26 Whitechapel Road

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24-26 Whitechapel Road
Contributed by Survey of London on June 27, 2016

A timber-framed and jettied three-storey pair here, probably dating from around 1570, was gutted by fire on 20 August 1893. For reconstruction the landlord, Fasham Venables, employed Henry Hyman Collins as surveyor and Amos Eaton & Co. as builder, the last based, like Venables’s linendrapers’ firm, on Whitechapel High Street. The old front walls were retained for the sake of the upper-storey projection, but Arthur Crow, the District Surveyor, objected and took the matter to court, arguing that the work constituted rebuilding so the projection had to be sacrificed. He prevailed and work with set-back brick front walls was completed in March 1894. Venables held the freehold of Nos 20–26 in the early twentieth century; it was acquired by Buck & Hickman in 1961. Textile use at No. 24 began around 1920. ¹ A scheme for Alternative Developments Ltd by Rivington Street Studio Architects, taken forward by Whitechapel Road Developments with Modus Workspace Ltd as the principal contractor, included refurbishment of Nos 24–30, long vacant. In the event Nos 24–26 were replaced in replica form in 2017–18.²