Curry, bagels … and AI? Londoners fight plan for huge datacentre in Brick Lane

Jonathan Moberly and Susanna Kow are part of the Save Brick Lane campaign. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Jonathan Moberly and Susanna Kow are part of the Save Brick Lane campaign. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian Curry, bagels … and AI? Londoners fight plan for huge datacentre in Brick Lane Residents and council say creating affordable housing is more urgent than ‘high-frequency trading’ in nearby City Campaigners in east London are opposing plans for a datacentre in Brick Lane that they say will worsen the area’s housing crisis and drive long-term residents away. The road, famed for its curry houses and 24-hour bagel shops, is the latest flashpoint in the rapid rollout of datacentres across the UK that aims to meet demand created by artificial intelligence. ‘Slough is like an experiment’: Europe’s largest datacentre hub leaves town sweltering Read more The Brick Lane datacentre, proposed to cover 5,200 sq metres, would be used for automated “high-frequency trading” in London’s nearby financial district. Jonathan Moberly, a resident and member of the Save Brick Lane campaign, said the new centre on the site of the former Truman Brewery would bring no benefit to the area or residents. “We have a severe housing crisis here and this site should be used to build affordable – ideally council – houses. Instead we are talking about this datacentre, which will bring literally no benefit to anyone living here,” he said. A recent report by the London assembly found the rapid expansion of datacentres, which require huge amounts of energy, was delaying urgently needed housing in the capital as there is not enough capacity on the electricity grid for both. Moberly said: “It is quite clear we can’t have the housing we need and these datacentres – you have to make choices.” View image in fullscreen Jonathan Moberly looking at a plan of the datacentre. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian The planning documents submitted for the datacentre show it will be mainly used for so-called high-frequency trading, allowing a huge volume of financial transactions in the City of London to take place within a fraction of a second. The proposals show the datacentre’s peak output would be 5.2MW, enough to power about 15,000 homes, according to campaigners. Moberly said: “In some cases the government might say ‘oh you all want your Instagram feeds or TikTok so you need this’ but that is not the case with this proposal. The value of putting one here is for high-frequency trading because of its proximity to the City, where milliseconds count.” View image in fullscreen The proposed centre would be on the site of the old Truman Brewery. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian Campaigners are also concerned about noise pollution from the new site – a nearby datacentre has already been subject to complaints from residents for the persistent low-level hum that it emits, described as “like a huge fridge”. Tower Hamlets council rejected the proposals