bricks for building housing used to be made there – nothing to do with modern concrete “cobbles” on the road surface.
It was a bad decision to lay the faux “cobbles” in the first place. It probably cost a million quid and they were lifted by Thames Water within weeks and have never been flat since, and consequently have been a noisy trip hazard ever since. Good riddance to them.
props to joyce and #@?! for pointing out the selective amnesia seems to have come as the area slips further and further into a simulacra of a past it never had.