Dave Raval

Earlier this month, I was at Hackney Council’s planning meeting, where it was agreed to knock down the Foundry Bar and Arts Venue, close to Old Street tube, and to build an 18-storey hotel there instead. The Foundry has been successfully providing free exhibition space for artists for over ten years, without ever needing any support from the taxpayer. 

Local Lib Dem Focus volunteer James Driver (pictured outside the Foundry) says: “We sent surveys to 8,000 local people last year. Views about the development were divided, but there was concern about the loss of space for artists at the Foundry. We want to represent local people’s views so, whilst we are not against appropriate development, we argued that the Foundry must be relocated first”.

But Hackney Council’s Planning Committee voted in favour. The Lib Dems were the only party to vote against.

This is not the end - the campaign will continue - and we want to build up support to help find a new venue for the Foundry.

What you can do:

- If you think the Foundry should be relocated before building work starts, so that we keep exhibition space for local artists, please reply to this email and let me know. The more people who join in, the stronger our call to the Council.

- Please spread the word by forwarding this email to your friends.

- If you’d like to help tell even more people by delivering a few leaflets in your local street or estate, get in touch and we’d be happy to bring these round to you.

- You can join the Facebook campaign to relocate the Foundry, by clicking here

PS if you’d like to read some reports on the Foundry and the hotel in the media, have a look at here and here.