18-26, Rivington Street

Terrace of 5 purpose-built workshops, now offices and shops. Built in 1897 with some late-20th-century alterations. Three storeys of stock brick.

The distinctive character of the facades lies in their generous windows, designed for light and ventilation. Each first and second floor features a nearly full-width strip of wooden-framed windows of 4 lights, with a hopper over fixed and opening sections; the same pattern is repeated at the rear. These windows have bull-nosed engineering brick cills and rolled steel joist lintels. At ground floor level, there is a door on the left with a pair of large windows to the right. While some areas show 20th-century reworking, numbers 18, 20 and 24 retain their original shop-front windows with curved frames and slender transoms. The terrace has a charming industrial character and survives well, with its original function clearly readable in the design. Number 16 was originally built at the same date but has had its windows and shop front replaced and is therefore not included in the listing.

The interior has not been inspected. It is noted to have been altered in minor ways for late-20th-century uses but essentially retains the original character.

This terrace was built in 1897 for William Ratcliffe, a prominent furniture manufacturer, and was originally mirrored by a similar group on the north side of Rivington Street. Built speculatively and mostly occupied by small businesses, these workshops required very little initial capital, allowing independent craftsmen to earn a precarious living as subcontractors to the large wholesale dealers of Great Eastern Street and Curtain Road. The Rivington Street workshops were of relatively high standard, which explains their survival where many buildings of this type have been demolished or renewed. They are comparable to the Cleeve Workshops in Hackney, and the Marlow and Sunbury Workshops in Tower Hamlets, all dating from the late 1890s and listed Grade II.

By 1899, all premises were occupied by cabinet makers, chair makers or French polishers, with rapid turnover in tenants. One longer-lasting tenant was cabinet maker Dennis Broughton, who occupied numbers 24 and 26 in 1908 but had left by 1918. One firm of chairmakers remained in 1969, but by the end of the 20th century all buildings had been refurbished as studios or offices with ground-floor shops.

For almost a century, from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, South Shoreditch was the hub of the British furniture trade. From the 1850s onwards, the growing affluence of the middle classes and advances in Industrial Revolution manufacturing processes created demand for speedily-constructed, inexpensive furniture in an unprecedented range of styles. Before the 19th century, homes of moderate income contained humble, hand-crafted furniture, but by mid-century, exotic, historicist or avant-garde pieces became inexpensive and widely available, if not always of highest quality. Much furniture manufactured, sold and supplied to retailers in the West End, provincial cities and throughout the British Empire came from South Shoreditch. As a result, the area retains a consistent and unique combination of factories, warehouses and showrooms—a concentration of interrelated building types creating an idiosyncratic historic character, remaining "one of the most consistent and distinctive areas of its kind in London" as described in the latest edition of Pevsner's Buildings of England.