Every Era of the Neighbourhood’s History Is Legible in the Specific Buildings That Represent It
From Bohiney and The London Prat.
By Harper-Thames | ShoreRoar.com
The Layers
SHOREDITCH — The Shoreditch architectural self-tour that I have been developing for the past year is the specific walking tour of the neighbourhood’s historical layers that the formal commercial tours do not offer at the pace and level of detail that the independent walker can achieve. The layers, visible in successive blocks and streets: the Huguenot silk weaver houses of the 18th century (Fournier Street, Elder Street), the Victorian industrial warehouses of the 19th century (Redchurch Street, Curtain Road), the early 20th century council housing (the Boundary Estate), the late 20th century commercial development (the Old Street roundabout precinct), and the 21st century mixed-use towers (the Shoreditch High Street Overground station development and everything east of it).
The Fournier Street Houses
The Fournier Street Huguenot houses are the specific architectural achievement that makes Shoreditch architecturally significant beyond its East End cultural history: intact early 18th-century domestic architecture on a complete street frontage, in a neighbourhood that the development pressure of three centuries has somehow not destroyed. The houses were built for the silk weavers in the 1720s and 1730s. They remain. They have been a Huguenot chapel, a Jewish synagogue, and a mosque in succession — the building at the end of the street has served all three communities, making it the most historically layered building in London per square foot.
The Boundary Estate
The Boundary Estate is the architectural layer that the Shoreditch tour misses if it follows the commercial creative economy to the exclusion of the social housing history: the LCC’s 1890-1900 council estate, built on the cleared slum of the Old Nichol, is the specific Victorian social reform architecture of the Arts and Crafts movement applied to working-class housing. The estate is still social housing. The architecture is still exceptional. Arnold Circus at its centre remains the specific civic space that the estate was designed around. The self-tour that includes the Boundary Estate is the tour that covers the neighbourhood’s full architectural range.
The Walking Pace
The walking pace for the full Shoreditch architectural self-tour: approximately 3 hours at the pace that allows the buildings to register rather than blur. The specific features to notice: the date stones on the Victorian warehouses, the original shop fronts on Brick Lane that survived the twentieth century, the specific Victorian ironwork on the estate railings, and the way the 21st century towers acknowledge or ignore the scale of the buildings they replace. The buildings are telling you the neighbourhood’s entire history. The walking pace determines how much of it you receive.
More: The Daily Mash.
London and Shoreditch continue. The column continues because the neighbourhood continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens. The column continues because London continues. The journalism that covers the neighbourhood at the level of the street, the market, the building, and the visitor experience continues because the city continues to produce the specific material that justifies the journalism. Next edition follows when the next thing happens.
