The Truman Brewery stopped brewing in 1989, bringing to an end over 300 years of beer production on its site on Brick Lane in the East End. The future of the brewery estate, a hodgepodge of specialist-use buildings and yards with a landmark chimney at its core, was uncertain. Redevelopment would be difficult and costly. The solution was creative reuse.
Bought en bloc by local businessman Ely Zeloof in 1995, it has since evolved, initially under the leadership of one of Zeloof’s sons, Ofer Zeloof, into a mosaic of galleries, cafés, workshops, event spaces and independent retailers – a hive of 21st Century alternative commerce and consumption. And now the brewery estate’s owners have plans to grow.
I, along with others, was recently shown around the Truman complex by some of those involved with imagining and managing the proposed assortment of new and refashioned buildings and public space within the estate footprint, which straddles Brick Lane itself. Housing features too. The intention is to submit three separate applications to Tower Hamlets Council in the coming weeks and start work in 2026.
The largest part of the scheme lies to the east of Brick Lane and focusses on making a largely empty section of the site more productive and publicly accessible, with four separate projects envisaged within an area that covers much of the land bounded by Brick Lane, Spital Street to its east, Buxton Street to the north and Woodseer Street to the south.
The existing, two-storey Cooperage building, its name reflecting its original barrel-making use, is to be refurbished. It will continue to accommodate small creative enterprises, augmented with what is described as “a new convening space” and a micro-brewery. Next to it, a three-storey “affordable and creative workspace” with some shops will replace a waste site.
A Cooperage Yard public space would be formed in front of these buildings, which have been designed by architects Carmody Groarke. The Cooperage backs on to Spital Street, but isn’t properly accessible from it t present. Under the plans, that would change.
The theme of upgrading, opening up and building up runs through the other components:
- A one-storey market building is earmarked to be replaced by a seven-storey workspace and retail block, designed by Buckley Gray Yeoman, the company that also drew up the masterplan for the scheme as a whole.
- A bunch of storage and ancillary structures would be replaced by a Morris & Company-designed multi-use one, to include a cinema, also seven storeys high.
- A fourth component envisages a three-storey Chris Dyson Architects extension to the existing Grade II-listed Boiler House building.
You get the picture: what is currently a largely bare, utilitarian post-industrial outdoor shape will be filled with new blocks and replenished old ones, tailored to accommodate more of the Truman Brewery mix of entertainment, work and leisure, with some additional attractions. In the jargon, street-facing frontages would be activated and pedestrian connectivity enhanced, all linking to the site’s surroundings, including the adjacent Allen Gardens.
In addition, between the south side of Woodseer Street and the parallel Hanbury Street, the Banglatown Cash & Carry is to be replaced by 44 new homes, rising to seven storeys, with an emphasis on family accommodation and – presumably mindful of Sadiq Khan’s minimum requirements – 35 per cent being affordable by habitable room. Henley Halebrown were chosen for the job.
All of the above are encompassed by a single application. The other two relate to neighbouring smaller sites to the west of Brick Lane, either side of Grey Eagle Street. One is a derelict former cold store, intended to be replaced by a datastore facility. The other, which has no permanent current use, will produce affordable workspace and a market area. Morris & Company have done both drawing board tasks.
The line-up of contributing specialists also includes Arup, Publica and Spacehub, with Grow Places serving as development manager. Great stress is being placed on sustainability, public benefits, integration with the local social and architectural fabric, and on community consultation, which began in December and continued in February.
This was followed in May by revisions to the plans. They included a lowering of proposed building heights, some of which had initially been of nine storeys. Further pushback can be expected, perhaps of a more conspicuous kind.
Truman’s separate plans to build some shops and offices on a car park at the junction of Brick Lane and Woodseer Street were approved by Tower Hamlets during the pandemic, but legal action by determined and resourceful conservationists to have the decision overturned continues. A Supreme Court hearing got underway on 25 July.
The latest scheme has prompted, from the same source, a relaunch of the Save Brick Lane campaign and an accusation that “multiple corporate-style office blocks” pose a heritage threat. From that perspective, the car park scheme, which Truman regards as a continuation of its revival of the brewery site complete with an attractive walkway, is an alien and contemptible “mall”.
The Save Brick Lane alliance of objectors has been among London’s more heterogenous. It appears to also encompass the demographic that sustains the vintage clothing shops clustered, in particular, at Brick Lane’s north end, not to mention a large emporium within the Truman boundary.
Local Bangladeshi Londoners, whose Brick Lane roots, both commercial and political, are deep – hence the neighbourhood name Banglatown – also have an obvious interest in what happens next (though activists from elsewhere have been among the more prominent). With that factor in mind, it’s worth noting that discussions about providing a new premises for the Banglatown Cash & Carry are understood to have been fruitful.
A still-evolving supplementary planning document for the area, initiated under the administration of Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman, himself a Bangladeshi Londoner, has appeared from the start to be an attempt to place restraints on the Truman company and to ensure that housing features in any development ideas it advances.
A tweeted vow by Rahman soon after his return to power in May 2022 to “protect important cultural sites in our borough from predatory developers” plainly had the Truman company in mind. That said, the fate of a scheme of this size – unlike the smaller Woodseer Street car park plans – will eventually reach the desk of Mayor Khan and be affected by the avowedly pro-growth stance of the new national Labour government.
It is, perhaps, a paradox that strong opinions about Brick Lane often venerate its history of perpetual change, while fiercely opposing more of it. At the same time, it is a constant of anti-development causes celebre that the breadth of local opinion risks being obscured by the noise of protest. Like every story of Brick Lane, this one can hardly fail to go on being of interest.
OnLondon.co.uk provides unique coverage of the capital’s politics, development and culture. Support it for just £5 a month or £50 a year and get things for your money too. Details HERE. Threads. X/Twitter: On London and Dave Hill. Main photo from Carmody Groarke.