Since the Olympics, irresistible forces have at work in Hackney Wick and Fish Island replacing employment with accommodation. Where once were warehouses, factories and workshops now stand large brick cuboids packed with flats. What once were edgy quarters beloved by Time Out are becoming dense dormitory suburbs lauded by Foxtons. So Saturday was a chance to meet some of the architects responsible for this increasing conformity, and to look behind the facades to see if it was just as bland back there. It wasn't quite.
Monier Road, the development, is at the tip of Monier Road, the road, on Fish Island immediately opposite the Carlton chimney. That new road bridge from the Olympic Park, replacing the old footbridge, is being prepared close by. According to the architects' blurb "the vertically articulated brick building is reminiscent of warehouse buildings found in the local area", which is utter guff, but empty words get projects moving. You could have guessed what it looked like without me showing you a photo, so ubiquitous are gridded windows and recessed balconies these days. In this case the ground floor has been divided up into seven units for start-up fashion brands, but they're all empty at present while the flats above are all full.
For those blessed with an electronic key, the interior of the block looks rather finer. Most of the flats are arranged on six floors around a horseshoe atrium, with full-on deck access and a spiralling central staircase for anyone who doesn't fancy taking the lift. The ground floor flower bed is looking a little unloved, thanks to minimal sunlight, but on higher levels things do get rather brighter. Family accommodation has been provided in two lower wings, already with trampoline-filled back gardens, the architect pleased to pass on how they repurposed unnecessary staircases to increase overall living space. He was less impressed by certain cost-saving tweaks the developers have made to the original design, but I doubt that many of the residents have noticed.
We also got to go inside a two bedroom flat thanks to some kindly residents. The main living space had a bright dual aspect, with a sliver of Olympic Park visible between the buildings opposite. The balcony linked the two ends of the apartment creating a practical outdoor asset. The gas boiler will one day be redundant once a pipe can be laid across the Lea from the Energy Centre, a delayed project which should one day service most of Fish Island. And although the general impression was "quite spacious", any of you who live in semi-detached houses or far beyond the capital would laugh at the extortionately poor value such flats command, but that's the price we Londoners pay.
It's only right that the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings should be housed in an ancient building. Since 1980 they've been based in an early 18th century silk merchant's house in Spitalfields, almost surrounded by the destructively redeveloped. When they moved in it was run down and in need of rescue, but they've since stabilised and repaired the structure, which is just as well given much of their role is to advise others how to do the same. Staff were out in force to show us round, from the librarian to the director, and a delightful little booklet helped us spot the original balusters on the staircase and the lead water cistern in the back yard. Small, but spabulous.
The study of disease has long merited its own professional organisation, especially for sharing good practice and overseeing training. They were previously settled in the West End, but this summer the Royal College relocated to a brand new building on the Aldgate fringe, which they were only too happy to show off for Open House. It's quite bricky, because most buildings are these days, in this case stretching to various internal walls and features. We got to explore the Meet, Socialise and Touchdown spaces, specifically the lower three and uppermost floors. These are very spacious, very skeletal and very brown, featuring multiple slabs and open timber staircases, with portraits of all the former Presidents arrayed around a central void.
The sixth floor has two outdoor terraces, one facing the City and the other Whitechapel. The view from the latter isn't that exciting, and the view from the former isn't as exciting as you'd think (because everybody else's upper floors get in the way, tarnishing that key Cheesegrater/Gherkin alignment). But with its row of shrubs and mini tables, and conveniently-located adjacent function space, it's really part of the strategy to make the building totally events-friendly. To stay solvent in this day and age your new college building has to double up as somewhere for others to hold meetings, host conferences and generally "provide excellence and innovation in hospitality". The one disease the Royal College of Pathologists couldn't keep at bay, it turns out, is financial viability.
Not officially part of Open House, but piggybacking on the success of the day, Tower Hamlets decided to open up a former workhouse near Mile End station for public view. The South Grove Workhouse opened in 1871 as the second such facility in the Whitechapel area, with dormitories on three storeys accessed off long central corridors. It could accommodate over 800 inmates, one wing male, one wing female, with a twin-gabled entrance block in the centre. The facility survived as an institution, then a residential lodge, for almost a century before being taken over by the council and used as offices. It's been empty since 2006. A much fuller description of its history can be found here.
You could tell it was a council-organised open day because all the instructions about hard hats, closed toe footwear and bringing a bottle of water were just a fraction too earnest. That said, I did bump my head almost as soon as we entered the basement, so maybe they had a point. The basement corridor was a gloomy affair, and climbing up to ground floor level not much brighter. Most of the rooms had been sealed off with tape, including one that was half full of leaves and others amok with trunked cables. The most impressive space was a double-sized annexe tacked on to act as a canteen, for which think council employees ladling out lunch rather than Oliver Twist asking for more.
We got to see an impressive amount of the building, notably the full length of the second floor and its former dormitories, since subdivided into offices, with the occasional safe left lying around. It was hard to look beyond recent municipal use to picture how the building might have functioned as a workhouse, and easier to look forward to potential future transformation. The site has been pencilled in for housing, current plans suggesting 36 market rent homes within the workhouse itself, and a taller block of 50 affordable rented homes replacing the adjacent 1980s Veolia office building. In a reversal of fortunes it'll be the rich moving into the workhouse, because they can afford to pay for its upkeep, and the deserving poor stacked up outside.
