Cork Street under threat?

Cork Street under threat?

14 June, 2011
by: Spoonfed Arts Team

£98 million property sale threatens the future of Cork Street.

Back in April we asked whether it might be all over for Vyner Street, when the departure of Kate MacGarry left Wilkinson as the only original Vyner Street art space still operating from the same premises. And now it looks like London's other great art street, Cork Street, is also under threat.

Apparently, Standard Life are looking to sell a large block that spans both Old Burlington Street and Cork Street for a reported £98 million, and up to seven art dealers, whose leases are up for renewal in the next two years, are potentially under threat.

Mayor Gallery – the first gallery to move into Cork Street back in 1925 – have organised a petition and Twitter campaign (#saveCorkStreet) in order to request “a substantial lease on these properties” in order to secure Cork Street's future as a destination for art collectors.

On the one hand, it's awful to see yet another slice of London's great history become slave to the faceless corporate machine, after Jermyn Street's ongoing decimation and the arrival of the frightful Abercrombie and Fitch on Savile Row.

But on the other hand, apart from Alan Cristea and Flowers and the odd show in one of the hire spaces, it's not like that much of interest has been exhibited on Cork Street for several years now. A large proportion of these galleries are still trading on their reputations from decades gone by: Mayor Gallery, for example, were one of the first galleries to exhibit a work by Francis Bacon (Women in Sunlight back in 1993). But what are they showing these days? Well, 2011's exhibitions have consisted of some 1950s abstracts and minimalist works from the 1960s. Hardly the cutting edge stuff on which the reputation of Cork Street was built in the first place.

We also note in passing that, at the time of writing, a Twitter search for the hashtag #saveCorkStreet returned precisely zero results.

Sign the Save Cork Street petition.

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Spoonfed Arts Team