Open House Festival

Neighbourhoods

Back to neighbourhoods

Argall Industrial Area

From filmmakers to food caterers, beauty brands to breweries and manufacturing to pottery, Lea Bridge’s Argall Industrial Area is home to over 400 businesses. Amongst these businesses are an abundance of designers, makers and manufacturers. Lea Bridge has a rich local history and developed from predominately marshland to an important industrial area in the 19th Century. The history of industrial activity in the area has left several inter-war and post-war industrial buildings within the Argall Industrial Area that have stood the test of time.

Industrial expansion north of the railway first started in circa. 1930s. Argall Avenue’s industrial buildings continued to expand after the Second World War with a series of new buildings appearing between the late 1930s and 1960s. The 1960s to 1980s saw further expansion and modification to the industrial estate on Argall Avenue including the re-alignment of the Black Path that passes through the area – a historic route connecting various markets in Hackney and Walthamstow that is still discernible in the modern landscape. Today, Lea Bridge’s Argall Industrial Area is bursting with creativity.

During Open House Festival 2024, in collaboration with William Morris Design Line we are hosting an Open Weekend of events to celebrate Argall Industrial Estate as a destination of design, making and manufacturing.
Across the weekend, studios, creative workspaces, workshops and factories in the area are opening up and showing how things are created, made, remade and repaired. Discover the often unseen spaces of making and manufacturing and explore what is designed and made on your doorstep, here in Lea Bridge.

Join us and learn more about the ancient art of patination. Celebrate 35 years of Capisco by delving into our sample archive and a gallery of our projects. Our master patination technicians will also be on hand to demonstrate some classic techniques.

Guided tour

Climpson & Sons Coffee Roastery

industrial

Step inside the Climpson & Son's Coffee Roastery and see the inner workings of where your favourite coffee gets sourced and roasted.

Drop in

Devil’s Botany Distillery

industrial

Enter the world of the curious with a special meet the maker open day at the UK's first ever Absinthe Distillery. Learn about the origins and rituals of this once illicit liquor from distiller and co-founder Rhys Everett.

Discover the work of innovative charity Furnishing Futures, which partners with the interiors industry to create trauma-informed healing homes for families given empty social housing after escaping domestic abuse. Enjoy a tour of our warehouse and studio, meet our team and learn about sustainability in interiors and the impact of trauma-informed design for recovery.

Drop in

Grain: Open Workshop

industrial

Join us at our 13,000 square foot Grain workshop in Leyton to see British furniture manufacturing in action. Our entire collection is designed and made in our workshop. Come and see our contemporary dining tables, desks, stools and shelves – available in a large range of colours and sizes. Meet the designers and makers in our friendly team and find out more about what they do.

Drop in

Kribi Coffee Roastery

industrial

Join us for a special open day at Kribi Coffee UK! Owners Anne and Luca will guide you on a tour through the air roastery and share the rich story of Cameroonian coffee and their family’s connection to the farmers and the land. There will be live demonstrations of the coffee air roaster and some sample coffee to try!

Drop in

Neckstamper Brewery

industrial

Every hour on the hour Neckstamper will give a brewery tour explaining our brewing process and equipment we use. The brewery taproom will also be open for the public to enjoy our beer or purchase cans to take away.

Drop in / Guided tour

Nirvana Brewery

industrial

Join us for an alcohol-free beer tasting and brewery tour! Our shutter will be open all afternoon for you to pop in and join us for a beer. Our brewer James will lead a brewery-tour session at 2pm giving the low-down on the magic behind alcohol-free brewing, followed by a guided tasting with a selection of four great Nirvana beers.

Drop in

thinkFOUND

industrial

thinkFOUND make socially and environmentally sustainable furniture. We represent a social value model that gives back to communities around London. From our workshop in the Argall Industrial Estate we incorporate carpentry, fabrication, upcycling, training, employment, coaching and more. Over the weekend we will be hosting an open studio demonstrating our processes and showcasing past work.

Ceramics centre for the Lee Valley, covering the entire top floor of an old hardware factory. Three rooms, providing just over 8000 sq ft of floor space; the main room is capped by its original saw-tooth glass roof feature.

Unknown, 1946

Drop in

Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum

industrial, museum

Grade II listed Victorian engine house remodelled to take a pair of 1895 Marshall steam engines, still in working order. A museum celebrating the rich Industrial Heritage of the Borough and the Lea Valley Region.

George Jerram, 1885