please empty your brain below
I for one will be very sad to see that car park go. It may smell of wee, but it has some great views from the top deck - soon only available to brokers. Dietrich Klose must be spinning in his grave.

Richard | Homepage | 12.10.12 - 1:51 a.m. | #

I quite like The Gun. It's largely resisted the incursion of City workers from the west and Shoreditch hipsters from the east. But I guess this means the City has won, and we can expect it to reopen as a trendy wine bar.

martin | 12.10.12 - 6:54 a.m. | #

I too was a big fan of the Gun when I used to work over that way.

Having just moved into a building that has retained it's period twenties features and made half hearted attempts at open plan offices and failing dismally this is one of the few times I will have sympathy for keeping the facades and starting again

Peewit | Homepage | 12.10.12 - 7:18 a.m. | #

The changing face of London, apart from the facade and possibly the staircase inside there does not seem a lot worth keeping in this old building. The widows look like single-glazed metal frames, the plumbing is outdated and no doubt the energy losses in the building are high. A new build will be better, and the frontage remains. Will there be new car parking spaces under the new building to replace the loss of the multi-level car park I wonder.
This area had changed a lot. I had friends who lived in Fournier Street, just near to this development, the house they bought had been used as a rag trade factory, and they spend a lot of money and time restoring it to a residential home again. The Synagogue at the end of that road is now a mosque, life goes on, London changes as all thriving living cities must.

John | 12.10.12 - 7:46 a.m. | #

If they're keeping the facade and the building is no longer used for its original purpose, I really can't see the drama here. Life moves on; needs change - largely now due to the technology by which you bring us the news, DG - and a city can't be preserved in aspic.

David | 12.10.12 - 9:26 a.m. | #

When you said "on Wednesday the Mayor said yes, and the Mayor wins", I thought for one terrible moment that you meant Lutfur Rahman...

Peter Cameron | Homepage | 12.10.12 - 10:01 a.m. | #

I bet that if the developers do get their way they will be able to have the hideous Congestion Charge camera array moved from its present location in front of the main entrance!

Bob Lindsay-Smith | 12.10.12 - 10:35 a.m. | #

Thank you for this article DG. It's a shameful case, not because of the idea of redevelopment per se but because it has been done so badly. The alterations to the roofline of the 'preserved' facade are, if the visualization is to be relied upon, very damaging. Glazing the monumental arched window flush with the masonry and weakening the currently emphatic character of the arch around it by extending the stonework around it in that 'top of a clock case' style undermines one of the most important ways in which the present building responds visually to Hawksmoor's church. Only truly clueless architects could have done this.

Passer-by | 12.10.12 - 11:46 a.m. | #

Well. Following DG's link to the Spitalfields Life article, I find that the original building did indeed have that 'top of a clock case' gable, and that the redevelopment is going to restore that look (or something close to it). Presumably the current recessed roofline is the result of bomb damage or some other kind of later alteration. Rather weakens my point, I fear, to one of personal aesthetic preference for the current situation. But the proposed flush-glazing of the window is still most unfortunate (even leaving aside the gutting of an interior that is certainly not without merit nor, surely, without potential).

Passer-by | 12.10.12 - 11:55 a.m. | #

I'm sure I read that Tower Hamlets own planning officers recommended accepting the scheme.

If a council votes down a scheme that complies with planning policy and their own officers recommendations, then if you can afford the appeal you stand a very good chance of winning.

But in the end only the richest applicant can afford a long drawn out fight. Many smaller schemes can be defeated by the council because other just don't have the time or money.

Rational Plan | 12.10.12 - 12:54 p.m. | #

P.S. I can see the development on that link. It's on the project page. It has not been pulled. Unless there was a separate special project website.

Rational Plan | 12.10.12 - 12:57 p.m. | #

And vice versa, rational plan. Many councils won't take on developers if officers have advised approval, because of the costs the council will incur in the case of a successful appeal.
Depressing stuff.

Sarah | Homepage | 12.10.12 - 8:55 p.m. | #

Last caption: "muder"

swirlythingy | Homepage | 12.10.12 - 11:09 p.m. | #

I'm late to comment on this, but I think that car park is really beautiful & I'll be sorry to see it go. I used to go a gym inside the Fruit & Wool Exchange, and I didn't think the bits of the building I've seen are that special really. It's the car park I'd fight for.

Lissy Lovett | 07.11.12 - 6:00 p.m. | #

Lissy, shall we organise a party on the roof before they knock it down?

Richard | Homepage | 07.11.12 - 6:14 p.m. | #

You can tell that an area's getting gentrified when Robbie Williams makes a video there.. (car park visible at 24s and 3m): http://youtu.be/gtOV7bp-gys

Richard | Homepage | 08.11.12 - 9:46 a.m. | #

The Gun closed Friday 20th February 2015.
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/24/last-orders-at-the-gun

diamond geezer | Homepage | 24.02.15 - 6:48 a.m. | #











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