The Arches invites you to explore its artists' work in a newly designed framework by A347, focused on fostering community-minded practices. With spaces centered around a communal core, the open layout encourages collaboration and interaction. Meet the artists, experience their work firsthand, and purchase directly from them, making artistic creation a tool for community building.

A347, 2024

Experience a room-sized Camera Obscura within a terraced house located on Beck Road in East London. You will have the opportunity to have your portrait taken and purchase a photographic archival print or high quality digital file. Individuals & Groups welcome! Open: 12-6pm (weather dependent).

Unknown, 1890

While cafes, markets, and restaurants come and go, the high street once felt immutable until online shopping and same-day delivery eroded its vitality. Our office at 493 Hackney Rd, once London’s oldest ironmongers, then a plant shop, was renovated to preserve character and serve as our long term base. We look forward to continuing the journey of opening our shop to new visitors and collaborators.

A IS FOR ARCHITECTURE, 2024

The Canal Club, a 1978 modernist community centre designed by Julian Sofaer, is a modest, open-plan space. It features a community garden developed by the boating community moored alongside it.

Julian Sofaer, 1978

Bricks have been used for thousands of years. This walking tour will showcase the simple brick – exploring how lumps of clay, crafted and fired by brick makers near Brick Lane have been used to build a variety of ever changing streetscapes over more than 200 years. Walking from Coate St E2 to Fashion Street E1, this tour will visit listed brick arches, housing, bathhouses and the shopping arcades of London's former 1905 Moorish Market.

Morris+Company is an award-winning architecture practice based in Hackney, east London. We have applied circular economy principles to the retrofit of our own studio, gallery and café space on Mare Street, reducing waste, reusing materials, and designing for longevity. We place the creative ‘act’ of architecture onto the high street, reveal our practice to the public and engage local communities.

Morris+Company, 2022

St Margaret's has delivered community activity on Old Ford Road since the start of the 20th century. Join us to go behind the scenes and experience a small exhibition about the history of the settlement and its work.

, 1753

Join a guided walk through the former site of Loddiges Nursery to learn how their tropical plant trading transformed English gardens during the 1800’s. While visiting the now buried Palm House, we will hear of the migration stories of the plants themselves - how their ancestors were captured from wilderness homes across the world and transported by ship to this infamous nursery in East London.

Hackney Empire is a grade II* listed building. The theatre was built as a music hall in 1901, designed by the architect Frank Matcham. It is now a variety theatre for the 21st century, serving the local community and beyond.

Frank Matcham, 1901