3 min read
With its curry houses, fabric shops and ornate mosques it is known as the epicentre of Britain's thriving Asian community.
Most of us, however, continue to think of London's East End as the faded magnet for another immigrant population. Once home to schmutter markets and shuls, there is little evidence today that marks the contribution of Jews in London's bustling East End.
But an astonishing stand-off between young digital entrepreneurs and those who seek to maintain the history of the area, is shedding light on London's Jewish heritage - and at the centre of it all is the stubborness of a small jewellery shop. Built in 1927, Wickhams Department Store in the Mile End Rd was considered by many of its time as the 'Selfridges of the East End'. And hiding behind the architectural equivalent of the gap-tooth stands Spiegelhalter and a story of Jewish defiance.
The jewellery shop owned by a family who emigrated from Germany in 1828, was the only premises which refused to budge for the developers of Wickams, leaving them stuck with the disjointed design that can still be seen today.
Unsurprisingly, Wickhams had assumed all small stores would fall into line and move out, so that their grand design to build the new department store could proceed. But Mr Spiegelhalter refused and developers had no choice but to build around it, leaving the jewellers sat defiantly in between the magisterial structure of its classical design.
The shop refused to budge and the resulting design can still be seen today
It left the central tower of Wickhams Department Store no choice but to be constructed off-centre leaving seven window bays on the left and nine on the right side. The bosses of the asymmetrical department store had hoped the jewellers would eventually sell and allow the building to find its balance. But it closed in the 1960s while Spiegelhalter waited until 1988 to sell, over a century after they opened.
Today, Wickhams is the home of tech start-ups, Speiegelhalter has changed hands and the terrace has succumbed to the travesties of a struggling high street where a Sports Direct reigns supreme. But new plans to bring the building back to life threaten the stubborn Victorian store front and the story that symbolises the impact one Jewish family made to the area.
Early plans submitted by current owners, development company Resolution Property and their architect Buckley Yeoman Gray, show they want to bring the building back into use with a string of retail units. It looks as though it would involve demolishing the Spiegelhalter shop front, turning it into an entrance to the larger row of stores. Only five years ago you could still look through the metal shutter and see the nineteenth century shop front intact with its curved glass window and mosaic entrance floor spelling out Spiegelhalter. But the developers have removed this, with just the front wall of the building remaining ready to proceed with their plans once they get permission.
A Petition by David Collard demanding Tower Hamlets Council grant it locally-listed status has been set up to save the unique landmark. He says: "For almost a century this plucky little structure has stood its ground and is now a remarkable survivor, representing the triumph of the individual over corporate bullying. It's also a record of the area's changing social and ethnic mix and a reminder of the cultural continuities of the past century. It's not much to look at now, just a tatty shop front on London's Mile End Road, embedded in the lop-sided frontage of a 1920s department store.
"But it is a powerful and evocative symbol of East End indomitability. It's what's left of a former jewellers' shop, and it stands for something."
He is supported by conservation adviser to the Victoria Society, Sarah Caradec who says: "It is not the most architecturally important building but it tells an important story about the areas development.
"It shows the little man can win out. The building also adds character to the neighbourhood people will come to see it based on that alone. "The very fact the little Victorian building is there means it has impacted all the building around it. That is something very unique you wouldn't find that today."
Buckley Yeoman Gray director Matt Yeowman defended their designs, saying: "We wanted to make the missing tooth the main entrance to the building.
"We think it can be done in a way which makes the gap even more meaningful to make it into an art piece which tells the Spiegelhalter story on its surface.
"You need to realise that the store is just a brick wall. Everything behind it has disappeared.
"It would be meaningless to retain it."