Curtains for blindmakers as stage set for major £750m development
Peter the Pleater on Fairchild Place. Photograph: Garry Knight (Creative Commons)
A much-loved East London institution claims it is being “forced out” of Shoreditch by a major £750 million development, and has accused Hackney Council of “not caring”.
Peter the Pleater, which makes and sells blinds and curtains, has had premises at 17–19 Great Eastern Street for nearly 30 years.
But the local business faces closure this month to make way for The Stage, a development comprising of a 40-storey residential tower block and 250,000 square feet of shops, offices and leisure space incorporating the remains of Shakespeare’s 16th-century Curtain Theatre.
Fairchild Place Ltd, one of the Bard family’s property firms, took over a 250-year lease from Hackney Council in November 2014, while private equity firm Cain Hoy is leading a consortium to develop the site in partnership with Shoreditch company Plough Yard Developments.
Earlier this year the owners of Peter the Pleater, Peter and Bernice Selvey were issued with a Section 25 Notice from their new landlord giving them until 28 July to vacate their shop and the arches where they do their manufacturing.
The Selveys say they had tried to extend their lease with then landlord Hackney Council when it came up for renewal in 2011, but it was left unresolved.
The couple claim the scheme is only using Shakespeare to attract rich tourists. “What they’re doing is destroying Shoreditch, they’re trying to turn the East End into the West End,” said Mrs Selvey, 58. “They are destroying the art, the music, the culture, the graffiti…And Hackney Council doesn’t care.”
Closing the blindmakers puts at risk 10 jobs, including the employees at Peter the Pleater’s shops in Brentford and South Woodford.
Mrs Selvey has contacted Meg Hillier MP, Hackney Council and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to ask for help without great success.
“The amount of people I’ve written to that did not respond. Jules Pipe the mayor took six weeks and it was just a bog standard response. And Boris Johnson never got back to me,” she said.
She describes the situation as an “end of an era” for the business, and says the stress is affecting the couple’s health. “I’m eating it, breathing it sleeping it, and it’s making us both ill. It’s stopping me from sleeping now as it gets nearer and nearer,” she said.
A Council spokesperson said: “No renewal of lease was offered because the Council was in discussions with the adjoining landowner to secure the long-term future of these premises. As part of this, the Council had to consider the site’s value and the wider regeneration of the adjacent site which was found to have significant heritage interest.”
A spokesperson for Cain Hoy said: “The site has received planning permission and has the full support of Hackney Council. The developers of the scheme will respect all rights to which any owner is entitled. Communication with the owners of Peter the Pleater is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”