London Open House – day one

Because of a fairly last minute change of plans, rather than enjoying a few days in the country, J and I found ourselves in the capital for the annual Open House London weekend a week ago. We didn’t really have time to formulate much of a plan, let alone book to see some of the more high-profile properties, but as it was a beautifully warm, sunny day, we were happy to approach it in a somewhat ad hoc manner.

First up was Christ Church Spitalfields, a Grade I listed 18th century work by Nicholas Hawksmore. Its wonderfully imperious exterior was saved from near-dereliction in the 1970s and 80s, and its interior was restored to its former glory in 2004, having been ‘savagely altered’ in 1850.

Inside it’s a stunning example of English Baroque, with a beautiful ceiling, columns, stained glass, imposing altarpiece and galleries. The church organ is currently being restored, but in its day it was the largest organ in England, with over a thousand pipes.

Next on our list was 19 Princelet Street, just around the corner, which we’ve been meaning to visit for a while. It’s a Hugenot (French Protestants) silk merchant’s house which dates back to 1718, and also contains one of London’s oldest synagogues. Unfortunately the queue outside was enormous, so we had to be content with ducking into 13 Princelet Street instead.

Number 13 is another Hugenot house from the same period, and is owned by the Landmark Trust (a charity which restores neglected historic buildings and offers them for holidays).

In the early 1700s, Princelet Street was home to some of the most prosperous master weavers and merchants in the area, but by the start of the 19th century the area was in rapid decline, which continued until the 1960s.

Number 13 was renovated sympathetically in the mid 1980s, and despite having a new rear extension, kitchen and central heating, it retains much of its original character, including most of the wooden internal walls and joinery, and some lovely Delft-like tiles in the fireplaces. I’m sure it’s not as impressive as number 19, but it was interesting to see nevertheless.

Our appetite for 18th century Hugenot houses whetted, we strolled round the offices of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which are housed in another silk merchant’s house, at 37 Spital Square. It was all right, but to be honest an old house full of desks, computers and filing cabinets isn’t all that exciting, so we didn’t linger.

Our next stop, Spital Charnel House, was literally around the corner, although we almost walked straight past/over it. If you cross Bishop Square, you might notice an area of glass floor in one corner, which reveals the remains of the charnel house below street level.

Built in about 1310, it is just one of the archaeological discoveries made before the site was redeveloped in the 1990s.

In the course of the excavations, archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology Service found approximately 150 Roman burials including the remains of a wealthy woman laid in a lead coffin within a stone sarcophagus. They also found the remains of the medieval priory church, houses, infirmary and gardens and a cemetery containing over 10,500 skeletons buried between 1100 and 1540. This is thought to be the largest group of human remains archaeologically excavated in the world.

The charnel house was used to store the bones that were uncovered when fresh graves were dug at the priory, and was later converted to a house after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1500s. The upper storey that would have housed the chapel is long gone, but a significant amount of the buttressed crypt remains, now housed in a chamber that was open for the weekend.

For a bunch of old walls, it was surprisingly interesting, thanks to the wide range of materials used in construction. The course masonry, Kentish ragstone, flint, red brick, limestone from Caen and Reigate stone give the walls all sorts of contrasting textures and colours.

As we were running way behind schedule, we reluctantly decided to skip seeing Balfron Tower (Trellick Tower’s lesser known sister in Poplar) and the Limehouse Accumulator Tower (a 19th century octagonal tower).

Our final destination for Saturday took us out of Spitalfields and on a DLR ride past Canary Wharf to Canning Town. We were heading to see Container City and Trinity Buoy Wharf, home to London’s only lighthouse and a centre for creative industries, which also includes old shipping containers that have been adapted for use as studio spaces. (Our visit was partly motivated by the BBC’s The Box)

Unfortunately getting there involved a twenty minute walk from the DLR station through a landscape that I’d have to describe as grim. The area has the look of a poorly-planned regeneration scheme which was abandoned after some initial land clearance and road building; a handful of boarded up old buildings remain, plus a few new characterless office blocks and a hotel, but mostly Canning Town seems to consist of rubbish-strewn dual carriageways and flyovers.

Thanks to our late start (largely due to battling with the awful Open House website), by now it was 5.30pm, and we were concerned that we might be too late to gain access to Trinity Buoy Wharf. Luckily we arrived just in time, and although we’d missed the day’s activities there (street theatre, circus training, art installations and workshops), we were able to spend an hour wandering around the site.

It was well worth braving the desolate surrounding for though; there were all sorts of interesting buildings at Trinity Buoy Wharf, and the whole place had a lovely laid back, creative vibe, with great views across the river to the O2 Dome. The three Container Cities were particularly impressive, and a fantastic example of how things can be reused to provide cheap, sustainable work/living space.

The accommodation is built from recycled shipping containers arranged in modular groups. The walls are only 2mm thick but because they are corrugated they are immensely strong. Each 40 x 8 foot container weighs in at only four tonnes but is able to take up to ten times that in loading, and remains rigid when stacked.

These stacks only require support at the corners, so the cost of foundations is minimised. Even the stair and lift towers are created from 40 foot containers standing on end, and balconies formed in open end-doors. The porthole style windows are used for structural efficiency, but are turned to aesthetic advantage and are an essential part of the buildings’ character.

The Container City scheme costs less than half that of equivalent conventional building, and over 80% is made from recycled material.

The walk back to East India DLR was shorter and slightly more attractive than the walk from Canning Town, especially as the sun was setting behind Canary Wharf. From there we went to Kingsland Road for a well-earned Vietnamese meal with friends.

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