The campaign to save an iconic Hoxton photographic studio threatened with demolition has won the backing of Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe, who revealed he completed work experience there nearly 30 years ago.
Gold Property Developments wants to bulldoze Holborn Studios in Eagle Wharf Road to make way for flats, a restaurant as well as ‘state-of-the art’ commercial space geared up to the expanding creative industries in the Tech City area around Old Street’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’.
But the studio on the Regent’s Canal – where music moguls Madonna, David Bowie and the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher have been captured on film – has become a favourite with photographers, and a campaign is mounting to save the present building.
The McCartney family which founded the studios 23 years ago has installed a £20,000 electric car charging point on the site.
At its launch Mayor Pipe, who undertook a work placement at Holborn studios in the 80s, gave a rousing speech saying he wants to see Holborn studios remain in situ.
He told the audience how he became reacquainted with Holborn Studio’s founder Vince McCartney a couple of years ago when he entered the Hackney Mayor’s Business Awards.
Mayor Pipe said: “Having won the award a couple of times in a row he sponsored the awards, and we held it down here in Eagle Wharf Road, it was a more exotic affair than it ever was since.
“It’s typical of Vince’s approach and the Holborn studios approach to business – it’s not just about what they do and making money but they are prepared to put something back into the community.
“That’s why I hope Holborn Studios carries on long into the future on the site here, and the great buildings continue they way they are.
“There are about 350 jobs on this site on a busy day, and that is very important for me as mayor of the borough to see such a vibrant economy, particularly in the creative industries, which is one of the biggest growth areas of economic activity in Hackney.”
The McCartney’s were helped with a £5,000 grant from Hackney Council and a pledge for a 50 per cent contribution from TfL for the charger which is able to boost a plug-in car’s power from 30 per cent to 80 per cent within half an hour.
If planning permission is given the go-ahead the charging point will have to be relocated. The application is under consultation until March 18.
A spokesman for Gold Property Development, the owners of the site said: “Car charging points of this kind are an excellent initiative and we have two such points planned in the basement car parking of the redeveloped site.”
He added they had made it clear to the McCartney family the development plans “do not preclude their future occupation of a redeveloped building.”
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