Shoreditch Roundabout Renovation » Didgeroo

Shoreditch Roundabout Renovation

Dec 06, 2012
Wayne Freeman

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Do you know of the Silicon Roundabout? (you should; it’s where Didgeroo lives). Do you pay attention to local technology news? If not, it is your lucky 5 minutes, because Didgeroo is leaping to rescue you from cluelessness; the roundabout at the heart of all this silicon is getting a makeover! Huzzah, and the angels doth rejoice, there shall be no more imposing grey monoliths with eateries embedded into their feet. It shall be bright and colourful and glorious and, oh… what do you mean only £50 million is budgeted? Only 1 new building?….Huh, and not as earth-shattering a change as I had hoped.

Even so, a change is always good; I have been coming here for only 2 months and I tire of the same old “We are Big Businesses” aesthetic the Silicon Roundabout evokes to me. Yes, large buildings look impressive, but they do reek of corporate pretentiousness (pay no attention to where Didgeroo is located). Anyway, what will this redevelopment bring with it?

Details of the entire renovation scheme are not yet final, but the proposal is to build a “Civic Space”, presumably located on said roundabout itself despite this being early days. The idea behind this project is to provide assorted services, such as work-spaces, classrooms and “ workshops equipped with the latest 3D printing technology”. The area is to be accessible by local start-ups and the “wider community”, whomever they may be.

Whilst this is not the most exciting news in the world, I am ecstatic for this change. I will be able to go for my customary walk after lunch and enjoy the sight of something that doesn’t remind me of the life I left behind to work for Didgeroo. Excluding my own “benefit”, It is nice to know that the government looked behind the metaphorical sofa and discovered a few coins with which to throw a bone to start-up companies with an avid focus on modern technology, rather than throwing it at the old, barely alive dog known as everything so ingrained in the past that you associate a sepia filter with it anytime it is mentioned (for specifics, search the Daily Mail for industries NOT portrayed in a negative light).

Pay the nice guys over at TechCrunch a visit for kindly providing their own article on the matter.