A significant phase of the High Street 2012 programme - an ambitious regeneration project focused on the heritage led regenerating the thoroughfare (A11/A118) that links the City of London to the Olympic Park in Stratford - has been completed with stunning results.
Six buildings - 64 - 68 Whitechapel High Street - have been carefully repaired and restored to include new shop fronts, repairs to the brickwork and pointing, new windows and the reinstatement of lost architectural features and details. Taking six months to complete, the conservation works cost approximately £460,000. The buildings are the first of around 100 to benefit from the conservation works.
Andrew Hargreaves, Historic Areas Advisor for English Heritage, said: "The completion of the repair and restoration works to the exterior of this group of late 19th century Conservation Area buildings marks an exciting stage in the High Street 2012 initiative and an invaluable investment in local heritage. The investment works to these buildings, for which we have provided funding under our Partnership Scheme in Conservation Areas (PSiCA), includes extensive reinstatement of decorative features removed since World War II, and offers a tangible sign of the 2012 legacy in this key east London corridor."
The Historic Buildings Conservation Scheme forms part of a larger package of measures in the High Street 2012 programme - led by Tower Hamlets Council, and supported by English Heritage, Transport for London, the London Development Agency & Design for London and Newham Council. The project includes a series of public realm improvement works, which aim to rejuvenate the area - creating a world class high street of which London can be proud and which will be admired by the world during the 2012 Games.
With the first block of buildings now complete, work has now started on the next group of buildings, opposite the landmark former Wickham's Department Store on Mile End Road within the Stepney Green Conservation Area. Most of the buildings are included within a grade II listed terrace which dates from the late 18th century.
