The owner of a Borough museum dedicated to one of “England’s oldest and most notorious” prisons has hit out at Southwark Council for making its display of torture devices look like a “cheap seaside amusement arcade” by letting a new restaurant put up bright lighting next door.
Ray Rankin, who has run the Clink Prison Museum on the ancient Clink Street for decades, said he wasn’t properly consulted before the council gave planning permission in May for the new branch of steak chain Flat Iron to put up an array of “festoon lighting” outside. The council maintains that it carried out the proper consultation.
The entrances to the museum and the restaurant are right next to each other, so the Flat Iron lighting comes within a few feet of the various grisly torture devices outside the Clink. Mr Rankin said that the atmosphere of the museum, which has been in business since 1989, is being “ruined” by the recent addition.
The new lighting is “making the building look like a cheap seaside amusement arcade which is totally detrimental to my business being a medieval museum specialising in local history,” he said in an email to the council.
“These new frames and lights have ruined the look and feel of my entrance along with obscuring the view of our gibbet,” he added.
Clink Street is part of the council’s Borough High Street conservation area. A 1997 report by the Museum of London said the site was of “regional, if not national importance.” The council says its role is “to ensure that character and appearance of conservation areas is preserved and enhanced [through] the planning process.”
A report recommending permission be granted said that “the festoon lighting would have a subtle illumination and is not envisaged to result in undue light pollution towards the neighbouring residential units located on the upper-floors of Soho Wharf or on the opposite side of Clink Street.”
A council planning officer said they sent a letter to the Clink Prison Museum in good time. But Mr Rankin said staff did not see it because the museum was closed due to government Covid-19 rules.
The officer added that the design and conservation department of the council was consulted about the lighting and worked with Flat Iron to “minimise any impact” on the character and appearance of the surrounding area. They added that they were sorry that Mr Rankin was unhappy with the decision but they would not be revoking it.
Residents on the same side of the narrow street were consulted about the lighting and people in twelve properties were consulted in total.
But people living across the road were not asked for their views because planning officers did not consider them close enough to be affected by the lighting. One man who lives on the other side of the street said this meant the council had made its decision without gathering enough information.
Both Mr Rankin and other locals were also concerned that, as was normal in Covid-19 lockdown, the council did not carry out a site visit before giving permission, instead making its decision based on computer research including Google Street View.
A council spokesperson said: “We have standard planning procedures in place so that all applications, objections and supporters can be heard fairly. As a local planning authority, we are required to undertake a formal period of public consultation, prior to deciding a planning application.
“In line with agreed lockdown guidelines, site visits were paused and our officers gathered information on applications through use of technology and asking applicants to provide the necessary materials.
“Our officers recently carried out a post-decision visit to the Flat Iron site. They found the luminance of the new festoon lighting to be at an acceptable level, minimising any light pollution.”
Flat Iron was contacted for comment but did not reply before the News went to press.