Victory for Holborn Studios but impending gloom for some of us

It was 2015 when we first reported on the possible destruction of Holborn Studios in Eagle Wharf Road (below). Happily this ‘Abbey Road of Photographers’, Europe's largest photographic studio complex, seems at last to have been saved. Hackney Council’s planning committee have rejected the latest attempt by Galliard Homes and Hackney’s own planning department to demolish the Studios.

It’s a major milestone in a series of battles that have waged for nearly 10 years. As the Canal Trust says, ‘It is always encouraging to see councillors standing up for the communities, but it is disturbing to see a planning department pushing so hard in favour of a hostile developer.’ For more information on the battle for Holborn Studios, see www.friendsofregentscanal.org.

However it’s not looking good for residents of the south side of Arlington Square and Arlington Avenue. Plans are still in place for the one-storey access storage facility across the canal to be replaced by a seven-storey building.

Few people will claim that the existing warehouse has much character but at least it generates no noise and does not plunge its neighbours into the shade. By contrast, this towering new build, with its balconies and public precincts, as well as casting a shadow on the Islington residents opposite, could easily rob this stretch of the canal of its tranquillity forever.