In the latest chapter of the sorry story of Bishopsgate Goodsyard in Shoreditch, east London, we learnt last week that Eric Parry is to design a 29-storey office tower to replace a pair of 38-floor and 46-floor residential buildings, designed by PLP, that had become lightning rods for opposition to the scheme.

Could this appointment of a class-act architect contribute significantly to unlocking a development that has been struggling to get off the ground since I first worked in development in Brick Lane in the mid-1990s?

The vast swathe of land that sits between the fashionable Redchurch and Shoreditch High Streets to the north and the sea of glass and steel towers to the south was originally developed as a railway station and goods processing depot in 1881. Huge quantities of goods arrived there every day from ports east of London until it was destroyed by fire in 1964. (Probable) urban myth has it that the fire was set by the Richardson Gang – bitter rivals of the Krays.

>> Also read: Eric Parry replaces PLP on Goodsyard towers

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