29-31A Commercial Road
Contributed by Survey of London on June 22, 2016
This site was created by the westwards extension of Commercial Road in 1869-70. It was acquired by Henry Bear, a tobacco manufacturer. His heir, Adam Bear, granted John Furze & Co., brewers, a 90-year lease in 1899 subject to a building agreement. The brewery was taken over by Taylor Walker & Co., and in 1901 the agreement and lease were transferred to Solomon Kirstein, a printer based at 38 Church Lane. By 1902 Kirstein had built three three- storey houses or workrooms with shops adjoining at 29-31a Commercial Road, with Herbert O. Ellis as his architect and M. Calnan & Co. as builders. Kirstein himself took the shop at No. 29, living above with his wife, three children and a servant.
Around 1970 David Abraham began selling knitwear at 34 White Church Lane. In 2015 the David Abraham Partnership put forward a redevelopment scheme for a larger site proposing a seventeen-storey tower designed by Stock Woolstencroft. 1
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District Surveyors Returns: Goad maps: London County Council Minutes, 30 April and 18 June 1901, pp. 518 and 760: London Metropolitan Archives, O/064/034 and 037: Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, Building Control file 41978: The National Archives, IR58/84809/2606–8: Post Office Directories: Tower Hamlets Planning] ↩
Solomon Kirstein's letterhead (Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, Building Control file 41978)
Contributed by Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
29-31A Commercial Road
Contributed by Derek Kendall
29-31a Commercial Road in 1965
Contributed by Survey of London
29 Commercial Road, long view from southwest in 2018
Contributed by Derek Kendall
29-31A Commercial Road, with Whitechapel District Board of Works lamp standard of 1870
Contributed by Derek Kendall