Histories of Whitechapel
Welcome to the Survey of London’s Whitechapel project, where you can share and explore the many histories of Whitechapel’s buildings and places.
On our map you’ll find information about every building in Whitechapel in 2016, including photographs, stories and research, film clips and audio recordings added by historians, local people and others with an interest in the area. It will grow in content gradually until the end of June 2019, a collaborative work in progress made up of the Survey’s own research alongside material that you and everyone else contributes.
This is an experiment in the making of the history of a place. Sharing our knowledge and experiences will help us to understand the histories of buildings, streets and neighbourhoods, and through them the lives of the people of Whitechapel. To start exploring, go to the map and click on a building to see content about that site, or you can explore buildings related to a particular historical period or theme.
If you have any information, research, images, or memories of Whitechapel, you can sign up and start contributing them here.
Stories Wanted
There are many buildings in Whitechapel about which we would welcome more information. If you know something, you can make an account or use the form below to tell us.
Latest Submissions
Social, political and cultural activity in the Co-operative Wholesale Society's premises in and around Leman Street
Sugar House, 99 Leman Street | Rebecca Preston | March 29, 2019
From its early days the Co-operative Wholesale Society organised social and educational activities for its staff and hosted meetings and other events, and later on leased property to co-operative and other organisations with whom it shared interests and values. At the suggestion of Mrs Benjamin Jones, wife of the London Branch manager, the first meeting of the Women’s Co-operative ...
Co-operative Wholesale Society Administrative Offices and Bank, 1 Prescot Street
1-7 Prescot Street | Rebecca Preston | March 29, 2019
Leonard Gray Ekins, FRIBA (1877–1948) worked all his adult life for the Co- operative Wholesale Society and served as London Branch Chief Architect from 1916 to 1942.1 In 1898–1903 he was assistant architect under F. E. L. Harris at Manchester and confirmed as Newcastle’s Branch Architect in 1905.2 Like Harris, Ekins employed the Hennebique system ...
Co-operative Wholesale Society Furnishing and Hardware Warehouse, 9 Prescot Street
9 Prescot Street | Rebecca Preston | March 29, 2019
The seven-storey Furnishing and Hardware Warehouse and Showrooms at 9 Prescot Street (and 78 Chamber Street) were designed for the Co-operative Wholesale Society by its architect, L. G. Ekins, at around the same time as the Tea Office and Coffee Works in Prescot Street from 1934. When the furnishing showrooms opened in May 1939, they were billed as evidence of ...
Browsing the Map
If you're not sure about how to get started, we've made a short video to give you a quick overview.
Explore Whitechapel
Not sure where to begin? Click on a theme to start uncovering Whitechapel's past. Sites are being tagged if they connect with certain overlapping aspects of Whitechapel's history, according to the thematic categories identified here.
