Latest news with #TowerHamletsCouncil
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
At Goodwood, Rachel Whiteread Is Redefining Sculpture Parks
Rachel Whiteread is used to her work provoking strong reactions. The 62-year-old artist won the Turner Prize in 1993 for her landmark sculpture,'House', a plaster cast of the inside of a Victorian terraced house in east London. Less than four months later, despite a public campaign to save it, it was torn down by Tower Hamlets Council. In 1996, her plans for a Holocaust memorial in Judenplatz, Vienna — a room constructed from casts of shelves lined with books, their spines turned inwards — created a political furore. On that one, sense prevailed, and it still stands. This summer, Whiteread, who was made a dame in 2019, will be the inaugural artist to have a solo show at Goodwood Art Foundation, a new sculpture park and gallery on the grounds of the Goodwood Estate in Sussex. Already, she has met with some local opposition. 'You make a decision about where something's going, and then suddenly a badger's moved in, or there's a squirrel in the way,' she says, sitting in her airy studio in Camden, north London, close to where she lives with her husband, the artist Marcus Taylor, with whom she has two sons. 'So there's been a bit of that going on,' she continues, 'but, having an enormous respect for nature, that's quite all right.' For an artist who's often associated with urban settings, Whiteread, who has clouds of soft curls and a friendly but no-nonsense manner, does have an unexpected interest in the bucolic. She was born in Ilford and went to school in London, then Brighton University and the Slade, but growing up she and her sisters were 'dragged all over the country' by her artist mother and geographer father. The idea of interacting with natural landscapes is 'definitely in me from my family', she says, and over the years she has produced a number of what she calls 'shy sculptures' — tucked-away installations that you might journey to, or happen upon: a cast of a boathouse on a Norwegian fjord; another of a wooden house in Kunisaki, Japan; the concrete ghost of a cabin on Governors Island in New York. At Goodwood Art Foundation, within grounds recently spruced up by garden designer extraordinaire Dan Pearson, she'll be exhibiting existing pieces including 'Detached II (2012)", a cast of a garden shed, and "Untitled (Pair) (1999)', twin tomb-like sculptures based on mortuary slabs, alongside a new work, 'Down and Up (2024-2025)', cast from the staircase of the former synagogue in which she and Taylor and the boys used to live in London's East End. 'When I made 'House', one of the things that really frustrated me was that I didn't really cast the staircase,' she says. 'I had to cut it away and cast around it, so the wooden part of the staircase was always left. It's hard to cast a staircase generally, because people are using it, but when we moved to Shoreditch there were two or three staircases in the building, so I cast them.' In the Goodwood Art Foundation's new indoor space, the Pavilion Gallery, she'll be showing photographs, too; she's always taken pictures, using them as a kind of sketchbook, but has shown them in public only rarely. Grouped in threes, they capture haphazard, quasi-sculptural compositions that have caught her eye: a flattened traffic cone; an unusual storm drain; a ring of oxidation on a tiled floor. They're intriguing, and often quietly absurd. Whiteread pulls out a photograph of a black rubbish bag that she spotted recently, strung up on the iron railings of a London townhouse. There's a small rip at the bottom, through which is visible a pair of perfect eggs. 'And there was not a single crack in them!' she says, delighted. When we meet, she's still a few weeks from installing the new show — which, as you might imagine, involves some serious haulage vehicles and some very big boxes — but the plan for it is very much in place: 'We're in the end game,' she says. Whiteread has, in the two-and-a-half year run-up, been able to enjoy some of Goodwood's other offerings, including its annual motoring event, Goodwood Festival of Speed, which, she says, was, 'very noisy, very smelly, but it was definitely interesting to sit in the VIP enclosure where the cars do those — whatever they do — weird turns in front of you. And the boys got to sit in these vintage F1 cars. It was good fun.' She says she has been warmly welcomed by Goodwood's owner, the Duke of Richmond ('very, very nice, and so is his wife, and actually the Duke's a very good photographer'), though rural idylls are not, apparently, Whiteread's spiritual home. She has a place in Wales that she's soon going to visit and 'de-mouse', but eventually the city always calls her back. 'I love the countryside, but after a while I'm banging my head against a tree — I need some grot!' Other cities are summoning her, too: in the next couple of years she'll have a show in Brussels, and will be installing pieces in Switzerland and Japan. 'I've been fairly consistent,' she says of her working life. 'I'm really very lucky to be able to do what I like doing.' Her oeuvre now involves photography, cast sculptures and also sculptures that are not cast: one of the indoor works at Goodwood Art Foundation will be a constructed piece, 'Doppelganger (2020-2021)', that has been built to look like a white shed being ripped apart. 'The older I've got, the more vocabulary I've got to use, so I'm just playing with that.' Whiteread's work, whatever form it takes, deals with memory, residue, decay and the inexorable passing of time. And it speaks to us. 'People get very moved by things I've made,' she says, matter-of-factly. It's a phenomenon that she finds rewarding. 'If it helps shape people's lives, or helps people deal with something, or think about something, that's a gift I can give. I'm not trying to trigger people, but I know that the work is personal and has a sensitivity to it, and generally these things move people, don't they?' The badgers, however, are staying put. Rachel Whiteread is at Goodwood Art Foundation, Chichester, from 31 May to 2 November; You Might Also Like The Best Men's Sunglasses For Summer '19 There's A Smartwatch For Every Sort Of Guy What You Should Buy For Your Groomsmen (And What They Really Want)
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Thousands to get universal school uniform grant
About 7,000 families in east London are set to benefit from a council's universal school uniform grant. The £150 will be available to children who are entering their first year of primary or secondary school, if their families have a household income of £50,350 or less. Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets, said it would "go some way" to support children in the borough, while Mohi, a local parent, said school uniform costs were a "matter of worry" for himself and his family. It comes as the government's Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill looks to limit the number of branded uniform items a school can require, to ease the financial burden on parents. "I'm working in a solicitor's, but you know, day by day our costs and expenses are really high," Mohi said. "As a parent, we always think ahead. So [uniforms] is something that is a matter of worry for me and my family." The head of London Enterprise Academy said its school uniform costs were more than £200, but that they supplied some items to students free of charge. "I realise it's a very expensive time in August for parents, so as a school, since we opened, we subsidised the uniform," its principal Ashid Ali said. "All of our students will get a free PE kit when they join our school, and when they move to Year 10, we have always provided free blazers, as the children are growing up." Suraia, a student at the school, said when pupils felt "inferior" to their peers because of their clothing, it affected "literally everything", including their education. Tower Hamlets Council announced the school universal uniform grant earlier this year. Mr Rahman said: "It will go some way in supporting our youngsters at primary school and when they go into secondary school. "Giving them some financial help, some 7,000 children in a year will be supported." The City of London offers grants to families that earn under £7,400 or are on benefits, while Westminster City Council provides a grant to families eligible for free school meals. Wandsworth Council offered a voucher scheme. To try to reduce costs for everyone, the government is proposing a limit of three branded uniform items at primary school and four at secondary. "This means, for the first time, no school in England will be able to require unnecessarily large numbers of branded items, so no parent will be unfairly disadvantaged," a spokesperson for the Department for Education said. Watch the full Politics London programme on BBC iPlayer. Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Branded school uniforms to change for four million pupils under plans 'Parents forgo holidays over school uniform costs' Tower Hamlets Council
Daily Mail
05-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Strict new rules for dog owners in London: Council brings in ban after spate of attacks
Tower Hamlets council are introducing a strict set of rules for dog owners after a string of attacks left an 11-year-old girl with life-changing injuries and saw two Cane Corso's shot dead after mauling a woman. Under the new rules, which were approved under a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), dogs will still be allowed to play freely off-lead in all parks and green spaces in the borough. However, dogs will be banned from certain areas such as gated children's play areas and sports areas and there will be a requirement for a maximum of four dogs per person, unless they have a professional council-issued dog walker licence. Dogs must also be kept on leads on or near roads, pavements and communal estate areas and owners must put them on a lead if requested by an authorised officer. Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) will be introduced for any breach of these rules as well as for owners who fail to pick up their dog's faeces. People who are registered blind and/or deaf and those with a physical or mental impairment who use dogs for assistance, will be exempt from the rules in line with the Equality Act 2010. Out of all the 32 London boroughs, Tower Hamlets has the eighth highest crime reports relating to dog attacks. The council will be joining neighbouring boroughs Newham and Hackney which have had dog control PSPOs in place for many years. There were 92 dog attack crime reports in the borough between April and October 2024, according to internal police data. Councillor Shafi Ahmed said Tower Hamlets Council understands the majority of dog owners are responsible and their animals posed no risk of harm. But he noted 'several high-profile incidents' had left residents concerned about dangerous dogs and expressed worries about the risks to children. In September 2022, an 11-year-old girl was left with life-changing injuries after she was attacked by a dog on a road in Tower Hamlets before being rescued by passers-by. Footage of the savage attacked shared to social media showed the girl screaming on the floor as the dog bit down on her arm and hand. One passer-by was then seen attempting to pull the dog off the child while bystanders looked on in shock. As the dog's owner fled the scene, a man could be seen rushing out of his vehicle to help the girl before running back to what appeared to be a taxi to grab a bat which he used to pummel the dog until it released her. She was taken to hospital for treatment to her hand which sustained life-changing injuries. The owner, Siddique Ali, 43, was tracked down by police 12 days later following a public appeal and was jailed for 14 months for being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury to a person contrary to Section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act. However, Ali's two dogs were never located. He was also banned from keeping a dog for 10 years and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £187. Detective Inspector Luke Hampton of the Met's Central East Command said: 'Ali had no control over the animal that attacked the child and even left the scene knowing that she had been seriously injured.' In February 2023, footage captured the moment police officers struggled to restrain a vicious dog after it bit a 13-year-old boy at a bus stop in Mile End. The teenager was taken to hospital for treatment and the dog was recovered by police. It is unknown whether or not officers managed to track down the owner. The Cane Corso owner was handed a suspended prison sentence in November 2023 after pleaded guilty to being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control (without injury). Pictured: the location of the incident, Commercial Road in Poplar In May 2023, a Met Police officer shot two Cane Corso's dead after they attacked a woman in Poplar, Tower Hamlets. The woman, who was walking her own dog at the time, sustained an injury to her leg after she had been knocked to the ground by the large dogs whilst trying to protect herself. Her dog was bitten and suffered a cut on its nose and had chunks of fur missing. Police found the owner, who was in his 40s, and the two Cane Corsos at the scene and attempted to negotiate with the man. After he refused to hand over his dogs, one of them jumped up at one of the officers before the man ran away with the animals. The armed officers officers pursued him to Limehouse Cut Canal but he would still not let them take the dogs. During the conversation, one of the Cane Corsos became loose and tried to run towards the officers but was stopped by the owner. Seconds later, one broke free from its lead and lunged at the dog handler before being shot dead by a firearms officer. The second dog was detained by the dog handler using a pole capture device and was tasered. However, it then broke free and was followed and shot dead by the same firearms officer as he feared for his colleagues safety. The dog owner was then tasered and arrested. After checking their systems, it revealed that he was disqualified from keeping dogs for 20 years as part of an order handed to him in 2019. The case was referred to the IOPC after the Met Police received complaints of misconduct and discrimination against the man because he was homeless. But after completing their independent investigation, IOPC officers found no evidence to uphold these claims. The Cane Corso owner was handed a suspended prison sentence in November 2023 after pleaded guilty to being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control (without injury). The clip showed the mutt chasing and attacking the horse with such aggression that the startled animal threw the officer from her saddle. She sustained 'minor injuries' He also pleaded guilty to possession of dogs whilst under a 20-year disqualification order. Earlier that month, he admitted to the same offences in connection to another incident in Westminster in February 2023 which saw a Pomeranian dog left blind after being attack by the dogs. In July 2023, police seized three dogs after they mauled a four-year-old boy in a park in Poplar estate. Officers found the boy at the scene with bite injuries, which were not life-threatening, and he was taken to hospital, accompanied by his 'shocked' mother. The dog's owner, reportedly warned of bringing the pets into the estate's shared playground where they are banned, was also bitten but refused hospital treatment. In August 2023, video footage captured the moment a dog attacked a police horse before a mounted officer was thrown from her saddle in Limehouse. The clip showed the mutt chasing and attacking the horse with such aggression that the startled animal threw the officer from her saddle. She sustained 'minor injuries'. According to The Sun, the owner, who was believed to be 12-years-old, tried to run after the tan Staffy mix as it attacked the horse. After the hound was trodden on by the horse, officers were able to tame and seize the dog. The frightened horse who had injuries to its legs attempted to flee before officers were able to reclaim the animal.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
East London LGBTQ space under threat needs £12k in a month for 'fighting fund' to buy site
A donation page has been launched to create a 'fighting fund' to support the next stages of a campaign to save the queer-friendly venue, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club in East London. Friends of Bethnal Green Working Men's Club (FoBGWMC) have set up a fundraiser with an initial target of raising £12,000 by April 8 - at the time of writing over £10,000 has been raised. The money raised will go towards a full chartered survey and valuation of the Grade II listed building, and will help pay for a planning bid which FoBGWMC hope will persuade Tower Hamlets Council to save the club. A Tower Hamlets Council spokesperson said its Corporate Director for Housing Regeneration has met with campaigners and is working with them to find the 'best way forward' to protect the venue. Last summer, the owners of the building announced they were looking to sell the venue and handed the club a two-month eviction notice - which left many self-employed drag artists and cabaret acts who performed at the club struggling to make ends meet. A campaign was quickly launched and performing arts and entertainment trade union Equity created an online petition urging the owners to halt plans to close the venue. The petition was signed by over 13,000 people. READ MORE: 'I saw Teddy Swims live and his voice is flawless - here's how to still get London tickets' READ MORE: Teddy Swims last-minute tickets and where to buy for Wembley Arena gigs now Following a successful rally outside the venue on Pollard Row which helped to stop the eviction, the council designated the building as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). Now the building has been recognised as an ACV, the local community has the chance to submit a 'Right to Bid' if the building goes up on sale. The building is currently owned by a group called Boro of Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. FoGWMC said despite the continued success of the club, the proceeds of the sale will be shared between 50 different individuals, which they fear could end 130 years of working-class community ownership. FoBGWMC are also concerned that the venue could go on the market at any time, so are crowdfunding to develop their community bid as they will have six months to submit it once it goes up for sale. The group is hoping the council will either buy the club and lease it back to them, or that the council will allow FoBGWMC to buy the club themselves. The club has since reopened and FoBGWMC member, Dan de la Motte said there are plans to host fundraising events to help support the community bid. Dan de la Motte, who is also an Equity councillor, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): "I would really encourage Bethnal Green punters, both new and old, to come to the club to show their support and show their solidarity and if they can, donate a bit of money to the campaign and to the cause. "It's been there for decades, it's been there for generations, it's about passing on the baton of queer joy and queer fun at night to the generations that are coming through after us." He added: "This space provides a vital function, a vital service, clubs are closing at a really concerning rate and there are fewer and fewer LGBTQ+ specific night time spaces. "Bethnal Green Working Men's Club has been there for as long as I can remember and has always been there and has always been this safe haven, this pocket of joy and resilience and strength and mischief and that's why it's so, so vital." The FoBGWMC's has an initial fundraising target of £12,000 with an extended target of £18,000 which would cover all consultancy and accountancy costs, as well as creating a 'robust' business plan. A spokesperson for Tower Hamlets Council said the club is an important venue for the borough's LGBTQIA+ community, particularly at a time where there is a decline in these spaces across London. They said: "This is why the council has approved an application for the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club to be an Asset of Community Value. "We have not received notice of the owner's intention to sell the property and we are not aware of the building being marketed as 'for sale'. We have contacted the freeholder for further details and about their obligation to inform us of any intention to sell. The council's Corporate Director for Housing Regeneration has met with the campaign and we are working with them to find the best way forward to protect this important venue." They went on to say: "The club was established in the 1950s and in planning terms its use is as a cultural venue. Such venues are protected by the policies outlined in the Tower Hamlets Local Plan and the London Plan. Consequently, any proposed changes to the property's use that require planning permission would be evaluated in accordance with these policies, which aim to preserve such venues from being lost." Want more from MyLondon? Sign up to our daily newsletters for all the latest and greatest from across London here
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
David Lammy is the most naïve Foreign Secretary in British history
The Chinese government is fond of very large buildings. The administrative centre of Beijing is built to impress both foreign and domestic visitors. Monolithic granite edifices of a size and scale unheard of in even America's most wealthy metropolises stand as sentinels along both sides of the thoroughfares. This is a visual reminder that the state is omnipresent and all-powerful. Now, if our Foreign Secretary is to get his way, that peculiar Sino-Soviet aesthetic is to be imported into the British capital. David Lammy has become a personal champion of Chinese ambitions to establish a 'super-embassy' near the Tower of London. At more than 10 times the size of its existing embassy at Portland Place in Marylebone, the 20,000 square metres development would become Europe's largest embassy building. It would include offices, 225 homes and a 'cultural exchange' site. Oh, and it would definitely not represent any kind of security threat. After all, this is China we're talking about. Mr Lammy is surely one of the most naïve Foreign Secretaries in British history. He asked the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, to 'call in' the planning application for the site after it had already been rejected by Tower Hamlets Council. Perhaps the Foreign Secretary had a strong argument to make? Let's take a look. In his letter to Rayner in favour of the application, Lammy pointed out the undeniable fact that building the embassy at that location was in Beijing's interests: 'As a new embassy, I consider that this application is clearly in the interest of a foreign government, and of more than local importance. I would therefore request that you give consideration to calling in the application for your decision.' This is, I am sure you will agree, powerful and succinct. And now to the opposing arguments. Firstly, UK intelligence agencies have expressed concerns that highly sensitive cables that run directly under the site could be hacked by Chinese officials operating with diplomatic immunity inside the embassy. Then there is the more general concern that the embassy will be used as a 'super-hub' for Chinese spies. Secondly, the Metropolitan Police opposed the application because of fears the new complex would attract too many protesters and cause a public nuisance. Thirdly, Congressional leaders in the United States have warned that gifting the Chinese Communist Party with the largest embassy in Europe is a counterproductive and unearned reward. And fourthly, Luke de Pulford, the executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, has said that the embassy has 'never been in the UK's interests'. It is quite the conundrum: how to balance the Foreign Secretary's extensive (three-paragraph) arguments with detailed objections from the police, the intelligence services and senior legislators from Britain's most important political and military ally. There was no such conundrum for Rayner. She did Lammy what asked her. She called in the application and took it out of the hands of councillors. Presumably, our Chinese friends are unused to the notion that local elected officials could ever stand in the way of the central Government. But Rayner's intervention will have reassured them that even local democracy has its limits in the UK. This home from home for every spy relishing the prospect of advancing his government's ambitions from the heart of a Western democracy has moved a step closer. It could surely not come at a better time for Beijing. This is the same week, after all, in which the Chinese ambassador to the US stated: 'If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we're ready to fight till the end.' That's reassuring, isn't it? What do the police, security officers and American politicians know? We have David Lammy on our side. So what if he wants to give an autocratic foreign power an unprecedented foothold – a fortress, no less – in our capital city? I mean, with David on our side, what could possibly go wrong? Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
