The former owner Air Studios, who spent two years fighting off disruptive development from its neighbours, is preparing for the same battle at another of his studios in Shoreditch.

Paul Woolf, who sold Air Studios in Lyndhurst Road earlier this year, is facing plans to build a six-storey office block next to the Strongroom recording studio in Curtain Road.

Mr Woolf and co-owner Richard Boote fear noise and vibration from the construction next door will make it impossible for artists to record there for at least 18 months. A petition to save the firm has already gathered 5,000 signatures.

Mr Woolf spent two years fighting a basement application next to Air Studios which he believed would have forced the studios to close. The applicants withdrew their proposal late last year. In October he sold the studios to Russian businessman Maxim Demin.

Mr Woolf said: “Our staff have played its part in building London’s heritage and now, as a result of a rammed-through application process, [Strongroom] is in mortal danger. Hackney Council has a clear choice between Strongroom’s survival or more faceless expansion.”