SITE HISTORY

During the 17th century, wealthy traders and Huguenot silk weavers moved to the area, establishing a textile industry centered to the South around Spitalfields Market. The area declined along with the textile industry and from the end of the 19th Century, Shoreditch was blighted by crime, prostitution and poverty.

19th Century
The site was dominated by industrial uses during this period. From 1811 to 1871 there was a small gas works located on the site, supplying gas to the local area. In 1862 the newly formed Great Eastern Railway sought to relocate its London terminus from the Bishopsgate Goodsyard to

Liverpool Street. The new station opened in 1874 and was followed in 1893 by the construction of a power station on the site, supplying electricity to the station and the local area.

20th Century
By 1913 the site was in use as a coal depot with wagon turntables, hoists and tracks running east-west across the site. The power station was closed in 1932 and was left in a state of neglect until the1990's. The site continues to be contaminated by its industrial past and severed from the surrounding area by the railway cutting.