The Wapping Project

The Wapping Project is one of my favourite places. We discovered it a couple of years ago on a walk down the River Thames. I love exploring Wapping and Rotherhithe as the streets are lined with converted warehouses and factories that are now beautifully restored apartments (so jealous!). When we came across this building it caught my attention immediately as it is so imposing. There’s a lovely garden with chairs growing on trees and a very sweet greenhouse that is a community bookshop and meeting house. As we walked inside I was rendered speechless. The space is enormous and the interior architecture is stunning: exposed brick, utilitarian tiles, vast hooks dangling from the ceiling, concrete floors, lead windows. It’s a space that I dream about owning and renovating into a home. The combination of soaring ceilings and abandoned machinery with iconic modernist furniture would inspire anyone. The space has now been converted into a restaurant and art gallery. In the evenings, the machinery is covered in candles and it is really rather magical.

So, before you have a look for yourselves, a quick history lesson – do you know that I’m a History teacher? Oh, yes. The Wapping Project was a hydraulic pump house. A network of water pipes used to run underneath the ground across London (marked in red on the map below). Wapping pump house would pump water through these pipes to power a vast range of things, including the lift at Selfridges. Good fact.

Now, have a look for yourself…