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Brick Lane is one of London’s most beloved, and buzzing, areas. Home to the largest Bangladeshi community outside of Bangladesh, nowadays the cobbled street in the East End is known just as much for its curry houses and vintage shops as its ubiquity of fashionable young shoppers, TikTokkers and trendy coffee shops.
At the centre of Brick Lane is the great Truman Brewery. Currently, the building that was once London’s largest brewery is home to food and vintage markets, record stores, music venues and more. But that could all change in the future, as the building’s landlords are pushing ahead with plans to redevelop the beloved brewery, despite widespread opposition.
The building’s owners, the Zeloof family, have been trying to secure planning permission from Tower Hamlets council for years to redevelop the brewery. The latest attempt could see the iconic building turned into a data centre, alongside 44 flats and a new retail space. The 44 flats would include 11 social housing units.
The Brick Lane server could be one of dozens of new data centres proposed for London. In October, the government declared data centres ‘nationally significant infrastructure projects’, and vowed to make it easier for developers to win approval. But building new servers in a city that’s already short on space could be at odds with the government’s plans to build new homes in the capital.
There’s also the issue of how new data centres could strain grid capacity in the capital. In December 2025 the London Assembly warned that an insufficient supply of electricity would delay the arrival of new homes. In 2022, developments in Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing were forced to pause due to electricity capacity issues caused by nearby data centres. According to the Assembly, one data centre could need the same amount of electricity as tens of thousands of homes.
Grow Places, which is redeveloping the site on behalf of Truman Estates, estimated the Brick Lane servers would need four megawatts of power, far less than the dozens of megawatts needed for larger data centres.
In July Tower Hamlets Council refused Truman Estates planning permission to redevelop, but during an inquiry in October Secretary of State Steve Reed ‘called in’ the development, meaning that the final decision is now in his hands.
The Save Brick Lane campaign group, which has been fighting the redevelopment of the Truman Brewery since 2020, has launched a petition to stop the Truman Brewery data centre. The campaigners also put forward a rival proposal for the redevelopment with 300 homes, including 44 social housing units.
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