THE FIRST LOVE TOWER

by Tony Graham

With the City of London planning to merge all their major food markets outside the City, The First Love Tower speculates an alternative vision for the future of Billingsgate Market. It programmatically explores how Tower Hamlets can utilise the land to form new social and economic interaction between the polarising communities of Canary Wharf and Poplar. The First Love Tower brings together open space, corporate offices, markets, and a charity hub for the First Love Food Foundation. The design embodies and immortalises the character of Billingsgate to become a new symbol in the skies for the community of Poplar. Through forming a speculative middle ground between the two wards, the building will help bridge social disparities and assist in Tower Hamlet’s ongoing struggle with Food Poverty.