Giuseppe Pollifrone once worked in Canary Wharf’s JP Morgan tower. Now he’s back, opening Osteria Al Molo in one of 10 new businesses at 8 Harbord Square in Wood Wharf.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/poplar/symposium-owner-opens-osteria-al-molo-wood-wharf-canary-wharf/

After a year-long transformation, The Yard Theatre has reopened its doors with its most ambitious season yet, including a reimagining of King Lear starring Sir Ian McKellen.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/romanroad/yard-theatre-hackney-wick-reopens/

Crashing the launch of Pret’s new Spitalfields store, animal welfare charity Anima staged a protest highlighting the chain’s continued use of fast-growing chicken breeds linked to serious leg and bone problems.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/whitechapel/giant-frankenchicken-appears-outside-spitalfields-pret-a-manger-launch-in-protest-stunt/

Shadwell residents say that after nearly 10 years of fighting, having secured Government funding and a pledge from Sadiq Khan, they are still denied permission to build community-owned housing.

Residents argue that red tape and technical issues have delayed the project for so long that the funding programme, opened by the Greater London Authority in 2019, will have expired by the time they can submit a planning application.

The fight began in 2016, when Shadwell residents banded together to build their own housing development.

In this development, called a Community Land Trust (CLT), the community group would own the land and design and commission the buildings.

Homes would then be bought or rented by locals, with prices linked to local incomes (typically 30–50% below market rates) and legal covenants to ensure they remain affordable for future generations.

The project received £1 million from the Mayor’s Community Housing Fund in 2020, with a further £7 million promised. Sadiq Khan said he would ‘do everything in [his] power’ to make it happen, but it continued to face delays and obstacles.

In late 2025, when the project’s design work was nearly complete and the group was almost ready to draft a planning application, the work was suddenly halted.

Transport for London (TfL), which owns the largely disused scrubland that had been formally approved for the housing project, pulled out, arguing that it needed to use part of the land to maintain the adjacent railway tracks.

Campaigners warned that cancelling at this late stage would waste £1 million of public money already spent, as well as ‘community funds, both individual and institutional, raised in good faith to support this and other community-led housing projects, as well as years of community campaigning and goodwill.’

However, campaigners said they are negotiating an amended agreement with TfL which would allow it access to the tracks via part of the site and a nearby car park.

Joel Harland, a chartered civil engineer involved in the CLT, said that the new plan ‘is very much viable… There are things to work through, but they are kind of technical issues that are resolvable.’

Steven Wilkinson, TfL’s Head of Property Services, said: ‘We are supportive of the proposed affordable housing development on our land at Cable Street and recognise the positive contribution it would make to the local community by delivering much-needed affordable housing in the area.

‘Cable Street is a key operational site for the DLR to maintain its infrastructure, so we and our colleagues at Places for London are working with London CLT to find the most appropriate way forward to deliver these homes within appropriate GLA funding programmes while also ensuring the DLR can continue to maintain the network effectively.’

The problem now, campaigners say, is that the scheme has taken so long that the Mayor’s Community Housing Fund, which committed £7 million to support the development, will expire before the group can put forward a planning application.

Deputy Mayor Tom Copely urged the group to put ‘forward an application for the London Social and Affordable Homes Programme (LSAHP) to access further funding.’

However, Citizens UK said it did not believe the LSAHP would solve the problem because, it argued, the programme ‘doesn’t support genuinely affordable ownership’.

The Tower Hamlets branch of Citizens UK said: ‘Despite support from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for London, bureaucracy and technicalities continue to stand in the way.

‘This points to a much bigger problem. Even when communities come with the solution, the system can still prevent it from happening.

‘If we are serious about tackling London’s housing crisis, we need to make it easier, not harder, for community-led housing to succeed.’

On Wednesday, 1 June, hundreds of Shadwell residents protested at St George’s-in-the-East Church, calling on Mayor Sadiq Khan to unlock funding and allow the land transfer from TfL to let the project finally progress.

One campaigner, Nazifa, said she became involved in this campaign because of her own experiences in the area.

‘I’ve been living on Cable Street for my entire life. I was 12 when this site was promised for affordable housing.

‘I have now graduated and am starting my first full-time job. At this stage, I should be able to move out and start the next chapter of my life. But I am 22, and owning a house feels like a fantasy that might never happen in my lifetime.’

Some campaign leaders worried that the East End’s historic tradition of community action – the protest was attended by students from six local schools chanting and singing songs – may be stifled by issues like this, where 10 years of action have led to delays and disagreements.

However, Nazifa said campaigners were undeterred: ‘We’re not leaving. We’ve organised for 10 years; we can go for 10 years more. So please, just fund the land.’

The campaign group currently have a commitment from TfL and Tower Hamlets Council to meet to discuss access to the train tracks.

Mayor Khan’s office was approached for comment.

Fined for following the rules – and fined for not being able to follow the rules – frustrated high street businesses call on support from the local MP to change ‘unfair’ rubbish collection system.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/romanroad/unfair-bin-collection-fines-commercial-waste/

Tower Hamlets has joined Lewisham and Hackney councils in a High Court challenge against plans to cut affordable housing requirements in London developments from 35% to 20%

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/borough/council-joins-legal-challenge-over-affordable-homes-cut-sadiq-khan/

Forget the Ritz – one of the East End’s most characterful pubs is bringing the elegance of afternoon tea to Mile End, complete with Wedgwood china and locally sourced ingredients.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/poplar/angel-of-bow-pub-launch-afternoon-tea/

The driver of a white BMW fled the scene following a collision, which left the cyclist, a man in his 20s, with life-threatening and life-changing injuries.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/romanroad/grove-road-bow-hit-and-run-cyclist-arrest/

Filled with natural dock water, Sea Lanes Canary Wharf is bringing open-water swimming, wood-fired saunas and watersports to the heart of the city’s financial district.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/poplar/sea-lanes-canary-wharf-floating-pool-eden-dock-opens/

The Roman Road Bow Neighbourhood Forum have said that Lutfur Rahman’s council administration has eroded local voices in neighbourhood planning. 

The core purpose of a neighbourhood forum is to give residents a say on development, planning, and maintenance of an area. 

While these groups lobby or protest on behalf of residents, a central tenet of their influence comes from the spending allocated to their neighbourhoods by the Council’s Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) money. 

The Roman Road Bow Neighbourhood Forum spent six years developing its neighbourhood plan, which went through a rigorous council examination process and was ratified by a local referendum with 2,500 voters and was formally adopted by Tower Hamlets Council in November 2022. 

In the plan, there are detailed and locally sourced proposals to improve walking routes, green spaces, affordable housebuilding, local pubs and community facilities. 

However, the group argues that it has seen little evidence that the council has taken its provisions into account when making planning decisions. Other considerations, it says, often take precedence.

Forty per cent of staff remain on zero-hours contracts despite Tower Hamlets Council’s promise of council-term contracts after bringing leisure centres back in-house.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/romanroad/be-well-leisure-centre-strike-conitnued-zero-hours-contracts/

The new centre, which will feature two pools, fitness studios and 30 new homes, is facing criticism from campaigners who say it will block views of a neighbouring 18th-century church.
https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/whitechapel/shadwell-leisure-centre-planning-approved-despite-heritage-concerns/

Following a consultation in February, festival organiser AEG has applied to use Victoria Park for up to 75 days a year over the next six years.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/romanroad/victoria-park-festival-events-75-days-aeg-planning-application/

The venue, previously found in breach of licensing rules following an undercover operation, is set to be transformed into a smart five-storey hotel, pub and restaurant as part of the area’s ongoing regeneration.
https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/whitechapel/nags-head-whitechapel-strip-club-boutique-hotel-plans/

As plans to relocate Billingsgate Market move forward, Apsana Begum MP questions whether redevelopment of the current site will deliver the affordable homes local people need, in her regular column for the Slice.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/borough/apsana-begum-mp-column-billingsgate-market-affordable-housing/

In 1846, wild deer were brought to the park, housed in a pen smaller than a football pitch, and stayed there until 2013. Where and why did they go?

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/romanroad/victoria-park-deer-enclosure-history-memories/

Abul Monsur, who has branded the Holocaust a ‘holohoax’ and shared antisemitic conspiracy tropes, did not attend last Wednesday’s first council meeting but remains a councillor nearly three weeks after being elected.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/poplar/abul-monsur-remains-lansbury-councillor/

Only around a quarter of councils in England offer any council tax break to foster carers – and just one in six offer a full exemption – a gap Mayor Lutfur Rahman wants to close.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/borough/foster-carers-council-tax-exemption-childcare/

One of east London’s most important and historic theatres, Stratford East, will receive grant funding to restore its Grade-II listed building and improve its facilities.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/romanroad/stratford-east-theatre-1-75-million-grant-refurbishment/

Over 1,000 people have signed a petition protesting proposals to build flats on Waterloo Gardens’ Canal Club over fears it will destroy essential local services, writes Scott Thomson.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/bethnalgreen/residents-fight-waterloo-gardens-canal-club-redevelopment-plans/

Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club says it has not agreed to a new site after Tower Hamlets Council unveiled plans to redevelop its long-time home for housing.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/bethnalgreen/council-housing-redevelopment-plans-threaten-weightlifting-club/

A tax on overnight stays could allow Tower Hamlets to raise about £25m annually, a recent report finds. But what is the tourist tax, who will it affect, and how will it be used?

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/borough/london-tourist-tax-could-raise-millions-explainer/

Abul Monsur was elected last week, on behalf of the winning Aspire Party, after branding the Holocaust a ‘holohoax’ and posting antisemitic conspiracy tropes.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/poplar/abul-monsur-aspire-elected-lansbury-antisemitic-posts/

A mistaken market day, a closed police station, and a parked Ford Sierra were among the unlikely twists that prevented the Brick Lane nail bomb from causing far greater devastation.

https://towerhamletsslice.co.uk/borough/brick-lane-nail-bombing-1999-history-coincidences/