Architecture tour of Queen’s Market, Upton Park

This walking tour takes place in one of London's most diverse and often overlooked corners of East London. Queen’s Market is a traditional London street market, covered with a post war brutalist façade and enveloped within a space-frame profile. This eclectic mix of styles and layers has facilitate a unique community space and continued shopping patterns for successive generations. The market will be seen in view of its vital role in caring and providing for the diverse and often transitory communities living in Newham. 

The architecture tour will be led by Saif Osmani a graduate of UCL Bartlett in Architecture & Historic Urban Environments. The tour will take place with members of Friends of Queen’s Market a 18 year old not-for-profit local pressure group and Just Space Network, a London-wide network of around 80 grassroots community groups.

The move of West Ham United Football Club from Upton Park to the former London 2012 Olympics site has put pressure on the nearby Queen's Market where local people and traders say that they have witnessed a 'managed decline’. In 2020 £5.3million investment was secured partly from the London Mayor’s Good Growth Fund towards improvements.

The tour will discuss the impacts of city-wide and local planning policies, address diversity in London and the success of ordinary places that facilitate community care and cohesion.

BOOK A TICKET: Limited places. Book through this Eventbrite link.

Tours take place every hour: 11am, 12noon and 1pm - please arrive 5 minutes before the start. To comply with safety measures tour participants are encouraged to wear a face mask.