Georgian terraced houses, Spitalfields, East London

This group of small Georgian properties were for the most part built by private individuals between 1809 and 1816. Some of these houses were lost to bombing in the Second World War and others to insensitive redevelopment in the 1970?s and 80?s. The remainding two terraces had been derelict for fifteen years when they were saved by the Spitalfields Trust which fought against their demolition, then acted as estate agents to find suitable new owners and finally oversaw and directed the restoration of the whole block using skilled craftsmen, many of whom are employed by the Trust on other projects. All internal and external design features such as panelling, staircases, fireplaces, garden walls and summer houses were designed by the Trust, with their in-house architectural historian. The fronts of the houses were sensitively restored, with the addition of traditional mansard roofs and repairs to the basement brickwork. The roofs follow traditional 18th century form and accommodate a new bedroom and bathroom. The rear extensions of the houses follow historic designs and materials once common in Whitechapel, but now sadly lost. They are clad in matching brick at basement level with weatherboarding above. Weatherboarding, now extremely rare in the East End has been reintroduced to the local vernacular. These extensions provide a scullery and washroom on the basement level, a study at ground floor level, and bedroom or bathroom at first floor level. The aim was not only to save and breathe life back into this historic buildings, but to give back to Whitechapel some of the romance of its 18th-century townscape of courtyards and brick and weather-boarded buildings, the majority of which were lost in the 20th-century