Residents 'go independent' to beat skyscraper

It was thought the liberty had been abolished in 1900, but the newly uncovered documents cast doubt over whether it was ever properly abolished.

Support for the campaign to preserve the area from more skyscrapers comes from English Heritage, Cabe (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment), the Georgian Group, the Spitalfields Trust and, unexpectedly, from the singer Suggs, frontman of the band Madness, who is about to release an album and a song called 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate'. The skyscraper would mean the demolition of a Victorian electricity generation site known as The Light and run as a bar. Five thousand have signed a Save the Light petition.

Robin Stummer, an architectural expert who works in the area, found the maps and documents when he was doing research into St Leonard's church in Shoreditch, where William Shakespeare is believed to have worshipped. He handed his findings over to the barrister who has been engaged to fight the threat to the Light bar.

'This could well be of great significance in the matter of the proposed development,' said Stummer. 'The barrister confirmed there could well be grounds for questioning the status of Norton Folgate, some of which could pertain to building rights and consent.'

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