28 Commercial Street
Whitechapel, London
A new community and office building for Toynbee Hall, an East London charity tackling poverty and social injustice.
The building, together with significant improvements to neighbouring open space, enhances the charity’s physical and community presence in Aldgate on the edge of the City of London and a new home for their Advice & Wellbeing Centre.
A five storey composition of layered forms mediates between the gothic character of the Victorian Toynbee Hall and the robust urban grain of Commercial Street.
An asymmetric ground floor colonnade makes contemporary reference to the original entrance to Toynbee Hall which was bombed in WWII, and is finished with a patterned polished plaster surface, developed in close collaboration with Tower Hamlets’ conservation officers to echo traditional Victorian architecture.
The building’s solid brick skin gives weight to the lower part of the building housing the charity’s community spaces, while offices are arranged above. The envelope is given further richness through the use of brick patterning and pre-cast masonry arches, columns, and a repositioned decorative marble frieze.
Awards
RIBA London Award
Shortlisted
Surface Design Awards
Finalist – Housing Exterior
New London Architecture
Winner – Mixing
Young Architect of the Year
Shortlisted
“28 Commercial Street provides us with additional and invaluable facilities, enabling us at Toynbee Hall to strengthen our front line service delivery, pioneer new solutions to social problems and create a more financially sustainable organisation for the future.”
— Jim Minton
Chief Executive, Toynbee Hall
