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Abstract

The iconic photographic studios on the banks of the Regent’s Canal where Madonna, David Bowie and Kate Moss posed for the camera are fighting back against developers.

Holborn Studios, once described as “the Abbey Road of photography”, is Europe’s largest photographic studio hire complex and has played a significant role in pop culture.

But 35 years after the Victorian building which overlooks Angel’s Packington estate was lovingly restored by Holborn Studios founders Vince and Margaret McCartney, it is set to be demolished to make way for luxury homes, despite being in a conservation area and gaining listed status just two years ago.

Last month, a Hackney Council planning committee approved luxury developer Galliard Homes’ planning application for the demolition of the buildings at Eagle Wharf Road and the construction of 50 private luxury canal­side apart­ments. One-bedroom flats reportedly start at £700,000. “Their planning application is wrong on so many levels,” Vince and Margaret’s son, Bill McCartney, who runs the studios with his brother Mike, said. “It includes no affordable homes and the studios they are planning to build in the basement have columns in them and won’t be suitable for photographers. There’s a great creative community here which has existed for 20 years. It’s a proven thing and it works. Around 350 people with jobs here will have to move if this goes ahead.”

Another 20 companies have offices on the site, including the Daily Mirror newspaper and News UK, along with computer games developers, film production companies, online fashion firms and PR companies.

Hackney received 132 letters of objection to the plans, including from the Hackney Society, the Friends of Regent’s Canal and the Angel Wharf Residents Association.

There were just two letters of support.

Celebrities including former Arsenal footballer Robert Pires and music mogul Simon Cowell have also recently lent their support to the campaign.

The McCartney brothers plan to launch a judicial review of the planning process as soon as Galliard is granted full permission to build. The Regent’s Network, which campaigns for London’s waterways, is understood to be planning a separate legal challenge.

Galliard want to keep the Victorian frontage and chimney, but demolish the studios, which would be replaced by 50 luxury flats and offices – 24 per cent of which will be classed as “affordable workspace” – in two six-storey blocks.

Mr McCartney added: “They are describing the studios as affordable, but they’ll still be more expensive than what we’re paying at the moment. I wouldn’t class them as affordable at all.

“Our plan A is that we want to keep the building. Plan B would be to have development that is built in phases, so people can stay here, with appropriate studios.”

The McCartneys bought a lease in 1981 and turned the studios into a famous brand that has become a favourite with photographers.

Their landlord was businessman David Gold, now joint-chairman of West Ham FC, who tried to redevelop the site, but was refused permission and eventually sold the site to Galliard for £11.25million.

After a legal wrangle the McCartney brothers agreed a new 15-year lease with Galliard, but it included a break clause for redevelopment after three years, which the developer is now hoping to trigger.

The McCartney brothers say the developer has been unwilling to come to a compromise over the development.

Mike added: “There seems to be a level of bulldozerish arrogance, it’s very frustrating. They feel like they will get their way because they have done so across London.”

Ian Shacklock, chairman of the Friends of Regent’s Canal, said the development would “destroy the essence of Hoxton”.

“It’s a special building, the only one left on that stretch that is not a modern box, and one which has some connection with our industrial past,” he said.

“But I’m more concerned about the studios rather than the effect on the canal. They [the McCartney family] have taken on a derelict site, nurtured it and now somebody wants to knock it down and replace it with faceless flats.”

He added: “The council, two years ago, recognised the importance of the building by locally listing it. We breathed a sigh of relief then, but we’ve been betrayed. The council had said we’re earmarking that, and [former Hackney mayor] Jules Pipe was fully in favour of keeping it, we had the planners and heritage people on-side and it just seems to me the whole council has buckled.”

Galliard Homes declined to comment.