The Relay Building, originally known as One Commercial Street, is a 21-storey residential block in Whitechapel at the junction of Whitechapel High Street and Commercial Street, London E1. Despite the building's former name, the main entrance is in Whitechapel High Street, and the postal address is 114 Whitechapel High Street.
The building opened in 2014. The developer was Redrow; [1] and the architects were Sigma Seifert. [2] The contractor was John Sisk & Son, a member of the Sisk Group. Construction had been suspended in 2008, but with the recovery in the London housing market, the development was purchased by Redrow. As well as 207 apartments, there is 110,000 sq ft of offices over six floors, retail space on the ground floor and car parking in the basement. [3] The ground floor incorporates one of the western entrances to Aldgate East tube station.
The developer Redrow described the building as "like a blade of light, its glass fin protruding dramatically to add a sculptural quality to Redrow London's first flagship development". [1] Building Design , however, commented: "First flagship development? Please God let it also be their last. No one who can liken this incoherent hulk of ill-fitting glass sheets to a blade of light deserves to build again in such a sensitive location." [2] In July 2014, the building was nominated for the Carbuncle Cup, [2] awarded for "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months".
The International Property Awards, on the other hand, honoured the building as "Best Residential High-Rise Development UK, 2013–14". [4] [5]
The entrance lobby is notable for incorporating a section of a London Underground C Stock train, used as a seating area. [6] It displays "Aldgate East" as its destination. The unit bears the number 5721, which was the number of one of the final C Stock units to run on the Underground before they were withdrawn from service in 2014, but this is not its original number: the genuine 5721 is preserved at the London Transport Museum's Acton depot. [7]
The Relay Building includes, in compliance with planning legislation, an element of "affordable housing". This part of the development has its own name, "Houblon Apartments"; and a separate entrance, at one side of the building in Tyne Street. In July 2014, an investigation by The Guardian newspaper – commenting particularly on One Commercial Street – noted a growing trend for new housing developments in London to include separate, segregated entrances of this kind, known as "poor doors". [8] [9]
In November 2014, Vice reported that, "for the past 20 weeks, every Wednesday between 6PM and 7PM, a group of locals from the anarchist action group Class War have stood outside the slick glass carbuncle with a banner promising to 'devastate the avenues where the wealthy live' – a nod to a 1915 quote from firebrand Chicago anarchist Lucy Parsons." After 18 weeks, the developer Redrow disposed of the freehold of the building. A week later, a director of the new owners, Hondo Enterprises, agreed to meet with Class War, and they declared a temporary truce. [10]
On 7 March 2022, a fire broke out on the 17th floor, with glass panels and other debris falling to the streets below. The London Fire Brigade was called at 3:53pm GMT and fifteen fire engines and more than 125 firefighters were sent to put out the blaze, using the tallest ladder in Europe. [11] [12] [13]
Freedom Press is an anarchist publishing house and bookseller in Whitechapel, London, United Kingdom, founded in 1886.
The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and Barking in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over 15.8 miles (25.5 km). Between Farringdon and Aldgate East it skirts the City of London, the capital's financial heart, hence the line's name. Its tunnels are just below the surface and are a similar size to those on British main lines. Most of the track and all stations are shared with either the District, Circle, or Metropolitan lines. Over 114 million passenger journeys are made each year on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines.
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed a civil and ecclesiastical parish after splitting from the ancient parish of Stepney in the 14th century. It became part of the County of London in 1889 and Greater London in 1965. Because the area is close to the London Docklands and east of the City of London, it has been a popular place for immigrants and the working class.
The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the inner East End, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by members of the British Union of Fascists led by Oswald Mosley, and various de jure and de facto anti-fascist demonstrators, including local trade unionists, communists, anarchists, British Jews and socialist groups. The anti-fascist counter-demonstration included both organised and unaffiliated participants.
Class War is an anarchist group and newspaper established by Ian Bone and others in 1983 in the United Kingdom. An incarnation of Class War was briefly registered as a political party for the purposes of fighting the 2015 United Kingdom general election.
Commercial Street is an arterial road in Tower Hamlets, east London that runs north to south from Shoreditch High Street to Whitechapel High Street through the East End district of Spitalfields. The road is a section of the A1202 London Inner Ring Road and as such forms part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone.
Aldgate was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells and their fittings and accessories, although it also provided single tolling bells, carillon bells and handbells. The foundry was notable for being the original manufacturer of the Liberty Bell, a famous symbol of American independence, and for re-casting Big Ben, which rings from the north clock tower at the Houses of Parliament in London.
Aldgate is a London Underground station near Aldgate in the City of London. The station is on the Circle line between Tower Hill and Liverpool Street, and is the eastern terminus of the Metropolitan line. It is in Travelcard Zone 1.
Aldgate East is a London Underground station on Whitechapel High Street in Whitechapel, in London, England. It takes its name from the City of London ward of Aldgate, the station lying to the east of the ward. It is on the Hammersmith & City line between Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, and on the District line between Tower Hill and Whitechapel, in Travelcard Zone 1.
Whitechapel is an interchange station in Whitechapel, East London for London Underground, London Overground and Elizabeth line services. The station is located behind a street market of the same name and opposite the Whitechapel Civic Centre. It lies between Aldgate East and Stepney Green stations on the District and Hammersmith & City lines, between Shoreditch High Street and Shadwell stations on the East London Line. To the West of Whitechapel on the Elizabeth Line is Liverpool Street, to the East the line splits with one branch going to Stratford and one to Canary Wharf. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.
Minories is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in central London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate.
The A11 is a major trunk road in England. It runs roughly north east from London to Norwich, Norfolk, although after the M11 opened in the 1970s and then the A12 extension in 1999, a lengthy section has been downgraded between the suburbs of east London and the north-west corner of the county of Essex. It also multiplexes/overlaps with the A14 on the Newmarket bypass.
St. Mary's was a station on the District and Metropolitan lines of the London Underground. It was located between Whitechapel and Aldgate East stations, in the East End of London.
Commercial Road is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It is 1.9 miles (3.1 km) long, running from Gardiner's Corner, through Stepney to the junction with Burdett Road in Limehouse at which point the route splits into the East India Dock Road and the West India Dock Road. It is an artery connecting the historic City of London with the more recently developed financial district at Canary Wharf, and part of the A13.
Houndsditch is a street running through parts of the Portsoken and Bishopsgate Without wards of the City of London; areas which are also a part of the East End of London. The road follows the line of the outside edge of the ditch which once ran outside the London Wall. The road took its name from the section of ditch between Bishopsgate and Aldgate. The name may derive from the widespread dumping of rubbish in this stretch of ditch; relating to the dumping of dead dogs, or the scavenging of the waste by feral dogs.
20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district. It has been nicknamed "The Walkie-Talkie" because of its distinctive shape, said to resemble a two-way radio handset. Construction was completed in spring 2014, and the three-floor "sky garden" was opened in January 2015. The 38-storey building is 160 m (525 ft) tall. Since July 2017, the building has been owned by Lee Kum Kee Groups.
The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton is a luxury residential skyscraper in Center City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At 518 feet (158 m), the 48-story skyscraper is the twelfth-tallest building in Philadelphia, and the tallest residential tower in the city. The building was erected on the former site of One Meridian Plaza which was seriously damaged by a deadly fire in 1991. One Meridian Plaza was demolished in 1999 and the property was sold by E/R Partners to the Arden Group the next year. Development of the site by the Arden Group, which owns the adjacent Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia, was delayed for years as a result of a feud with rival developer Mariner Commercial Properties. Mariner owned the property 1441 Chestnut Street, which sits south of the Residences at The Ritz-Carlton site and intends to build its own residential tower. The feud began after Arden Group's lead partner Craig Spencer blocked approval of 1441 Chestnut Street because he felt the tower's design would be detrimental to the planned Residences at The Ritz-Carlton tower. This led to several years of dispute between the developers trying to block construction of each other's towers.
Whitechapel High Street is a street in the Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It is about 0.2 miles long, making it “one of the shortest high streets in London”. It links Aldgate High Street to the south-west with Whitechapel Road to the north-east, and includes junctions with Commercial Street to the north and Commercial Road to the east.
Altab Ali Park is a small park on the Whitechapel Road, in Whitechapel, London. Formerly known as St Mary's Park, it is the site of the old 14th-century, once whitewashed church, St Mary Matfelon, from which Whitechapel gets its name.
Coordinates: 51°30′55.2″N0°4′20.7″W / 51.515333°N 0.072417°W