So what was it I saying about planning?
Another travesty has occurred as Hackney Council has agreed a planning application to demolish the Foundary. One of the few remaining original Hoxton establishments (along with the long since crap 333/Mother Bar), it occupied a special place in my heart, no doubt along with other Shoreditch Twats.
Developed on very much a DIY ethic with free art and performance space which has been home to the likes of Banksy and Gavin Turk, as well as a mass of other 'interesting shit' (I loved the mutilated dolls hanging from the ceiling), the end is now nigh.
As with the hay castle man, technically the correct planning decision has been made, as the Foundary only rented the space. Whilst its the same the world over with artist-led 'regeneration' quickly being replaced by commercially-led development (See Prenslauerberg in Berlin for another example), its massive shame that little or nothing is done to retain those places and establishments that first 'made' an area.
As the artist communities originally in Hoxton are now moving out to Dalston, Hackney Wick and Deptford it's imperative that local authorities act now to protect the integral parts of those areas, not only by listing conservation areas (as has correctly and unusually been done at the Wick) but by buying up space and providing subsidised artist accommodation, potentially in perpetuity. This will of course cost the taxpayer but one thing that usually unites locals in these areas (old and young) is the sadness they share when the physical and social landscape they valued changes beyond all recognition. When the Foundary goes, I'm many others like me will call it a day for Hoxton.
