Spitalfields Market

A new campaign to resist our old friends Costain has been kicked off. They wish to build the world’s largest trading floor for professional gamblers, the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) on the site of Spitalfields Market. The plan is to destroy a former fruit and veg market that has become home to hundreds of artists; sports facilities including a swimming pool; businesses providing over 100 local jobs; a craft market; and even an Opera House.

Ironically though next to the City of London Spitalfields is the poorest and most overcrowded ward in Britain, the majority of the local population being immigrants from Bangladesh. The new development is set to destroy this entire community as property speculation pushes up land prices and forces out tenants. A huge local consensus against the development has been ignored by cash-stricken Tower Hamlets Council. Protesters picketed a “regeneration” conference organised by the Civic Trust on the 18th July in Spitalfields Market. For more details or to join a phone tree of supporters for future protests phone 0958 778592 email: spitalfields@ndirect.co.uk