On 7th January 2024 Vince McCartney died peacefully, aged 74, after a short illness. As founder of Holborn Studios and Eagle Wharf Marina, Vince was a true friend of the Regent's Canal.
Holborn Studios was founded in Holborn in 1979 and in 1988 Vince took on an ambitious project to relocate to an abandoned canalside site in Eagle Wharf Road. At his own risk, he restored and repurposed some derelict warehouses and turned his enterprise into Europe's largest photographic complex.
With its distinctive Victorian chimney, Holborn Studios has become an iconic landmark on the Regent's Canal and this site has become home for over 300 creative jobs in the heart of Shoreditch.
When buildings like this are lovingly restored, resulting in the creation of hundreds of jobs in a perfect location for shooting photographs, where photographers at all levels can meet and exchange knowledge, what could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, ownership of the land underneath these industrial heritage buildings has fallen into the hands of hostile greedy developers who are prepared to flatten the whole complex without hesitation.
Since 2012, the Friends of Regent's Canal have joined forces with Holborn Studios to fight off a succession of development proposals. The first one was outrageous and involved demolition of every building in sight. It was thwarted in 2014 when Hackney Council decided to protect all the buildings with a local listing. A year later the land changed hands and fresh proposals were put forward. These proposals retained the historic chimney (as a token gesture) but buried it behind characterless modern tower blocks and, crucially, no room was left for the studio complex to operate in its inimitable fashion.
From 2015 to 2022 the developers tried repeatedly to force their unpopular proposals through the planning system. The council's resistance started to wane but this was offset by Vince's passionate and persistent campaign to save the studios and to ridicule the proposals. During those years the Hackney planning committee became an enemy of the canal by approving the plans and their decision was thwarted by Judicial Reviews. Finally, in 2022, the councillors gave us all a pleasant surprise by defying their chairman and they rejected the plan. Inevitably, the developers lodged an appeal and Vince led the fightback in three successive iterations of the planning inquiry.
Vince can now rest in peace, knowing that he did everything in his power to protect the studio complex against its predators and to galvanise the extended communities. The Friends of Regent's Canal will always be grateful for the moral and practical support that he gave us, through providing advice, equipment, materials and meeting spaces over a very prolonged period.
The non-intrusive transformation of the abandoned warehouses was quite remarkable. Please click here to see a seven-minute video clip where Vince and others reveal this achievement. And please click here to see photographs that illustrate some of the challenges and changes.
The original proposal, by Gold Properties, to demolish the whole site, was so outrageous that it motivated 50 people to attend a Friends of Regent's Canal meeting and it sent shockwaves across various networks up and down the country. The developers even had the audacity to suggest that the loss of the Victorian chimney would be mitigated by an undulating roofline. Here is a leaflet that we circulated at the time.
In 2015 a revised application was submitted and it went down like a lead balloon with everybody except a few corruptible individuals. The visualisations demonstrated a mindless desire for social and cultural cleansing.
Please click here to see images of this plan
The developers have made very few changes to their proposals since 2015. Instead, they have put their energies into legal battles and their failed attempts to demoralise the occupants. their supporters and their neighbours. They have demonstrated their ignorance by claiming that Holborn Studios could relocate to a basement with low ceilings and restricted access. Clearly they do not understand the workings or appeal of these studios or the heritage value of these buildings. The fight goes on.