Great Eastern Railway Spitalfields
Great Eastern Railway to Ilford
The Great Eastern Railway line runs eastwards from Bishopsgate
Post to the west Shoreditch
Post to the north Bethnal Green Boundary Estate
Post to the east Mile End New Town
Bacon Street
The road has lots of graffiti-art and Vintage (i.e. junk) shops.
6-7 site of the Ship pub
St Matthias’s School. The school is linked with the St. Matthew's Church. It was built originally in 1874 by Joseph Clarke and was a National School. The original building had Gothic detailing in brick and zinc gutters as lead would have been stolen. It uses the Seal of the old Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green as its badge. It was remodelled in 1994.
35 site of Black Bull Pub
Bethnal Green Road
This section of the road was opened through to Great Eastern Street in 1879 from what had originally been Church Street by the Metropolitan Board of Works.
2-10 Box Park. Pop Up Mall.
5-11 complex of warehouses occupying an entire block as far as Shoreditch High Street. They were originally built for timber merchants and developed on the sites of earlier warehouses, yards and public houses. The first phase was built in 1921 which was two tea warehouses built for Pearks' Dairies. In 1924 a Bacon-washing plant was added. In 1928 Pearks added more to the structure as a tea warehouse. In 1931-33 Lipton's Ltd added a large bacon factory which was steel-framed, faced in red brick; this was built by George Parker & Sons to the designs of Hal Williams & Co, architects. Hal Williams, a New Zealander, and a specialist designer of factories. From the late 1930s it was owned by Allied Supplies and used for processing and packaging tea. Derwent Valley redeveloped it as offices in 2002.
13 The Swan. This pub was built in 1880 and was open until at least 1944. There is a terracotta relief of a swan high over the corner door. The facade has been kept and built into an office building. The building was integrated with the bacon and tea warehouses adjacent in the 1960s and converted into laboratories.
Huntingdon’s Buildings were erected in 1880s by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Co. By 1969 they were owned by the G.L.C. and closed; one block was demolished in the early 1970s and another in 1980, the rest became the Huntingdon Industrial Units. There are current redevelopment plans.
11/15 Former Bethnal Green Synagogue established in 1906. The site had previously been the Glasshouse Memorial Chapel – a Baptist chapel. This was leased to the Federated synagogue in 1905 and alterations undertaken by Lewis Solomon. It was rebuilt in 1958 after wartime bombing on a slightly larger site as a grey brick box. Now the studio of the sculptor, Rachel Whitbread, who has used its interior for several works since 1999. Decorative coloured glass has been removed from the windows.
25 Knave of Clubs. Now renamed Les Trois Garcons. It dated originally from the 1790s buy the present building is from 1880 by E. Dunch. The bar and three exceedingly fine engraved-glass mirrors, one of which is modern have been kept in a conversion by Michael G. Humphries in 1996. Bird auctions used to take place – and it was thus also called the Bird House
34-42 Avant Garde, by Stock Woolstencroft. Residential tower block
35-47 Rich Mix. This opened in 2006 in a former garment factory and has been involved in film festivals in our three-screen cinema and theatrical events well our studio spaces and workspaces for other creative companies such as ADFED, Bwark and Biggafis
51-55 Brew Dog Pub opened in what was the Green and Red Pub.
113 - 115, now set back from the new line of the road, are three-storey weavers' houses of 1735, much altered but their garrets still visible. One-room-deep, they originally had front, winder staircases making space for large work shop windows in the timber-framed rear walls.
120 East End Kebabish. This was the Flower Pot Pub. It dates from pre-1800 and closed, probably in the 1920s.
121 this was the Von Tromp pub which was established by 1827 as the Van Tromp. In the 1980s it was closed for a while and in 1985 renamed Lyons Corner. It finally closed in 1990. It is now a cafe
143 Well & Bucket pub. This was there by 1818. It was a Truman’s house and closed in 1991 having been renamed The Stick of Rock and was then as a hostel. It is one of a mid-19th Italianate group of buildings with a stuccoed front rebuilt in 1873 and with a plaque advertising Truemans. Inside are wall tiles by Wm. B. Simpson & Son, including one showing 'Club Row in Ye Olden Times', with local markets and trades.
152-156 Cat Cafe
159 Espacio Gallery opened in 2012 founded by a group of artists working across all contemporary visual arts media who wanted a space of their own specially designed to meet their needs.
Boundary Street
In the middle ages this was part of the garden of the nunnery of St-John-the-Baptist, Holywell,
The road marked the division between the parishes of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green. It also marked the gap between 'respectable' East London and the 'The Nichol'. This was a slum area, described in Morrison's novel, The Child of the Jago in 1896. It was condemned by health officers as early as 1883. Its poverty drew the attention of reformers who tried to improve health and housing. It only in the 1890s, planners began to take notice and The London County Council was the body which brought about change
13 Ship and Blue Ball pub. The pub closed in 1994 and is now in commercial use and as flats. It is alleged that here in the 1960s the 'Great Train Robbery' was planned and false wall in the games room concealed the results.
Brick Lane
This was called ‘Brick Kiln Lane’ in the 17th and bricks were made here from the 16th. It once represented the nadir of East End poverty.
94 Black Eagle Brewery. Truemans brewed here from 1666 and it remains a complete example of a brewery. Originally A brew house was built west of Brick Lane by Bucknall and this was purchased by Joseph Truman. It was expanded by successive Trumans, other family members and managers. The firm prospered through making porter which, heavily hopped, could be made in large quantities without deterioration. By 1760 Truman’s was the third largest brewery in London; by 1853 they were the largest in the world. Sampson Hanbury and Thomas Fowell Buxton joined the firm in 1800. Buildings from the 19th were designed by Young and James Brodie with Robert Davison plus extensions after 1830, when Beer Duty was abolished. The cooperage had its entrance in Spital Street it was rebuilt in 1924-7 by A.R. Robertson, and large-scale modernization by Arup in 1970. In the mid-19th lighter beers became more popular and Truman’s opened a second brewery at Burton where the water was more suitable for light beers. At Brick Lane they made mild ale and stout, using water from artesian wells. The brewery closed in 1988 and Arups were again commissioned to redevelop. Their solution placed the different functions in tiers over six floors, with three storeys of offices over the recreational floor and two storeys of warehousing beneath. A new building links the Director’s and Head Brewer's Houses and reflected the Vat House and Engineer's House opposite. In 2008, the brewery buildings were an arts, fashion and commercial enclave. In 2010 the Truman’s name and the Black Eagle have been revived in east London with an ‘artisan’ brewery at Hackney Wick.
The Directors' House. This is on the west side of the road and was a grand private residence and company headquarters with offices on the ground floor. Benjamin Truman had been knighted following massive loans to government. John Price is thought to have enlarged an 18th counting house in 1745 and there have been changes since. It is a brick house and inside the main rooms on the first floor are reached by a 19th staircase with cast iron balustrade. The reception room was once the directors' dining room and the boardroom was the drawing room. It has now been linked to the former brew house, by Arup Associates with a façade of mirrored glass. The Directors' House was the principal residence of Thomas Fowell Buxton, from 1808-15 who was a leading figure in the international movement to eradicate slavery, In 1811 Buxton became a partner in the company and oversaw the conversion of the works to steam power; in 1835, on Sampson Hanbury's death, he took over the business. Following Buxton's death in 1840, Prince Albert headed a movement for a public tribute to his memory. In 2007 an English Heritage blue plaque was put on the Directors' House commemorating Buxton's life and work there.
150 Engineer's House. Built 1831-6, presumably by Davison for himself. It is in brick with some tile-hanging and the original carriage entrance. Now offices
Head Brewer's House. Built 1834-7 probably by Robert Davidson. A building to its rear was converted in the 1920s as the Experimental Brewery, a small-scale working brew house for the testing of ingredients and plant. Its five-storey, five-bay round-arched yellow brick flank was retained and restored to its original in the 1970s by Arup
Vat House. Built 1803 probably by Young and John Brodie. It is rather like a meetinghouse, with an open pediment, clock and hexagonal cupola containing a bell of 1803. The interior has a forest of iron columns, with capitals, and I-section girders inserted in the 1840s. This is fully exposed in the semi-basement, where it supports a stone flagged floor which suggests that it had a fireproof construction. The iron columns were to sustain the great weight of the beer. Now offices and stores.
Warehouses. By Smith & Fanners. The brewery had numerous large stores and warehouses, linked high over street level by a series of enclosed bridges.
Stables. Brewery stables from 1837. There is an arcaded upper floor with circular windows and a stucco pediment surmounted by the black eagle. It is designed to house 114 horses and in fact had nearly twice that number in double boxes by 1891. At its end is a red brick towering chimney with the company name inset in white tiles – this was added when the stables were converted to a boiler house and canteen in 1929 by Robinson. It is now offices and for a while was a music hall.
Dray Walk – this is on the line of what was Black Eagle Street. Loading bays have been turned into shops and galleries by Smith & Fanners in 1970.
Railway Bridge. The road is cut in two by the railway on a line which also marked the boundary between Bethnal Green and Spitalfields. Rail Lines go both over and under the road. Originally in 1840 the Eastern Counties Railway lines to its terminus at Shoreditch came in at high level and the bridge over Brick Lane was situated here. In 1874 their successors, the Great Eastern Railway, opened Liverpool Street and for this the lines were at a low level and passed under Brick Lane – and in they still do this. The high level lines then took traffic into the ex- original which was renamed Bishopsgate goods station. The over bridge was partly demolished in the 1960s although the abutments and some of the lines remained. A new bridge has been built here to carry the East London Line to the new Shoreditch Station
Goods yard. A coal depot called Brick Lane had been built alongside the Great Eastern Railway and was on the approach to the Bishopsgate Terminus. The other, also for coal, was nearer to Whitechapel and which included a junction with the East London Railway. They were merged in 1881 as Spitalfields Depot. The two sets of lines merged slightly to the east of Brick Lane Railway Bridge in an area which included an engine shed and an office. The site included a granary and the signal box covering the junction was the Granary Box. The yard included a Hydraulic Pumping Station and another which covered the Spitalfields Wagon Hoist.
125-127 on the corner with Sclater Street. This was originally one house, rebuilt as two in 1778 with weavers' workshops in the upper floors. Restored 2001. A plaque marks a corner of the Slaughter family’s estate.
149-161 early 18th single-room tenements built for weavers
154 Religion Clothing. This was the Two Brewers Pub, later known as the Old Two Brewers.It was effectively the brewery tap;
157 Jolly Butchers. This pub was established by 1839 as the Turk & Slave, by 1842 it was Turkish Slave, 1844 Turkish Head, 1847 Turk & Slave and in 1881 Jolly Butchers. It was a Truman’s House by 1922 and closed in the 1980s. There is a large Truman’s plaque on the first floor. It is now in other use.
155 Beigel Shop. Claims to be the oldest Brick Lane Beigel Shop and that it opened in 1855
159 Beigel Bake. All night Beigel shop.
Buxton Street
Allen Gardens. The park results from post-1945 slum clearance of a dense and impoverished area, next to a weaving field. A brick railway viaduct ran along the northern edge, now replaced by the new East London Line to Shoreditch. The anarchists have their summer fetes there
Cavin Street
This was Great Pearl Street
French Church. By 1697 Jacques Laborie, founded a new church here But in 1699 he left for America. The Church continued until 1701.
15-16 This was an early 19th house built for James Lewis Desormeaux, a black-silk dyer who also appears to have had a dye house there. It was later owned by Sir Francis Desanges who had an interest in an early gas making plant in this area. Later owned by Hague and Topham, millwrights with a foundry in Grey Eagle Street.
10-11 houses thought to have been built for weavers in the 18th. The site is now probably modern housing.
Chance Street
Area built up for housing from 1670 having previously been Preston’s Gardens. It was originally Little
Anchor Street.
Dirty House of 2002 by David Adjaye for the artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, is a converted warehouse covered in a thickly impastoed texture of black anti-graffiti paint, with strange smoked-glass flush windows to the ground floor, rectangular windows above and the roof raised to float above a terra
Hedgehog by Roa
Cheshire Street
This was known as Hare Street at this western end of the road
8-38 a very complete terrace with integral shop fronts built c. 1870-2 by Reddall & Cumber. The regularity of the design has been emphasised during refurbishment in 1991 by Building Design Prospect.
21 flats built in 1998 by Michael Sierens Architects on the site of the Cheshire Street synagogue which closed in 1987 because it was structurally unsound. Its formal name was the United Workmen's and Wlodowa Synagogue and it was founded in 1901. Wlodowa is in Poland near Lublin and is where the founders' families originated. It had been the base for the welfare work of 'The Fund of Good Deeds' which helped to look after the welfare of local elderly housebound Jewish residents. It was a working-men's synagogue for Polish Jews, mostly cabinet- makers, who created its panelled interior and fittings which have been destroyed.
Chilton Street
12 Britannia Pub. The Britannia was there by 1856 and in 1924 became a Truman’s house and their signage and green faience tiling remains. In the mid-1980s it was renamed Chilton’s, as an evening-only, gay bar. It became the Britannia again in 1994, and closed in 2001. It is now flats.
52 St Matthias Church House, Mission and Hall. Designed by William Reddall 1887-9. The church itself was on the corner with Cheshire Street. Petley Hall, mission house and other buildings were passed by land owner C. R. C. Petley to the Bishop of London's Fund in 1887. On the gable is a rebus of a three clasped arms with hands at each end and a golden ball
Club Row
A market for live animals was traditionally here from the 18th. It was a live bird Fair by the 1850s, as well as small animals which might include stolen dogs. It was closed down in the 1980s. There was a Cycle Market in here around 1910.
St Hilda's East Community Centre. The settlement derived from a ragged school established in the 18th by Nicholas Duthoit, a Spitalfields silk merchant, and rebuilt in 1879. The 19th building remains on the left of the main entrance. The Women's University Settlement Committee was set up in 1887 founded by the Guild of the Cheltenham Ladies College, under Dorothea Beale. They opened Mayfield House Women's Settlement in of Cambridge Heath Road. In 1895 the Settlement moved to Old Nichol Street and became St Hilda's East. It retains an active link with the Ladies College and its Guild. The current building by Mackenzie Wheeler dates from 1994. It has the Boundary Estate’s motifs of a canted stair-turret and, banded brickwork,
16 Thinking Space Modern. A tiny infill house with a fully glazed facade By Howard Carter and Sarah Cheeseman 2001.
Code Street
Daniel Gilbert House. A Providence Row project for single homeless people which won a Housing Design Awards in 1995. It houses 82 single people in single rooms, bedsits and flats. It was designed by Parry Frame Associates with Yates Associates.
Commercial Street
The street was built in 1845 made up from a series of smaller roads. The southern section was built first and this northern section. The extension north from the market, to the Eastern Counties Railway's Bishopsgate terminus and to Shoreditch High Street, was made in 1849-57 and opened in 1858.
Bishopsgate Station. This was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1840 as its London terminus with trains coming initially from Romford and then from Colchester. It was called Shoreditch; to be renamed Bishopsgate in 1846. It was rebuilt in the late 1840s with grand buildings by Sancton Wood and a carriage entrance and exit in the front. The buildings second floor housed the company offices. The station itself, designed by John Braithwaite, had just two platforms. The station closed in 1875 when Liverpool Street had opened.
Bishopsgate Goods Station. This was the Great Eastern Railway's two-level goods station of 1877-82, replacing the original Shoreditch passenger terminus of 1839-42, and officially opened, unfinished, in 1881. Together with the Brick Lane yard to the east it handled most of the goods rail traffic coming into London from eastern England. The upper level was 'burnt down' in 1964. The site consisted of a brick viaduct with two peripheral roadways and a central corridor with three lines of rails. There were also three hydraulic hoists that brought wagons down from the level above powered by two hydraulic accumulators on the south side of the station. Platforms under the arches were intended partly for fish and vegetable markets East of the main building was the fruit bank for traffic from East Anglia. There were large wrought-iron gates at the Bishopsgate entrance. Much of this complex has now been demolished for the new London Overground Extension and the Shoreditch Station.
Bishopsgate Low Level Station. Opened in 1872 by the Great Eastern Railway and closed in 1916. The main entrance was on a footway between he east side of Norton Folgate and the west side of Commercial Street south of the main line from here steps led down to the line. This gateway remained along with a Great Eastern Railway trespassers notice. There were two platforms west of Wheeler Street which were staggered and two east of it. There was a second entrance on the north of Quaker Street to serve one eastern platform. From 1882 a viaduct arch supporting the goods depot became a further entrance and booking office known as 'Commercial Street Office'. The site eventually became a goods station of British Railways (Eastern Region) having closed, probably because of competition from the trams, in 1916.
St Stephen's Church built through the efforts of the Rev. John Patteson, of Christ Church, and parishioners including Robert Hanbury and Thomas Fowell Buxton. The architect of the church and parsonage was Ewan Christian, and the builders were Brown and Robinson of Worship Street. The church was consecrated in 1861. It was closed and its parish re-united to that of Christ Church in 1930. The church was demolished
The Luxor Cinema was built on the site of St. Stephen’s Church. It opened on 1933 operated by the George Smart circuit. It had a striking Art Deco design with a white Portland Stone clad facade. It closed in 1939. It was used as an auto-repair shop with shops in the foyer. In 2003 the auditorium was converted flats called Hollywood Lofts. Shops remain in the foyer. .
152 St. Stephen’s parsonage. A tall urban Gothic house, with some polychrome brickwork, arched doorway and gable. Now flats
Burhan Uddin House. This was Commercial Street Police Station built 1874-5, with an additional storey in 1906. It is now flats,
138-149 Commercial Street Steam Mills. Cocoa, chocolate and mustard manufacturers. Roasted with patent enamelled cylinders. Set up in 1811. Bankrupt 1891.
Royal Cambridge Theatre of Varieties. The Cambridge Music Hall was built in 1864. It was burnt down in
1896. A new theatre was built on the site in 1898 designed by D. Harry Percival and called the Royal Cambridge Music Hall and later called Royal Cambridge Theatre of Varieties. By 1910, it was re-named Cambridge Theatre of Varieties, and was screening films. It continued as a variety theatre until November 1924, when the licence had not been renewed. In 1936 it was demolished
The Cloisters, This was the first tenement block to be built by the Peabody Donation Fund The red-brick block was designed by H.A. Darbishire and opened in 1864, but was sold by the Peabody Trust in the 1970s, and is now flats.
National Telephone Works, This appears to have been on the south east side of the street in the 1890s. The National Telephone Company was an independent concern which was eventually taken over by The Post Office. It was formed in 1881 to set up services in the Midlands, Scotland and Ireland.
142 Commercial Tavern. Built in 1865 with a curved corner to Wheler Street and its name on raised central parapet. Fancy stuccowork with small heads in fruity wreaths over the arched windows, and leafy mouldings.
132. Exchange building. This was a tobacco factory built in 1935 for cigarette firm Godfrey Phillips and designed by W. Gilbert Scott and W.H. Scott. It was known as Cambridge House. Godfrey Phillips signage is on a frontage in Jerome Street. It has a faience frontage described as ‘restrained art deco’ and the site includes a ‘historic chimney’ on Jerome Street. In the 1990s it was converted to flats with retail on the round floor.
Elder Street
The road, part of the Tilliard Estate, is lined with early 18th houses, most of which are listed. They have mainly been refurbished by the Spitalfields Trust.
1–3 19 facade to former public house and house adjoining. Built originally before 1731
22 It was here that James Pulham began a career in artificial stone and Roman cement with William Lockwood.
32 blue plaque to painter Mark Gertler
Ebor Street
Area built up for housing from 1670 having previously been Preston’s Gardens. This was originally York Street
3 part of Lipton's block. This four-storey warehouse was built in 1879 and occupied by various small businesses until it was taken over by Allied Supplies Ltd in the 1930s but not rebuilt.
Grey Eagle Street
Laid out in the mid 17th by John Stott along with other local streets in the area of the Black Eagle Brewery. It has recently been described as a ‘phantom street’ now consisting apparently entirely of the backs of large buildings many from the old brewery complex and car parks.
52 The Grey Eagle pub – this dated from at least the 1850s and was eventually demolished as part of brewery expansion in the 1970s.
French Chapel. In 1687 James II permitted a chapel of ease for the French Church on the corner with Black Eagle Street. It was then occupied by Almshouses given by Paul Docminicq and his wife Marie Tordreau which were then rebuilt. In 1718 a charity school was established in connexion with the church. In 1743, the French congregation left and went to a new built church elsewhere. As the ‘Old French Church’ it became the base for Wesleyan expansion in the East End. It was here that the first Methodist Covenant Service was celebrated in 1755. The chapel became a warehouse for the brewery and may have remained there until the 1890s.
Hague and Topham Millwrights. They had a foundry here in the early 19th
Hope Street
Ragged School
Jerome Street
Signage for Godfrey Phillips on the side of the Exchange Building.
Chimney
Telephone exchange. This serves Spitalfields and Whitechapel. It used to have BIShopsgate numbers until the late 1960s, but now has 0207-247, 375 and 377 xxxx numbers plus some Inner London numbers.
Montclare Street
Boundary Estate. These are the earliest surviving blocks of the estate by Plumbe, 1894. They consist of two long blocks with a courtyard between with ranks of narrow windows - showing very little advance on earlier philanthropic housing.
Cookham House. This was designed in 1897 by R. Minton Taylor, with tall, projecting bays and big gables.
Laundry at Cookham House. The absence of washing facilities within the blocks required this communal Laundry although there was no bath-house. Built in 1894-6 by William Hynam with two storeys, arched chimneys and an arched doorway.
Navarre Street
Wargrave House. Designed in 1897 by William Hynam, with projecting eaves over brown brick.
Hedsor House. Designed by C.C. Winmill in 1898
Abingdon House. Designed in 1896-8 by A.M. Phillips.
Old Nichol Street
Said to have been named after Nelson's admirals – but there was a landowner of that name This was said to be the bottom pit of east end slums - the worst poverty level in East London. Many inhabitants were from the criminal families and fights between rival gangs were a regular. In 1889 the death rate in the area was twice as high as in other parts of Bethnal Green.
Well - During the Construction of the Boundary Estate, a well was uncovered in Old Nichol Street, thought to be the original Holywell.
Vavasseur, Cartier & Collier silk weaving firm on the corner with Turville Street 1876 – 1902. This may be the building in multiple use at1 Old Nichol Street known as the Robert Elliott Centre
Pedley Street
Shoreditch Station. Opened in 1876 on the East London Railway, which was extended here from Wapping in 1872 with a connection to Bishopsgate Junction with a facility to allow trains through to Liverpool Street. Trains ran from here to both the New Cross Stations and in the 1890s to and from Croydon and to Addiscombe, other connections to other lines followed, to be gradually withdrawn in the early 20th. Originally it was to be called ‘Brick Lane Station’. It was in a cutting with a station building at the end of a footpath from Brick Lane. It was a small brick building and from 1912 it was terminus station in effect although there were some through trains until the 1960s. One of its two platforms was taken out of use in 1966 when the link to the Great Eastern Line was cut and the track lifted. Up to the 1940s the station was run by a joint committee between the underground and the railways but after nationalisation it vested in London Transport and run solely by them. In 2007 it was closed. Much of the building remains but the cutting where the line itself lay has been filled in.
Graffiti and Street Art – this is an area famous for famous names in the Street Art world.
Quaker Street
Entrance to Bishopsgate Low Level station. The entrance and stairs were still there in 1990. This entrance led to a stairway which served an eastern platform.
Bedford House. This was a Mission building run by the Quaker Bedford Institute Association, 1894 to designs by Rutland Saunders. It is in red brick from Rowland’s Castle Brick Fields with Monks Park stone and terracotta dressings. It was built on the site of a Quaker meeting house of 1656 from which Quaker St takes its name. It was named in honour of Peter Bedford, a Quaker philanthropist and silk weaver of Spitalfields, who formed the Society for Lessening the Causes of Juvenile Delinquency. In 1947, the Bedford Institute moved out and continues as Quaker Social Action. Meanwhile, Bedford House became a warehouse and bottling plant for E.J.Rose & Co Ltd, suppliers of spirits and wine, until they moved out and the building remained empty for 20 years
St. Stephen's Schools. These were on the corner with Wheler Street and were opened in 1872. And had had been purchased by the vicar of St. Stephen's from the Great Eastern Railway Company. The school was closed in 1909 because of the nearness of the railway, and was used as a Sunday school in 1929 the property was sold and is now the site of flats and shops
41a The Lighthouse Salvation Army Shelter which dated from the 1890s. It was built on the site of the Quaker Street National Schools. It is now industrial and trading units.
Great Eastern buildings. For those displaced by the building of Liverpool Street station. One of the three buildings was begun here in 1890 at the corner with Wilkes Street with ninety-two one and two bed flats. The architect was John Wilson, engineer to the Great Eastern Railway Company. THey were demolished in the 1970s and the site redeveloped.
Eagle works. Live work units built in the 1980s.
Quaker Street Bowl. Set up in 2012 in, what is said to be, a former textile warehouse is for skateboarders. It is s a wooden installation Designed and built by Benedict Radcliffe and Associates. It has once been offered for sale
Silwex House. 19th industrial buildings, in effect the Great Eastern Railway stables redeveloped. The frontage has been kept and behind is new build. This was planned as a hotel but appears to be live work units. The stables were said to have specialist lifts to transport the horses through the buildings.
Railway
Lines coming eastward from Bishopsgate. This link was disused following electrification in 1913 but was used for goods trains until 1966.
Signal Box. This was demolished in 1949
Line to Liverpool Street Station – when Liverpool Street was opened in 1875 a line was built which diverged to the north of the Bishopsgate Station lines, to cross Bishopsgate and curve south into the new station
Redchurch Street
Parallel to Bethnal Green Road was originally Church Street, the old road from Shoreditch to Bethnal Green. Its narrow proportions are a good reminder of the cramped confines of this district in the c19 and it still has a ragged appearance with houses, pubs, small factories and warehouses jostling together.
34 Owl and Pussycat Pub. This was The Crown. It is possible that the pub has a 17th origin but the current building is an 1890s refronting of an 18th pub. Inside it is grand with 1760s panelling, furniture and staircase.
50 Saatchi The Gallery. It is claimed that this was previously a hat factory
53-55 Shoreditch Mosjid Trust. Shoreditch Mosque
85 Labour and Wait kitchen ware shop. This was The Dolphin pub which was there in 1808 and in the 1830s was a meeting place for local Huguenots. It was rebuilt in the 19th. By the 1930s it was a Truman’s Brewery House and closed in 2002.
Sclater Street
Centre of the live-bird markets in the 19th andc20th had tall rows of weavers' tenements on both sides.
95 Brick Lane Gallery.
Wall plaque set within a classical frame and inscribed 'THIS is SCLATER Street, 1778' – which is a late date for its Rococo style.
Sheba Street
This was originally Queen Street
Whitby Street
This was built as Little York Street. It is now home to a great deal of street art and a stone lion.
1 Lounge Lovers bar in what is claimed to be a meat packing plant.
Wheler Street
Laid out for Sir William Wheler in the 1650s and 1660s, as a main north south thoroughfare
Braithwaite viaduct. Within the 1870s work of the goods station is a section between Wheler Street and Brick Lane, of 850 feet of the original viaduct of the Eastern Counties Railway, opened on 1 July 1840. It is now referred to as the Braithwaite Viaduct, after John Braithwaite the ECR's engineer
Railway bridge with much street art.
Friends' Wheler Street Meeting-house. In about 1656 a Friends' meeting was set up in a house on the south side of Quaker Street. Shortly afterwards another building was erected which became ‘Wheler Street Meeting-house’. The meeting was persecuted after the Restoration, and William Penn was taken into custody here early in 1670. The building was severely damaged by the Great Storm of 1703 and By 1745 had partly collapsed, and in1749 has ‘tumbled down’
Sources
Blue Plaque Guide, English Heritage
British History Online. Bethnal Green. Web site.
Cinema Treasures. Web site
City and East London Beer Guide
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. London Marches On.
Clunn. The Face of London
Connor. Liverpool Street to Chingford
Connor. Liverpool Street to Ilford
Disused Stations. Web site
English Heritage. Web site
Field. London Place Names
GLIAS Newsletter
Greater London Council. Home Sweet Home
Hackney Society. Web site
London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Web site
London Borough of Hackney. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Railway Record
Lost Pubs Project. Web site
Martin. London Industry in the Nineteenth Century
Mitchell and Smith. North London Line
National Archives, Web site
Pastscape. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Shady Old Lady. Web site
St. Matthais School. Web site
Subterranea Britannica. Web site
TBAOG, A Survey of Industrial Monuments of Greater London
Trumans the Brewers
Wilson. London’s Industrial Archaeology
The Great Eastern Railway line runs eastwards from Bishopsgate
Post to the west Shoreditch
Post to the north Bethnal Green Boundary Estate
Post to the east Mile End New Town
Bacon Street
The road has lots of graffiti-art and Vintage (i.e. junk) shops.
6-7 site of the Ship pub
St Matthias’s School. The school is linked with the St. Matthew's Church. It was built originally in 1874 by Joseph Clarke and was a National School. The original building had Gothic detailing in brick and zinc gutters as lead would have been stolen. It uses the Seal of the old Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green as its badge. It was remodelled in 1994.
35 site of Black Bull Pub
Bethnal Green Road
This section of the road was opened through to Great Eastern Street in 1879 from what had originally been Church Street by the Metropolitan Board of Works.
2-10 Box Park. Pop Up Mall.
5-11 complex of warehouses occupying an entire block as far as Shoreditch High Street. They were originally built for timber merchants and developed on the sites of earlier warehouses, yards and public houses. The first phase was built in 1921 which was two tea warehouses built for Pearks' Dairies. In 1924 a Bacon-washing plant was added. In 1928 Pearks added more to the structure as a tea warehouse. In 1931-33 Lipton's Ltd added a large bacon factory which was steel-framed, faced in red brick; this was built by George Parker & Sons to the designs of Hal Williams & Co, architects. Hal Williams, a New Zealander, and a specialist designer of factories. From the late 1930s it was owned by Allied Supplies and used for processing and packaging tea. Derwent Valley redeveloped it as offices in 2002.
13 The Swan. This pub was built in 1880 and was open until at least 1944. There is a terracotta relief of a swan high over the corner door. The facade has been kept and built into an office building. The building was integrated with the bacon and tea warehouses adjacent in the 1960s and converted into laboratories.
Huntingdon’s Buildings were erected in 1880s by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Co. By 1969 they were owned by the G.L.C. and closed; one block was demolished in the early 1970s and another in 1980, the rest became the Huntingdon Industrial Units. There are current redevelopment plans.
11/15 Former Bethnal Green Synagogue established in 1906. The site had previously been the Glasshouse Memorial Chapel – a Baptist chapel. This was leased to the Federated synagogue in 1905 and alterations undertaken by Lewis Solomon. It was rebuilt in 1958 after wartime bombing on a slightly larger site as a grey brick box. Now the studio of the sculptor, Rachel Whitbread, who has used its interior for several works since 1999. Decorative coloured glass has been removed from the windows.
25 Knave of Clubs. Now renamed Les Trois Garcons. It dated originally from the 1790s buy the present building is from 1880 by E. Dunch. The bar and three exceedingly fine engraved-glass mirrors, one of which is modern have been kept in a conversion by Michael G. Humphries in 1996. Bird auctions used to take place – and it was thus also called the Bird House
34-42 Avant Garde, by Stock Woolstencroft. Residential tower block
35-47 Rich Mix. This opened in 2006 in a former garment factory and has been involved in film festivals in our three-screen cinema and theatrical events well our studio spaces and workspaces for other creative companies such as ADFED, Bwark and Biggafis
51-55 Brew Dog Pub opened in what was the Green and Red Pub.
113 - 115, now set back from the new line of the road, are three-storey weavers' houses of 1735, much altered but their garrets still visible. One-room-deep, they originally had front, winder staircases making space for large work shop windows in the timber-framed rear walls.
120 East End Kebabish. This was the Flower Pot Pub. It dates from pre-1800 and closed, probably in the 1920s.
121 this was the Von Tromp pub which was established by 1827 as the Van Tromp. In the 1980s it was closed for a while and in 1985 renamed Lyons Corner. It finally closed in 1990. It is now a cafe
143 Well & Bucket pub. This was there by 1818. It was a Truman’s house and closed in 1991 having been renamed The Stick of Rock and was then as a hostel. It is one of a mid-19th Italianate group of buildings with a stuccoed front rebuilt in 1873 and with a plaque advertising Truemans. Inside are wall tiles by Wm. B. Simpson & Son, including one showing 'Club Row in Ye Olden Times', with local markets and trades.
152-156 Cat Cafe
159 Espacio Gallery opened in 2012 founded by a group of artists working across all contemporary visual arts media who wanted a space of their own specially designed to meet their needs.
Boundary Street
In the middle ages this was part of the garden of the nunnery of St-John-the-Baptist, Holywell,
The road marked the division between the parishes of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green. It also marked the gap between 'respectable' East London and the 'The Nichol'. This was a slum area, described in Morrison's novel, The Child of the Jago in 1896. It was condemned by health officers as early as 1883. Its poverty drew the attention of reformers who tried to improve health and housing. It only in the 1890s, planners began to take notice and The London County Council was the body which brought about change
13 Ship and Blue Ball pub. The pub closed in 1994 and is now in commercial use and as flats. It is alleged that here in the 1960s the 'Great Train Robbery' was planned and false wall in the games room concealed the results.
Brick Lane
This was called ‘Brick Kiln Lane’ in the 17th and bricks were made here from the 16th. It once represented the nadir of East End poverty.
94 Black Eagle Brewery. Truemans brewed here from 1666 and it remains a complete example of a brewery. Originally A brew house was built west of Brick Lane by Bucknall and this was purchased by Joseph Truman. It was expanded by successive Trumans, other family members and managers. The firm prospered through making porter which, heavily hopped, could be made in large quantities without deterioration. By 1760 Truman’s was the third largest brewery in London; by 1853 they were the largest in the world. Sampson Hanbury and Thomas Fowell Buxton joined the firm in 1800. Buildings from the 19th were designed by Young and James Brodie with Robert Davison plus extensions after 1830, when Beer Duty was abolished. The cooperage had its entrance in Spital Street it was rebuilt in 1924-7 by A.R. Robertson, and large-scale modernization by Arup in 1970. In the mid-19th lighter beers became more popular and Truman’s opened a second brewery at Burton where the water was more suitable for light beers. At Brick Lane they made mild ale and stout, using water from artesian wells. The brewery closed in 1988 and Arups were again commissioned to redevelop. Their solution placed the different functions in tiers over six floors, with three storeys of offices over the recreational floor and two storeys of warehousing beneath. A new building links the Director’s and Head Brewer's Houses and reflected the Vat House and Engineer's House opposite. In 2008, the brewery buildings were an arts, fashion and commercial enclave. In 2010 the Truman’s name and the Black Eagle have been revived in east London with an ‘artisan’ brewery at Hackney Wick.
The Directors' House. This is on the west side of the road and was a grand private residence and company headquarters with offices on the ground floor. Benjamin Truman had been knighted following massive loans to government. John Price is thought to have enlarged an 18th counting house in 1745 and there have been changes since. It is a brick house and inside the main rooms on the first floor are reached by a 19th staircase with cast iron balustrade. The reception room was once the directors' dining room and the boardroom was the drawing room. It has now been linked to the former brew house, by Arup Associates with a façade of mirrored glass. The Directors' House was the principal residence of Thomas Fowell Buxton, from 1808-15 who was a leading figure in the international movement to eradicate slavery, In 1811 Buxton became a partner in the company and oversaw the conversion of the works to steam power; in 1835, on Sampson Hanbury's death, he took over the business. Following Buxton's death in 1840, Prince Albert headed a movement for a public tribute to his memory. In 2007 an English Heritage blue plaque was put on the Directors' House commemorating Buxton's life and work there.
150 Engineer's House. Built 1831-6, presumably by Davison for himself. It is in brick with some tile-hanging and the original carriage entrance. Now offices
Head Brewer's House. Built 1834-7 probably by Robert Davidson. A building to its rear was converted in the 1920s as the Experimental Brewery, a small-scale working brew house for the testing of ingredients and plant. Its five-storey, five-bay round-arched yellow brick flank was retained and restored to its original in the 1970s by Arup
Vat House. Built 1803 probably by Young and John Brodie. It is rather like a meetinghouse, with an open pediment, clock and hexagonal cupola containing a bell of 1803. The interior has a forest of iron columns, with capitals, and I-section girders inserted in the 1840s. This is fully exposed in the semi-basement, where it supports a stone flagged floor which suggests that it had a fireproof construction. The iron columns were to sustain the great weight of the beer. Now offices and stores.
Warehouses. By Smith & Fanners. The brewery had numerous large stores and warehouses, linked high over street level by a series of enclosed bridges.
Stables. Brewery stables from 1837. There is an arcaded upper floor with circular windows and a stucco pediment surmounted by the black eagle. It is designed to house 114 horses and in fact had nearly twice that number in double boxes by 1891. At its end is a red brick towering chimney with the company name inset in white tiles – this was added when the stables were converted to a boiler house and canteen in 1929 by Robinson. It is now offices and for a while was a music hall.
Dray Walk – this is on the line of what was Black Eagle Street. Loading bays have been turned into shops and galleries by Smith & Fanners in 1970.
Railway Bridge. The road is cut in two by the railway on a line which also marked the boundary between Bethnal Green and Spitalfields. Rail Lines go both over and under the road. Originally in 1840 the Eastern Counties Railway lines to its terminus at Shoreditch came in at high level and the bridge over Brick Lane was situated here. In 1874 their successors, the Great Eastern Railway, opened Liverpool Street and for this the lines were at a low level and passed under Brick Lane – and in they still do this. The high level lines then took traffic into the ex- original which was renamed Bishopsgate goods station. The over bridge was partly demolished in the 1960s although the abutments and some of the lines remained. A new bridge has been built here to carry the East London Line to the new Shoreditch Station
Goods yard. A coal depot called Brick Lane had been built alongside the Great Eastern Railway and was on the approach to the Bishopsgate Terminus. The other, also for coal, was nearer to Whitechapel and which included a junction with the East London Railway. They were merged in 1881 as Spitalfields Depot. The two sets of lines merged slightly to the east of Brick Lane Railway Bridge in an area which included an engine shed and an office. The site included a granary and the signal box covering the junction was the Granary Box. The yard included a Hydraulic Pumping Station and another which covered the Spitalfields Wagon Hoist.
125-127 on the corner with Sclater Street. This was originally one house, rebuilt as two in 1778 with weavers' workshops in the upper floors. Restored 2001. A plaque marks a corner of the Slaughter family’s estate.
149-161 early 18th single-room tenements built for weavers
154 Religion Clothing. This was the Two Brewers Pub, later known as the Old Two Brewers.It was effectively the brewery tap;
157 Jolly Butchers. This pub was established by 1839 as the Turk & Slave, by 1842 it was Turkish Slave, 1844 Turkish Head, 1847 Turk & Slave and in 1881 Jolly Butchers. It was a Truman’s House by 1922 and closed in the 1980s. There is a large Truman’s plaque on the first floor. It is now in other use.
155 Beigel Shop. Claims to be the oldest Brick Lane Beigel Shop and that it opened in 1855
159 Beigel Bake. All night Beigel shop.
Buxton Street
Allen Gardens. The park results from post-1945 slum clearance of a dense and impoverished area, next to a weaving field. A brick railway viaduct ran along the northern edge, now replaced by the new East London Line to Shoreditch. The anarchists have their summer fetes there
Cavin Street
This was Great Pearl Street
French Church. By 1697 Jacques Laborie, founded a new church here But in 1699 he left for America. The Church continued until 1701.
15-16 This was an early 19th house built for James Lewis Desormeaux, a black-silk dyer who also appears to have had a dye house there. It was later owned by Sir Francis Desanges who had an interest in an early gas making plant in this area. Later owned by Hague and Topham, millwrights with a foundry in Grey Eagle Street.
10-11 houses thought to have been built for weavers in the 18th. The site is now probably modern housing.
Chance Street
Area built up for housing from 1670 having previously been Preston’s Gardens. It was originally Little
Anchor Street.
Dirty House of 2002 by David Adjaye for the artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, is a converted warehouse covered in a thickly impastoed texture of black anti-graffiti paint, with strange smoked-glass flush windows to the ground floor, rectangular windows above and the roof raised to float above a terra
Hedgehog by Roa
Cheshire Street
This was known as Hare Street at this western end of the road
8-38 a very complete terrace with integral shop fronts built c. 1870-2 by Reddall & Cumber. The regularity of the design has been emphasised during refurbishment in 1991 by Building Design Prospect.
21 flats built in 1998 by Michael Sierens Architects on the site of the Cheshire Street synagogue which closed in 1987 because it was structurally unsound. Its formal name was the United Workmen's and Wlodowa Synagogue and it was founded in 1901. Wlodowa is in Poland near Lublin and is where the founders' families originated. It had been the base for the welfare work of 'The Fund of Good Deeds' which helped to look after the welfare of local elderly housebound Jewish residents. It was a working-men's synagogue for Polish Jews, mostly cabinet- makers, who created its panelled interior and fittings which have been destroyed.
Chilton Street
12 Britannia Pub. The Britannia was there by 1856 and in 1924 became a Truman’s house and their signage and green faience tiling remains. In the mid-1980s it was renamed Chilton’s, as an evening-only, gay bar. It became the Britannia again in 1994, and closed in 2001. It is now flats.
52 St Matthias Church House, Mission and Hall. Designed by William Reddall 1887-9. The church itself was on the corner with Cheshire Street. Petley Hall, mission house and other buildings were passed by land owner C. R. C. Petley to the Bishop of London's Fund in 1887. On the gable is a rebus of a three clasped arms with hands at each end and a golden ball
Club Row
A market for live animals was traditionally here from the 18th. It was a live bird Fair by the 1850s, as well as small animals which might include stolen dogs. It was closed down in the 1980s. There was a Cycle Market in here around 1910.
St Hilda's East Community Centre. The settlement derived from a ragged school established in the 18th by Nicholas Duthoit, a Spitalfields silk merchant, and rebuilt in 1879. The 19th building remains on the left of the main entrance. The Women's University Settlement Committee was set up in 1887 founded by the Guild of the Cheltenham Ladies College, under Dorothea Beale. They opened Mayfield House Women's Settlement in of Cambridge Heath Road. In 1895 the Settlement moved to Old Nichol Street and became St Hilda's East. It retains an active link with the Ladies College and its Guild. The current building by Mackenzie Wheeler dates from 1994. It has the Boundary Estate’s motifs of a canted stair-turret and, banded brickwork,
16 Thinking Space Modern. A tiny infill house with a fully glazed facade By Howard Carter and Sarah Cheeseman 2001.
Code Street
Daniel Gilbert House. A Providence Row project for single homeless people which won a Housing Design Awards in 1995. It houses 82 single people in single rooms, bedsits and flats. It was designed by Parry Frame Associates with Yates Associates.
Commercial Street
The street was built in 1845 made up from a series of smaller roads. The southern section was built first and this northern section. The extension north from the market, to the Eastern Counties Railway's Bishopsgate terminus and to Shoreditch High Street, was made in 1849-57 and opened in 1858.
Bishopsgate Station. This was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1840 as its London terminus with trains coming initially from Romford and then from Colchester. It was called Shoreditch; to be renamed Bishopsgate in 1846. It was rebuilt in the late 1840s with grand buildings by Sancton Wood and a carriage entrance and exit in the front. The buildings second floor housed the company offices. The station itself, designed by John Braithwaite, had just two platforms. The station closed in 1875 when Liverpool Street had opened.
Bishopsgate Goods Station. This was the Great Eastern Railway's two-level goods station of 1877-82, replacing the original Shoreditch passenger terminus of 1839-42, and officially opened, unfinished, in 1881. Together with the Brick Lane yard to the east it handled most of the goods rail traffic coming into London from eastern England. The upper level was 'burnt down' in 1964. The site consisted of a brick viaduct with two peripheral roadways and a central corridor with three lines of rails. There were also three hydraulic hoists that brought wagons down from the level above powered by two hydraulic accumulators on the south side of the station. Platforms under the arches were intended partly for fish and vegetable markets East of the main building was the fruit bank for traffic from East Anglia. There were large wrought-iron gates at the Bishopsgate entrance. Much of this complex has now been demolished for the new London Overground Extension and the Shoreditch Station.
Bishopsgate Low Level Station. Opened in 1872 by the Great Eastern Railway and closed in 1916. The main entrance was on a footway between he east side of Norton Folgate and the west side of Commercial Street south of the main line from here steps led down to the line. This gateway remained along with a Great Eastern Railway trespassers notice. There were two platforms west of Wheeler Street which were staggered and two east of it. There was a second entrance on the north of Quaker Street to serve one eastern platform. From 1882 a viaduct arch supporting the goods depot became a further entrance and booking office known as 'Commercial Street Office'. The site eventually became a goods station of British Railways (Eastern Region) having closed, probably because of competition from the trams, in 1916.
St Stephen's Church built through the efforts of the Rev. John Patteson, of Christ Church, and parishioners including Robert Hanbury and Thomas Fowell Buxton. The architect of the church and parsonage was Ewan Christian, and the builders were Brown and Robinson of Worship Street. The church was consecrated in 1861. It was closed and its parish re-united to that of Christ Church in 1930. The church was demolished
The Luxor Cinema was built on the site of St. Stephen’s Church. It opened on 1933 operated by the George Smart circuit. It had a striking Art Deco design with a white Portland Stone clad facade. It closed in 1939. It was used as an auto-repair shop with shops in the foyer. In 2003 the auditorium was converted flats called Hollywood Lofts. Shops remain in the foyer. .
152 St. Stephen’s parsonage. A tall urban Gothic house, with some polychrome brickwork, arched doorway and gable. Now flats
Burhan Uddin House. This was Commercial Street Police Station built 1874-5, with an additional storey in 1906. It is now flats,
138-149 Commercial Street Steam Mills. Cocoa, chocolate and mustard manufacturers. Roasted with patent enamelled cylinders. Set up in 1811. Bankrupt 1891.
Royal Cambridge Theatre of Varieties. The Cambridge Music Hall was built in 1864. It was burnt down in
1896. A new theatre was built on the site in 1898 designed by D. Harry Percival and called the Royal Cambridge Music Hall and later called Royal Cambridge Theatre of Varieties. By 1910, it was re-named Cambridge Theatre of Varieties, and was screening films. It continued as a variety theatre until November 1924, when the licence had not been renewed. In 1936 it was demolished
The Cloisters, This was the first tenement block to be built by the Peabody Donation Fund The red-brick block was designed by H.A. Darbishire and opened in 1864, but was sold by the Peabody Trust in the 1970s, and is now flats.
National Telephone Works, This appears to have been on the south east side of the street in the 1890s. The National Telephone Company was an independent concern which was eventually taken over by The Post Office. It was formed in 1881 to set up services in the Midlands, Scotland and Ireland.
142 Commercial Tavern. Built in 1865 with a curved corner to Wheler Street and its name on raised central parapet. Fancy stuccowork with small heads in fruity wreaths over the arched windows, and leafy mouldings.
132. Exchange building. This was a tobacco factory built in 1935 for cigarette firm Godfrey Phillips and designed by W. Gilbert Scott and W.H. Scott. It was known as Cambridge House. Godfrey Phillips signage is on a frontage in Jerome Street. It has a faience frontage described as ‘restrained art deco’ and the site includes a ‘historic chimney’ on Jerome Street. In the 1990s it was converted to flats with retail on the round floor.
Elder Street
The road, part of the Tilliard Estate, is lined with early 18th houses, most of which are listed. They have mainly been refurbished by the Spitalfields Trust.
1–3 19 facade to former public house and house adjoining. Built originally before 1731
22 It was here that James Pulham began a career in artificial stone and Roman cement with William Lockwood.
32 blue plaque to painter Mark Gertler
Ebor Street
Area built up for housing from 1670 having previously been Preston’s Gardens. This was originally York Street
3 part of Lipton's block. This four-storey warehouse was built in 1879 and occupied by various small businesses until it was taken over by Allied Supplies Ltd in the 1930s but not rebuilt.
Grey Eagle Street
Laid out in the mid 17th by John Stott along with other local streets in the area of the Black Eagle Brewery. It has recently been described as a ‘phantom street’ now consisting apparently entirely of the backs of large buildings many from the old brewery complex and car parks.
52 The Grey Eagle pub – this dated from at least the 1850s and was eventually demolished as part of brewery expansion in the 1970s.
French Chapel. In 1687 James II permitted a chapel of ease for the French Church on the corner with Black Eagle Street. It was then occupied by Almshouses given by Paul Docminicq and his wife Marie Tordreau which were then rebuilt. In 1718 a charity school was established in connexion with the church. In 1743, the French congregation left and went to a new built church elsewhere. As the ‘Old French Church’ it became the base for Wesleyan expansion in the East End. It was here that the first Methodist Covenant Service was celebrated in 1755. The chapel became a warehouse for the brewery and may have remained there until the 1890s.
Hague and Topham Millwrights. They had a foundry here in the early 19th
Hope Street
Ragged School
Jerome Street
Signage for Godfrey Phillips on the side of the Exchange Building.
Chimney
Telephone exchange. This serves Spitalfields and Whitechapel. It used to have BIShopsgate numbers until the late 1960s, but now has 0207-247, 375 and 377 xxxx numbers plus some Inner London numbers.
Montclare Street
Boundary Estate. These are the earliest surviving blocks of the estate by Plumbe, 1894. They consist of two long blocks with a courtyard between with ranks of narrow windows - showing very little advance on earlier philanthropic housing.
Cookham House. This was designed in 1897 by R. Minton Taylor, with tall, projecting bays and big gables.
Laundry at Cookham House. The absence of washing facilities within the blocks required this communal Laundry although there was no bath-house. Built in 1894-6 by William Hynam with two storeys, arched chimneys and an arched doorway.
Navarre Street
Wargrave House. Designed in 1897 by William Hynam, with projecting eaves over brown brick.
Hedsor House. Designed by C.C. Winmill in 1898
Abingdon House. Designed in 1896-8 by A.M. Phillips.
Old Nichol Street
Said to have been named after Nelson's admirals – but there was a landowner of that name This was said to be the bottom pit of east end slums - the worst poverty level in East London. Many inhabitants were from the criminal families and fights between rival gangs were a regular. In 1889 the death rate in the area was twice as high as in other parts of Bethnal Green.
Well - During the Construction of the Boundary Estate, a well was uncovered in Old Nichol Street, thought to be the original Holywell.
Vavasseur, Cartier & Collier silk weaving firm on the corner with Turville Street 1876 – 1902. This may be the building in multiple use at1 Old Nichol Street known as the Robert Elliott Centre
Pedley Street
Shoreditch Station. Opened in 1876 on the East London Railway, which was extended here from Wapping in 1872 with a connection to Bishopsgate Junction with a facility to allow trains through to Liverpool Street. Trains ran from here to both the New Cross Stations and in the 1890s to and from Croydon and to Addiscombe, other connections to other lines followed, to be gradually withdrawn in the early 20th. Originally it was to be called ‘Brick Lane Station’. It was in a cutting with a station building at the end of a footpath from Brick Lane. It was a small brick building and from 1912 it was terminus station in effect although there were some through trains until the 1960s. One of its two platforms was taken out of use in 1966 when the link to the Great Eastern Line was cut and the track lifted. Up to the 1940s the station was run by a joint committee between the underground and the railways but after nationalisation it vested in London Transport and run solely by them. In 2007 it was closed. Much of the building remains but the cutting where the line itself lay has been filled in.
Graffiti and Street Art – this is an area famous for famous names in the Street Art world.
Quaker Street
Entrance to Bishopsgate Low Level station. The entrance and stairs were still there in 1990. This entrance led to a stairway which served an eastern platform.
Bedford House. This was a Mission building run by the Quaker Bedford Institute Association, 1894 to designs by Rutland Saunders. It is in red brick from Rowland’s Castle Brick Fields with Monks Park stone and terracotta dressings. It was built on the site of a Quaker meeting house of 1656 from which Quaker St takes its name. It was named in honour of Peter Bedford, a Quaker philanthropist and silk weaver of Spitalfields, who formed the Society for Lessening the Causes of Juvenile Delinquency. In 1947, the Bedford Institute moved out and continues as Quaker Social Action. Meanwhile, Bedford House became a warehouse and bottling plant for E.J.Rose & Co Ltd, suppliers of spirits and wine, until they moved out and the building remained empty for 20 years
St. Stephen's Schools. These were on the corner with Wheler Street and were opened in 1872. And had had been purchased by the vicar of St. Stephen's from the Great Eastern Railway Company. The school was closed in 1909 because of the nearness of the railway, and was used as a Sunday school in 1929 the property was sold and is now the site of flats and shops
41a The Lighthouse Salvation Army Shelter which dated from the 1890s. It was built on the site of the Quaker Street National Schools. It is now industrial and trading units.
Great Eastern buildings. For those displaced by the building of Liverpool Street station. One of the three buildings was begun here in 1890 at the corner with Wilkes Street with ninety-two one and two bed flats. The architect was John Wilson, engineer to the Great Eastern Railway Company. THey were demolished in the 1970s and the site redeveloped.
Eagle works. Live work units built in the 1980s.
Quaker Street Bowl. Set up in 2012 in, what is said to be, a former textile warehouse is for skateboarders. It is s a wooden installation Designed and built by Benedict Radcliffe and Associates. It has once been offered for sale
Silwex House. 19th industrial buildings, in effect the Great Eastern Railway stables redeveloped. The frontage has been kept and behind is new build. This was planned as a hotel but appears to be live work units. The stables were said to have specialist lifts to transport the horses through the buildings.
Railway
Lines coming eastward from Bishopsgate. This link was disused following electrification in 1913 but was used for goods trains until 1966.
Signal Box. This was demolished in 1949
Line to Liverpool Street Station – when Liverpool Street was opened in 1875 a line was built which diverged to the north of the Bishopsgate Station lines, to cross Bishopsgate and curve south into the new station
Redchurch Street
Parallel to Bethnal Green Road was originally Church Street, the old road from Shoreditch to Bethnal Green. Its narrow proportions are a good reminder of the cramped confines of this district in the c19 and it still has a ragged appearance with houses, pubs, small factories and warehouses jostling together.
34 Owl and Pussycat Pub. This was The Crown. It is possible that the pub has a 17th origin but the current building is an 1890s refronting of an 18th pub. Inside it is grand with 1760s panelling, furniture and staircase.
50 Saatchi The Gallery. It is claimed that this was previously a hat factory
53-55 Shoreditch Mosjid Trust. Shoreditch Mosque
85 Labour and Wait kitchen ware shop. This was The Dolphin pub which was there in 1808 and in the 1830s was a meeting place for local Huguenots. It was rebuilt in the 19th. By the 1930s it was a Truman’s Brewery House and closed in 2002.
Sclater Street
Centre of the live-bird markets in the 19th andc20th had tall rows of weavers' tenements on both sides.
95 Brick Lane Gallery.
Wall plaque set within a classical frame and inscribed 'THIS is SCLATER Street, 1778' – which is a late date for its Rococo style.
Sheba Street
This was originally Queen Street
Whitby Street
This was built as Little York Street. It is now home to a great deal of street art and a stone lion.
1 Lounge Lovers bar in what is claimed to be a meat packing plant.
Wheler Street
Laid out for Sir William Wheler in the 1650s and 1660s, as a main north south thoroughfare
Braithwaite viaduct. Within the 1870s work of the goods station is a section between Wheler Street and Brick Lane, of 850 feet of the original viaduct of the Eastern Counties Railway, opened on 1 July 1840. It is now referred to as the Braithwaite Viaduct, after John Braithwaite the ECR's engineer
Railway bridge with much street art.
Friends' Wheler Street Meeting-house. In about 1656 a Friends' meeting was set up in a house on the south side of Quaker Street. Shortly afterwards another building was erected which became ‘Wheler Street Meeting-house’. The meeting was persecuted after the Restoration, and William Penn was taken into custody here early in 1670. The building was severely damaged by the Great Storm of 1703 and By 1745 had partly collapsed, and in1749 has ‘tumbled down’
Sources
Blue Plaque Guide, English Heritage
British History Online. Bethnal Green. Web site.
Cinema Treasures. Web site
City and East London Beer Guide
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. London Marches On.
Clunn. The Face of London
Connor. Liverpool Street to Chingford
Connor. Liverpool Street to Ilford
Disused Stations. Web site
English Heritage. Web site
Field. London Place Names
GLIAS Newsletter
Greater London Council. Home Sweet Home
Hackney Society. Web site
London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Web site
London Borough of Hackney. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Railway Record
Lost Pubs Project. Web site
Martin. London Industry in the Nineteenth Century
Mitchell and Smith. North London Line
National Archives, Web site
Pastscape. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Shady Old Lady. Web site
St. Matthais School. Web site
Subterranea Britannica. Web site
TBAOG, A Survey of Industrial Monuments of Greater London
Trumans the Brewers
Wilson. London’s Industrial Archaeology
Comments
https://media.subbrit.org.uk/10295/1563201502-bishopsgate-goods-yard-plan.jpg
...but it's still not clear to me where exactly the platforms would be on a current map and current aerials are a bit confusing. For sure on modern aerials I can make out a platform on the southside of the cut east of Wheeler. But the location of the platforms mostly west of Wheeler are nowhere as clear.
It looks like there was maybe an island platform (two-face north and south) which spanned beneath Commercial Street (and would have had to have been accessed from said street). But where was the platform on the north side of the cut?