London Courier Emergency Fund get rough ride from art’otel plan
Workers’ charity could be forced out by new tower
Published: 29 January 2010
by JOSH LOEB
A CHARITY that offers support to injured bike couriers has criticised plans for an upmarket hotel on the site of its “community base”.
The London Courier Emergency Fund (LCEF), which runs a helpline and raises cash for bicycle couriers hurt on the capital’s roads, holds monthly meetings at The Foundry, an Old Street pub and arts venue slated for demolition to make way for a 17-storey building called the “art’otel”.
LCEF founder Darren Coxson, who lives on City Road, said couriers and artists who use the Foundry are desperate to keep it open. The LCEF makes a minimum payment of £150 to riders kept off the road for two weeks following an accident.
Mr Coxson warned “non-corporate” meeting places were being lost because of “the encroachment of cold, modern, seemingly soulless developments” in Old Street. He said: “We use The Foundry as a base and our races start from there. There are lots of couriers that use it and lots of artists. If it went, we would lose the base for our community.”
Developer Park Plaza Hotels submitted a proposal for the 350-room art’otel – which sits just over the border from Islington – last year. The council’s planning sub-committee has not yet set a date when it will reach a decision on the plans.
Two weeks ago, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the government’s advisory body on architecture, criticised the “low quality appearance” of the scheme by architects Squire and Partners, saying the aluminium-clad development was out of keeping with its surroundings. A spokesperson for Squire and Partners said the firm would “take account of their comments and suggestions”.
Jonathan Moberly, who runs The Foundry with his wife, artist Tracey Moberly, said he hoped to find new premises for the venue, preferably somewhere in Islington.
He said: “Our position is that we can’t really fight this because the developer is our landlord. If we fight it, they’ll just kick us out. We want to relocate to as close as possible to where we are now.”
Park Plaza Hotels declined to comment.