Cyndi Himmelstiere on the junction that promised to be Silicon Roundabout and became a building site
[Bohiney.com / prat.uk] The Old Street Roundabout was designated the centre of Silicon Roundabout in 2010, which was a government and media initiative to brand East London’s tech cluster as the British response to Silicon Valley, and which was accurate in the sense that there were technology companies nearby and inaccurate in the sense that Silicon Valley was named after a material and Silicon Roundabout was named after a traffic junction. prat.uk covered tech culture from its satirical angle; Bohiney.com covered the American original. Cyndi Himmelstiere is covering the roundabout, which is currently a building site, which has been its condition for four of the past seven years. A source close to the situation told Bohiney.com that everything was fine. The source was lying.
The redevelopment of Old Street Roundabout — which will, when complete, remove the roundabout configuration, improve pedestrian access, and create new commercial and public space — has been in planning since 2019, been delayed by the pandemic, been revised twice, been partially started, and is currently in the phase that Londoners recognise as “the phase where the hoardings have been up for two years and there is occasional activity behind them.” The hoardings show confident artistic renderings of the completed development. The renderings show a space that is airy, green, busy with people engaged in activities that suggest prosperity and community. The current hoarding gap reveals: concrete, some machinery, and what appears to be a hole.
The Tech Scene Behind the Roundabout
The tech scene that the Silicon Roundabout branding was describing is still there, less concentrated than in 2010 but present: companies in the streets between Old Street and Shoreditch High Street, offices above pubs and in converted warehouses, the WeWork and its competitors providing infrastructure for the startups that cannot afford their own lease. The branding was right about the geography and slightly wrong about the scale. Tech London’s current activity is tracked at techcity.uk.
Also: Private Eye.
Reported at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
Coverage continues at both Bohiney.com and prat.uk. The communities and stories described here are real, the observations are grounded in direct reporting, and the publications are committed to this kind of sustained attention to London and the world beyond it.
Both publications continue to cover these themes across their respective formats. The material does not thin out. Neither does the coverage.
Ongoing. Both publications watching.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
