Ice Cream Maker Kitty Travers tastes her Mulberry sorbet 

People sometimes say ‘I’d give my right arm…’ when expressing a heartfelt wish. It almost happened to me – quite literally – when I fell out of a Mulberry tree in Bethnal Green and broke my wrist while gathering fruit to make ice cream for our campaign.

I shall never forget the moment I saw my right hand bent back the wrong way like a broken doll. Fortunately two angels delivered me to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel where a metal plate was fitted and now my hand is quite serviceable again, even if I will never quite get all the movement back.

Yet I wear my scar as a badge of honour in our campaign to Save the Bethnal Green Mulberry. To crown it all, Kitty Travers of La Grotta Ices has made sorbet from the Mulberries and we are offering large tubs of this irresistible confection to those who contribute £100 or more to our legal fund. I can personally attest to the deliciousness of it.

After three years of campaigning – and now with the patronage of Judi Dench – we are overjoyed that our case has been granted a Judicial Review with a full public hearing at the High Court on May 5th & 6th, if we can raise £10,000 to pay our Barrister and QC.

CLICK HERE TO HELP US SAVE THE BETHNAL GREEN MULBERRY

We will be represented by top QC Richard Harwood OBE and Andrew Parkinson, Barrister, challenging Tower Hamlets Council’s decision to issue planning permission to Crest Nicholson, which includes partly demolishing the listed Chest Hospital building and digging up the 500 year old Bethnal Green Mulberry. We believe Tower Hamlets acted unlawfully and there are five grounds for Judicial Review.

Anyone who donates £100 or more will receive either a big tub of our homemade Mulberry sorbet made from the fruit of historic London Mulberries picked by yours truly or a cutting of William Shakespeare’s Mulberry.

Planted in Stratford Upon Avon by the poet in 1610, Shakespeare’s Mulberry was cut down in 1770 but David Garrick rescued a cutting which flourishes to this day. Your cutting comes from this tree.

Send an email with your preference to [email protected] and we will supply your rooted cutting later this year or give you details to collect your Mulberry sorbet from a Central London location. (Both are available only in limited numbers)

We will publish details of how to watch the High Court hearing online in due course

Dame Judi Dench is patron of our campaign to Save the Bethnal Green Mulberry

Mulberries from St Dunstan’s, Stepney

Mulberries from Victoria Park and Fournier St

Mulberries from Spitalfields

Kitty Travers heats the Mulberries in a pan

A pan full of Mulberries

Kitty pours the Mulberries into the blender

Kitty sieves the Mulberries to remove the pips

Kitty decants the mixture into pots

Mulberry sorbet in the making

350ml pots of Mulberry sorbet

Photographs copyright © Patricia Niven

Click here to read my feature in The Evening Standard about the scandal of the Bethnal Green Mulberry

Click here to read my feature in The Daily Telegraph about the scandal of the Bethnal Green Mulberry

Read more here about the Bethnal Green Mulberry

A Judicial Review for the Bethnal Green Mulberry

The Fate of the Bethnal Green Mulberry

The Bethnal Green Mulberry

A Letter to Crest Nicholson

A Reply From Crest Nicholson

The Reckoning With Crest Nicholson

SIGN OUR PETITION TO SAVE THE BETHNAL GREEN MULBERRY

STOP PRESS

On Friday 15th April, the High Court also agreed that we could raise – as another ground for Judicial Review – the fact that the Conservation Officer in her report concluded the plans would result in Substantial Harm to the listed buildings but this was not disclosed to the public or the councillors making the decision – on the basis of a claim that she had changed her mind by the time of the planning meeting, thereby defeating the public and councillors’ right to know.