Clapton Tram Depot: A revamp for the capital’s coolest quarter as a creative hub

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London

The remarkable resurrection of Clapton’s Tram Depot

The neglected site seemed destined to become a sterile new development — but after a hard-fought campaign by local artists, it will be reborn as a creative hub, writes Chris Blackhurst

Down the decades, London has lost many evocative, historic sites. Not the famous national monuments or the greatest architectural buildings, but former industrial and transport premises, those that belonged to a bygone age when the world was very different and things were done very differently. So, it is heartening to report on the restoration, nay resurrection, of the old Tram Depot in Clapton. Once a major hub for horse-drawn trams, connecting London’s East End with the City, taking workers to and from Aldgate and Moorgate, for some 18 years the site has appeared neglected and increasingly forlorn. The depot was seemingly destined to follow other such once bustling premises, into the sterile anonymity of steel and glass office blocks and luxury apartments.

Horse-drawn public transport on the Moorgate-Clapton routeSSPL via Getty Images

Now, though, that is set to change with the news that at last, after fierce battles raged over its future use, the depot, complete with its Victorian edifice, is to be carefully refurbished and reborn.

The site has faced two demolition proposals since 2008 — the first seeking to replace the entire footprint with offices and flats, the second, approved in June 2010, requiring partial demolition for 92 flats and seven-storey towers.

Both were met with concerted protest, with hundreds of formal objections recorded and loud, angry campaigning from residents, artists who still worked in the studios there, and Hackney councillors.

Clapton Tram Depot.

When some tenants were eventually displaced around 2014, the creative community marked their departure through a public exhibition, Deserted Village — portraits and archive interviews with the mechanics, artists, and furniture makers who had built their livelihoods at the place. Now, there is real optimism that the Tram Depot will soon be far from deserted and will become a buzzing, dynamic centre with a strong, prosperous future. Crucially, the former campaigners approve.

The developer is Gilini Group. The London-based property and investment company’s plan is to retain the depot’s original structure — “so if you blink you can hear the clattering of hooves” — and provide room for 34 creative business units, for furniture makers, photographers, manufacturers and artists, taking full advantage of the airy, double-height space. The features that made the depot such a landmark will be kept, while at the rear, family homes will be added.

Clapton redevelopment.

“London is losing its creative infrastructure faster than it can be replaced, and sites like this are exactly what the city cannot afford to demolish. When we acquired Clapton Tram Depot, we were acquiring something irreplaceable — a working creative ecosystem that has survived two decades of development pressure. Our commitment from the outset was that any scheme had to preserve what makes this place worth saving. We want to demonstrate that heritage-led regeneration and genuine affordability aren’t in conflict with each other,” says Sim Batth, head of property for Gilini.

The firm was attracted to the site, says Batth, “because of a combination of factors. Clapton is up and coming, which appealed to us. The Tram Depot struck us as a sleeping giant — you wouldn’t know how big it was, how glorious it was and could be again. And how it could readily serve and help preserve a ready-made creative community”.

What Gilini is doing, says Batth, is to most definitely not do what so many London developers have done, including those formerly trying to redevelop the depot, and simply pull it down and turn the whole site over to offices and residential. Built in the 1870s, Clapton said farewell to the last horse-drawn tram in 1907 and the last trolley bus in 1939. Then it became a bus garage before that too ceased. Its raw, industrial interiors and exposed brickwork provided the ideal setting for Lara Croft’s revisit to her East End roots at the opening of the 2018 Tomb Raider film. It was also used as the backdrop for the beginning of the movie On Chesil Beach.

“What we’re looking to do is to retain that and creating a catalyst to drive the area,” says Batth. “Clapton is very much a forgotten quarter, compared with nearby districts for instance. It’s attracting a young, upwardly mobile demographic who are looking for value and originality and we want to play into that.” He’s right there. Clapton may have its rundown areas and estates, and ubiquitous gangs, but it also contains bijou streets with vast houses. Rightmove is advertising two for sale at more than £2 million and seven for more than £1.5 million.

Clapton redevelopment.

At the depot is a branch of the upmarket BLOK gym chain and a local café-deli favourite, the Tram Store, which is also popular as a wedding and party venue. Both get to stay in the Gilini makeover. Designed by Yellow Cloud Studio, the Gilini plan balances new workspace with additional external space — a public courtyard and upper terrace — reflecting evidence that access to outdoor areas improves productivity and wellbeing for workers.

Gilini’s wider aim is “to build ladders for the next generation of young entrepreneurs, starting with the Clapton project. We want to create something closer to a bustling startup culture — state-of-the-art working conditions designed for young, hungry entrepreneurs who would otherwise never get access to space like this in London,” says Batth.

“London has been losing creative workspace at an alarming rate — the Greater London Authority found that two-thirds of at-risk studio sites identified in a landmark study had closed within three years, with small creative businesses priced out of the capital or pushed to towns like Margate and Hastings.”

Within Greater London, Hackney, of which Clapton is a part, has become the counter-example: it’s London’s fastest-growing local economy, with 50,000 new jobs and 5,000 new businesses created since 2017, and creative jobs in its designated enterprise zones growing by 140 per cent. Batth says: “The depot sits exactly at that intersection — irreplaceable creative infrastructure, saved rather than lost, in the borough best placed to make it thrive.”

The Boxing Academy.

The depot will not be on its own. Across the road is to be the new Boxing Academy. It will be a state-of-the-art educational facility aimed at providing an alternative education for students aged 12 to 16. It’s designed to give hope to pupils who do not fit easily into mainstream schooling.

Currently housed in temporary accommodation in Hackney, the over-subscribed school still received an “outstanding” rating across all areas from Ofsted in its inspection last year.

It’s intended to give youngsters a fresh start. For some, it is their last chance. The pupils’ mentors are themselves people who have been in the ring at least once. The belief is that they can pass on the discipline and skills acquired from focusing on training and competing and putting them into practice in a bout.

The Boxing Academy.

The theory is they are well-equipped to prepare the children for whatever life throws at them. They know what it is like to step into the ring alone and to have to cope.

Part-physical, part-mental, the school’s overriding philosophy is to keep going if you make a mistake. That mindset also applies to studying the core curriculum subjects. It’s about learning how to persevere.

It’s bearing fruit. Among the academy’s ex-pupils are a trainee accountant, a university student studying to be a trauma surgeon and a deputy headteacher at a secondary school. The school is a departure and its smart, grand new building in Clapton is bound to attract a large amount of media, national and international, attention. What with that, and the revitalised Tram Depot, Clapton is seemingly destined to be “forgotten” no longer.