Battle to keep the echoes of Big Ben from falling silent
Heritage preservation trust wants to prevent historic site from being turned into luxury hotel
THE silencing of Big Ben’s bongs caused protests in the streets and now the maker of the bells has found itself at the centre of another ding-dong.
A battle has commenced to stop the struggling Whitechapel Bell Foundry from being turned into a luxury hotel.
The UK Historical Preservation Trust, originally founded by the Prince of Wales, is fighting the site’s owner, a US investor who helped fund Soho House, for council approval to transform the business to fit the modern age.
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry had been operating since the 1740s, having made some of the most famous bells in the world including the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, and the bells of Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.
But despite its long history, the fourth-generation bell-founder, Alan Hughes, and his wife Kathryn decided to sell the site last year.
The decision was due to financial pressures because the industry is in decline, Mr Hughes told the FT, as orders had dried up so badly in late 2016 that “we literally couldn’t pay the wages”, he said.
Now, the UK Historical Preservation Trust has teamed up with Factum Arte, a hi-tech art business, to fight to stop the site’s new owner, US investor Raycliff, building a hotel at the rear of the building while restoring the most vital parts of the Grade Ii-listed structure as a public attraction.
Raycliff’s owner, Bippy Siegal, is investing in a plan to preserve the parts of the building with historic value as well as building a 95-room hotel, with a shop selling hand bells produced by Kathryn Hughes.
The design also features a grand public café that would also be bell-themed, with bell-making equipment on the walls. Customers would be able to sit and admire a 10ft deep glass-covered bell pit, in which the Liberty Bell was cast.
However, according to Charles Saumarez
‘It’s not of architectural significance. What’s important is its role as an example of industrial heritage’
Smith, a British cultural historian, the revival of the site’s bell-making facilities is absolutely crucial to retaining its full historic value.
“My view is that the historical fabric of the building is meaningless without its use,” he told the FT.
“As an 18th-century building, it’s not of architectural significance. What’s important is its role as an example of industrial heritage.”
Factum Arte produces sculptures and uses cutting-edge digital scanning and 3D-printing techniques to create art and replicate ancient artefacts. It is most well known for making a copy of the burial chamber of Tutankhamen, which is now installed in the Valley of the Kings.
It wants to turn the building into a hi-tech art business and historical site, which aims to maintain the foundry as a functioning business.
Factum has partnered with the UK Historic Building Preservation Trust in a bid to turn its vision into a reality.
The trust worked on the £9million restoration of Middleport Pottery, which has since been revived as a thriving tourist attraction and creative business centre.
Stephen Clarke, a trustee at the charity, said: “We will adopt a similar approach to Whitechapel... a foundry business fit again for the 21st century that does not require ongoing subsidy.”
The plans do, however, remain speculative. A Q&A produced by the Whitechapel Foundry Ltd states that since the trust has no ownership rights, it has no legal right to implement the plans, even if the capital was raised.
“This is not a sustainable business model to purchase the land, undertake the vital building maintenance, and buy the equipment required,” it suggests.