A culture map of Shoreditch has been created by the developers of the ‘The Stage’, the development taking place around the around of Curtain Road and Hewett Street on the edge of the city of London.
Featuring hotspots around the area from film, theatre and television it’s a nice little idea that also features some of the surrounding districts must see street art locations. Who knew for example that Worship Street doubled for New York in Eyes Wide Shut or that the famous playrights Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare once lived nearby.
Of course the developments taking place around Shoreditch are changing the face of the area. You can’t turn a corner now without coming up against the skeletal frame of a new high rise. The encroachment of the city is getting ever closer to the heart of an area which, according to the culture map Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was filmed.
More interestingly perhaps for fans of history is the role that the development has in the excavation and preservation of the remains of the old curtain theatre which also sits on the site. Only the second purpose built theatre ever built, the archaeological dig taking place will reveal much about life in the area during Elizabethan times. Shoreditch was of course, the birthplace of theatre as we know it today and so the dig is of extreme historical importance.
The map contains a number of interesting locations from around the area and people can add to it too. Know the location of a scene of a film or where something of historical importance happened from yesteryear then that too can be submitted.
To find out more about the excavations happening at the old Curtain Theatre keep a look out on the Museum of London Archaeology site or the Stage developments own archaeology page.
To read more articles about the culture of Shoreditch have a look here:
I can’t say that The Stage development has replaced any particularly characterful buildings itself but it’s part of the rampant, greedy culturally insensitive rampage of development that will destroy the essence of Shoreditch that it’s trying to sell in its marketing material.
Doing the archaeological survey is the least they can do (they’re probably legally obliged) but their marketing material (full page ads in countless editions of the Evening Standard) shows that Shoreditch is going to turn into Canary Wharf in a very short time.
Anyone who likes genuine street culture should get out and appreciate what’s left before it’s all gone. Who knows? In the future people might be knocking down The Stage to discover the street art that it obliterated (wasn’t it this development that took down the wall with the famous cowboy in the hat?).
It was indeed, the El Mac piece was on the side of Rockwell House. Interestingly the Vhils piece looks like its still there and being preserved. I’m no fan of the encroachment either though this ones been on the cards for a while and the Curtain Theatre excavation is important. I’ve got more real concerns about the Norton Folgate, Bishopsgate and Leonard’s Street developments though undoubtedly Shoreditch is changing forever and a lot of once was will no longe be