architectural practice
A IS FOR ARCHITECTURE, 2024
493 Hackney Road, E2 9ED
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.
Bethnal Green
Cambridge Heath
55
Street Level
10:00–17:00
Office Open Doors
We are A IS FOR ARCHITECTURE: a studio driven by a desire to understand and enhance the world around us. We’re proud to open the doors to our newly renovated shopfront studio — a space that embodies our ethos of creativity, contextuality and connection to place.
Located on the heart of Hackney Road, not long time ago London’s oldest ironmonger.
Presland & Sons opened for business in 1797 and traded from the same location, over two hundred years later as The One Stop Metal Shop. Operating at first from a wooden shack built around 1760, they constructed their own purpose-built shop and factory at the beginning of the nineteenth century, which suited their needs so perfectly that – in an astonishing and rare survival – it stands almost unaltered today. A unique complex of buildings that carries two centuries of history of industry in the East End.
Following this time the shop got over Conservatory Archives, established in 2015, it began as a small shop on Hackney Road, housing a curated assortment of intriguing plant specimens and antique furniture. As interest in our curious green characters grew, so did the number of plants within the space and soon the Hackney Road store became a miniature jungle, teeming with as many unique and diverse species as it could fit into every available corner.
Visitors not only will learn about the space but are driven by in-depth research, investigating the context and meaning of sites, client aspirations, community need, and the ideas and motifs that will bring each project to life.
Join us for our office tour, informal talks, model displays and drinks and nibbles!
