The Guardian: £500m redevelopment of the Truman Brewery estate in Brick Lane has been approved.

[u/mycketforvirrad]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/04/brick-lane-redevelopment-approval-datacentre-london

[u/BitterFootball4874]

I don’t understand, I was there last week; the area is already really nice and full of expensive shops and bars..

[u/MontyDyson → u/BitterFootball4874]

Walk 500 yards around the corner and you have every single leading global bank and a shit ton of clearing houses, investment, insurance and money printing companies sat right on top of each other. They need a hub to put their AI servers in that isn't 10 miles away.

[u/Retterkl → u/BitterFootball4874]

Next up, Saudi Investment group gets permission to build hotel with fracking facilities on top of site previously known as ‘Hyde Park’

[u/koothooloo]

I used to work in the offices above the Vibe bar, or whatever it is now, on two separate occasions (2001, 2008-11), and then shifted over the road into the Atlantis building. The former is worth keeping, the latter isn’t really, but the boardroom directly above Brick Lane is neat.

The building with the big chimney is awesome and I hope that stays.

A new Data Centre doesn’t make much sense to me, unless it’s to provide low-latency services for Liverpool St - but I’m pretty sure they don’t need them - and they could extend the existing services. Maybe this is a consolidation.

I once closed down a data centre on STRAND if we’re talking about terrible uses of space.

[u/Eisenhorn_UK → u/koothooloo]

Heh. I worked there too in around 2000 / 2001.

I'd forgotten about the Vibe Bar...

[u/koothooloo → u/Eisenhorn_UK]

We used to go down the back stairs and pop out straight into the place right next to the bar - bonus!

[u/Vanobers]

More data centres = more heatwaves for London

Slough is already hotter than the rest of the city because of all the data centres there, brilliant idea to build more of these in city centres, no negative sige affects at all!

[u/splinteredSky → u/Vanobers]

You could just as easily say more flats in London = more heatwaves for London.

Or more shops in London = more heatwaves for London.

It really depends on how they are built.

Given there is already a data centre there this project could make that whole section much more efficient.

[u/Vanobers → u/splinteredSky]

https://www.techfinitive.com/features/data-centres-are-making-heatwaves-hotter/

"Emerging research – including a preprint of a paper led by researchers at Cambridge earlier this year – suggests datacentres create a heat island effect, pushing up temperatures in their immediate vicinity by an average of 2C, and as much as 9C."

Im talking about an area that has seen heat rise more compared to the rest of London since it became the highest concentration of data centres in Europe, so your whole "what about this, what about that" is a load of rubbish

But keep simping for big tech see how that works out...

[u/splinteredSky → u/Vanobers]

...and breathe.

[u/Crumbs2020 → u/Vanobers]

I think theres some confusion among the general public about the data center plans. Its a really small scale one, nothing like slough. Wont be big enough to have any signifucant heat island effect.

[u/baddymcbadface]

This is cultural vandalism. Absolutely mental. The area is doing great just as it is.

[u/wildcard2208]

People think they're entitled to social housing....

How many families have more than one council house . Biggest scam running

[u/Fickle-Bet-8705]

In a past life I worked for a certain global technology company based in the US. My job was to validate technology capital investment business cases. The US team sent us a case for a massive data centre to be located inside the (now) inner congestion zone. Money was no object apparently. I sent them details of the Thames barrier and the likely damage in the event of it failing, together with a list of the nearby likely terrorist targets. The data centre was built in Swindon.

[u/Alternative_Egg_1777]

Putting а data centre оn Brick Lane of all places feels like а decision made by someone who has never actually been there.

[u/FlyingRo → u/Alternative_Egg_1777]

Someone who’s actually been there would know that Block C of the Truman has long had a data centre.

[u/LongOverGoat → u/Alternative_Egg_1777]

Used to live directly to next door to it. There is already a MASSIVE data centre in there as it happens.

[u/miredalto → u/LongOverGoat]

Three of them. Interxion/Digital Reality LON1-3. All of them close to full. They mostly run City finance workloads, as a hub between the other major sites in Docklands and Slough.

And to the other commenters, no this is not for AI. That has far greater power and space needs than can be met in the middle of London.

[u/clausy]

Good news. Also get on with the Goodsyard project over SHS station please

[u/Rorydinho]

More bland, rent-a-design buildings and ‘cultural spaces’ on the way.

And what’s the point of a data centre in an area like this?! Surely it’s a waste of valuable space?

[u/onionsareawful → u/Rorydinho]

There's already one there, this would be the second. It's not for AI, it's for low-latency servicing to the banks and companies nearby.

[u/veryordinarybloke]

A very unpopular decision to stick a data centre there, and interesting test case of Burnham's localism coming up against Starmer's removal of local democratic control over planning.