IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Assembly Passage, LONDON, E1 4UT

This is the northern end of this very narrow, but two-way, road, taken looking northwards from about half way along the road. This passage seems to have existed since this area was first built up - it is clearly marked on the 1870 edition of the OS 1:2500 plan. At the far end is Mile End Road.

It is always sad to see a fine building laid low, but it looks to be near the end of the road for this impressive former high-end department store, built in 1927 to be the 'Harrod's of the East End' It looks just about restorable, given the odd few million: but no one seems to care.

Built 1939 to the designs of architect W.R. Glen. Full history of the site and the building at this http://www.genesiscinema.co.uk/about.php.

Assembly Passage is a very narrow, and far from straight, road that runs through from Redmans Road, where the photographer is standing, to the busy Mile End Road. Surprisingly, it is open to traffic in either direction, though what happens when vehicles meet in the middle I do not know. On the east (right) side, new development is going on, while on the west side are the offices of Waterman's, box makers.

Taken looking south-southwest from a seminar room in the Mathematical Sciences building. Sorry about the reflection in the image!

Grade II listed. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1357846

Ian Nairn wrote in Nairn's London in 1966 “Messrs Wickham, circa 1910, wanted an emporium. Messrs Spieghalter, one infers, wouldn’t sell out. Messrs Wickham, one infers further, pressed on regardless, thereby putting their Baroque tower badly out of centre. Messrs Spieghalter (‘The East End Jeweller’) remained, surrounded on both sides by giant columns a la Selfridges. The result is one of the best visual jokes in London, a perennial triumph for the little man, the bloke who won’t conform.” Wickham’s closed first but it was many years before Spieghalters closed and the odd façade remains to this day.

Ian Nairn wrote in Nairn's London in 1966 “Messrs Wickham, circa 1910, wanted an emporium. Messrs Spieghalter, one infers, wouldn’t sell out. Messrs Wickham, one infers further, pressed on regardless, thereby putting their Baroque tower badly out of centre. Messrs Spieghalter (‘The East End Jeweller’) remained, surrounded on both sides by giant columns a la Selfridges. The result is one of the best visual jokes in London, a perennial triumph for the little man, the bloke who won’t conform.” Wickham’s closed first but it was many years before Spieghalters closed and the odd façade remains to this day. See also https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6054309

The London Plane is London's tree par excellence. And there's a parallel here, for the London Plane is a hybrid, like virtually every Londoner, (Celt, Roman, Saxon, Angle, Jute, Norman, Dane, Norseman, Jew, Chinaman, African, West Indian, Indian, Pakistani...) They all help to make London beautiful, like those plane trees.