The owners of the Truman Brewery site in London’s East End have appointed newly formed development manager Grow Places to work up a masterplan for under-utilised elements of the historic site.
The first round of consultation on what was once the world’s largest brewery launched on 8 December, with local residents, workers, businesses and stakeholders from Spitalfields, Brick Lane and the Banglatown neighbourhood invited to voice opinions and contribute on plans for seven potential development plots across the brewery site.
Grow Places, founded by former Stanhope director Tom Larsson earlier this year, is working with Buckley Gray Yeoman on the project, plus several local architects including Carmody Groarke, Morris + Company, Henley Halebrown and Chris Dyson Architects. The public realm will be designed by Spacehub.
Plans for around three acres of under-utilised space across the seven development plots will be worked up.
Proposals are at a very early stage but will include a sustainable mixed-use development with retained and new buildings, spaces for local job and training opportunities, new public realm and mixed-tenure homes, including affordable homes.
Larsson said: “We are excited to embark on this journey in partnership with the Truman Brewery and local people. Together we aim to evolve the site in an authentic and sustainable way, so that the Truman Brewery continues as a vibrant and diverse place open to locals, Londoners and visitors from all over the world. This neighbourhood consultation marks the beginning of a collaborative effort to shape the future of this historic site for all.”
Larsson said he was keen to bring the ethos of his new business, which is to grow places rather than make them, to the Truman site.
“The Truman Brewery and the local area has a unique character, and we want to preserve and enhance that,” he said. “These are the elements of the site that have been closed off and under-utilised, and we are looking to contribute to their development to enhance the viability of the site and Brick Lane.”
Larsson impressed that inclusivity would form a key part of the development with accessible open spaces for all.
This first round of public consultation on the site will be followed up in early 2024 with a second round before plans are submitted to Tower Hamlets in spring 2024.
Engagement with the community will be vital as past plans to redevelop the site have come up against resistance. In 2021, local residents launched a campaign to stop proposals to turn part of the site into an office-led, mixed-use development. They claimed the plans offered no affordable homes, workspace or open green space, were too bulky and would “ruin” the conservation area and “authentic cultural quality” of Brick Lane, and would cause as much as 60% loss of light for some residents.
While the plans were approved by councillors, campaign group Save Brick Lane challenged their decision in the Court of Appeal, arguing that a rule in the local authority’s constitution stopped members of the development committee from voting on a deferred application if they had not been present at the previous meeting. The campaign group lost the appeal.
Larsson hopes this new consultation will engage more fully with the local community.
“This is a major urban redevelopment project and robust, detailed consultation needs to happen with the public, Tower Hamlets and the GLA,” he said. “We want to understand what is there already, what works, and we want to use that as our fuel and passion for the project, rather than come in with a method of development.”
Since 1995, the Truman Brewery estate has gradually been regenerated into a creative and commercial hub comprising around 300 small business, 20 event spaces and several hundred market stalls. The brewery itself dates back more than 300 years.
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