Revealed: cost of Council’s purchase of Leonard Street gallery

The Leonard Street property bought by Hackney Council. Photograph: Josh Loeb

The mystery surrounding the cost of a Leonard Street gallery bought by the Town Hall has been solved.

The Hackney Citizen can reveal the council spent £4,368,000.00 on buying the freehold at 89-90 Leonard Street.

Until now, the cost has been concealed from the public despite the purchase being made with millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request from the Hackney Citizen asking what the purchase price was but the council refused to release this information would be “damaging”.

In the response to the FOI, Hackney Council’s Corporate Director of Finance and Resources Ian Williams said: “The council believes that the price information should be withheld to protect a legitimate economic interest underlying commercial confidentiality.

The figure was requested during the public inspection of Hackney Council’s accounts.

Employment space

The council says the gallery will be used for “low-cost employment space”.

A spokesperson for Hackney Council said: “The acquisition of this building will help us protect jobs and stimulate economic growth in the area by providing low-cost employment space for start-up companies which cannot afford luxury offices.

“The previous owner had secured planning consent for residential use on the top floor but we want that to be used as employment space instead.

“This is a safe investment as the space is likely to be in demand for many years to come.”