Living in Shoreditch: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

A new generation of homes are being built for the young techies and walk-to-work City staff drawn to this arty, foodie hotspot...
It's not graffiti - it's street-art: colourful wall-art can be found all over Shoreditch. Images by Graham Hussey
Anthea Masey12 February 2016

A maze of small streets and main roads of thundering traffic, a tangle of railway bridges, walls of dazzling street art and at every turn art galleries, cafés, clubs, boutiques and bars — this is the eclectic mix that is Shoreditch, on the north-eastern edge of the City of London.

After work and at the weekend, the pubs, bars and clubs are packed with City workers and revellers from across the capital. It’s all a far cry from the early days of Shoreditch’s transformation 30 years ago, when buildings left empty by departing printers and furniture makers were populated by artists looking for cheap space.

Then the fashion for loft living took off. Developers bought up former industrial buildings, carving them up into spaces which buyers fitted out themselves, sometimes hiring a fashionable young architectural firm. These were the Shoreditch pioneers and, according to estate agent Nick Karamanlis at Stirling Ackroyd, they are still a force to be reckoned with.

“The people who bought in Shoreditch 20 years ago bought very cheaply, and even if they no longer live here, they remain attached to the area and prefer to rent out rather than sell.”

So anyone looking to buy rather than rent a home in or near the famed Shoreditch Triangle, bounded by Old Street to the north, Shoreditch High Street to the east and Great Eastern Street to the west, must be prepared to wait.

Except, as Karamanlis points out, Shoreditch is entering the next stage of its transformation, with new tower blocks already built, under way or at the planning stage. Some call this the “Canary Wharf-isation” of Shoreditch, claiming it will erase the area’s rough-around-the-edges charm.

Converted townhouses on New North street: one-bedroom flats in the heart of Shoreditch start at around £450,000

What there is to buy in Shoreditch
Shepherdess Walk Buildings in Shepherdess Walk was one of the earliest former industrial buildings to be converted into lofts in the mid-Nineties. A three-bedroom penthouse is for sale there for £3.15 million. The 2,700sq ft home has a large roof terrace, and comes with planning permission for a 1,000sq ft rooftop extension, along with permission to install a lift.

In the heart of the Shoreditch Triangle, a 3,000sq ft, three-bedroom live/work loft in Shoreditch High Street is for sale for £2.5 million. A rare three-bedroom, 2,400sq ft house is for sale for £2.35 million in Shoreditch High Street, with a ground-floor space that could be converted to retail.

One-bedroom flats in the heart of Shoreditch start at around £450,000. First-time buyers and buy-to-let investors often look for “right-to-buy” flats in one of nearby Hoxton’s council blocks. A studio flat on the Cranston Estate in New North Road is for sale for £249,950.

 

Arnold Circus: beautiful red-brick buildings with lots of social housing

Travel
Old Street station is on the Northern line and Shoreditch is on the East London Overground line, connecting to Canary Wharf with a change at Canada Water. Both are Zone 1 stations and an annual travelcard costs £1,284.


Renting
There are nearly three times as many homes to rent than there are to buy in Shoreditch. Rents range from £1,200 a month for a studio to about £6,000 for a large loft. 

A studio in Turville Street is for rent for £1,200 a month, while a three-bedroom unfurnished loft in Chocolate Studios in Shepherdess Place is available at £5,850 a month. 

One-bedroom flats range from about £1,200 to £4,500 a month. A one-bedroom flat in Kingsland Road is for rent for £1,257 a month. A one-bedroom triplex flat over three floors of a former warehouse in Great Eastern Street in the heart of Shoreditch is available for £4,333 a month.

Rental yields are below four per cent although many early pioneers who are now renting out are receiving much more.

Shoreditch High Street: Homes in the heart of the Shoreditch Triangle are especially popular

Postcode
Shoreditch is at the confluence of more postcodes than any other part of London. The heart of the area is in EC2, which extends into the City. Around Old Street it is EC1, while towards Spitalfields the area goes into E1, and E2 is where Shoreditch meets Bethnal Green. N1 covers Hoxton.


Best roads
Homes in the heart of the Shoreditch Triangle, between Old Street, Shoreditch High Street and Great Eastern Street, are particularly sought after. Also popular are the early loft conversions in the best former industrial buildings, such as Shepherdess Walk Buildings.

What’s new

Shoreditch is entering a new phase of development, of which The Goodsyard, in former Bishopsgate Goodsyard, is the largest scheme. If it gets the go-ahead, building is likely to start at the end of 2016. Visit www.thegoodsyardlondon.com.

Avant-garde Tower in Bethnal Green Road is a Telford Homes development, with 257 flats in a new 25-storey block designed by architects Stock Woolstencroft. One penthouse remains on the 23rd and 24th floors at £3.5 million. See www.telfordhomes.plc.uk/avantgardetower, or call 020 3538 3287.



Principal Place in Norton Folgate is a new mixed-used development with flats, shops and offices and a half-acre public square designed by Foster + Partners. See www.principalplace.co.uk. The site includes the 50-storey Principal Tower. Visit www.principaltower.com, or call 020 787 5660.

Graduate-city: Shoreditch is especially popular with young professionals

The area attracts
There is a mix of buyers, with everyone from successful young entrepreneurs in technology, media and telecommunications, to young graduates buying with help from the Bank of Mum and Dad, to City staff who can walk to work, to overseas students. 

Staying power
Shoreditch is essentially a favourite with young adults. Its dense, urban grain doesn’t easily lend itself to family life. However, many of the loft-era pioneers hang on, using their Shoreditch home as a London base, or renting it out.
 
Up-and-coming areas
Price per square foot in Shoreditch averages around £850, slightly more if there is outside space, slightly less if there is a live/work designation. According to estate agent Nick Karamanlis of Stirling Ackroyd, price per square foot falls along Hackney Road towards Haggerston, an area which has been overlooked in the rush to move to Dalston. He also tips Whitechapel, which he also feels has been overlooked.

 

There is no shortage of restaurants, bars and cafés in Shoreditch: Albion is café and small shop, with an in-house bakery

Photographs: Graham Hussey

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants
It pays to wander round Shoreditch and discover its hidden-away bars, cafés and independent shops, and most people have their favourites. Long-standing SCP in Curtain Road is popular for furniture and interior accessories, while Labour and Wait in Redchurch Street stocks kitchen and garden paraphernalia with a functional Fifties feel.

British designer Ally Capellino in Calvert Avenue is a must for classic, handcrafted handbags, and Present is an independent menswear boutique in Shoreditch High Street.

There is no shortage of restaurants, bars and cafés. Top of many people’s list will be Eyre Brothers in Leonard Street, specialising in Spanish and Portuguese food. Neil Borthwick’s pub and restaurant, Merchants Tavern, is in Charlotte Road, while The Clove Club in Shoreditch Town Hall is known for its innovative tasting menu.

Other favourites include Rivington Grill in Rivington Street, Queen of Hoxton in Curtain Road, Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant in Westland Place, Hoi Polloi brasserie at Ace Hotel in Shoreditch High Street, Tramshed for chicken and steak in Rivington Street and Rochelle Canteen daytime restaurant at Arnold Circus.

The rooftop bar at Terence Conran’s Boundary hotel in Redchurch Street is an after-work favourite. Locals also rave about the food stalls in Leonard Circus at the junction with Paul Street, with a Netherlands-style shared space where pedestrians and cyclists take priority over vehicles.

Leisure and the arts
Local nightlife is thriving, based around Shoreditch’s many clubs, pubs and bars. Rich Mix in Bethnal Green Road is the local art centre, popular for films, music, live performance and exhibitions. The Electric Cinema is in the Aubin & Wills store in Redchurch Street. The Courtyard Theatre is in the former library building in Pitfield Street. The Geffrye Museum in Kingsland Road celebrates the history of English home interiors and gardens. There is a rooftop swimming pool at Shoreditch House private members club. The nearest council-owned pool is at the Britannia Leisure Centre in Hyde Road.

Open space
In this tightly packed urban neighbourhood, green space is in short supply. However, there is a pretty landscaped garden and bandstand in Arnold Circus, and open green space in Finsbury Square. The nearest park is Shoreditch Park, at the northern edge of Hoxton.

Council
Shoreditch falls partly under Hackney borough council, with Band D council tax of £1,297.45; partly under Tower Hamlets, where the charge is £1,184.54, and partly under Islington, where it’s £1,260.87. All three councils are Labour-controlled.

WHAT THE LOCALS RECOMMEND ON TWITTER

@vixfarrar beach blanket Babylon! Great food, cool interior, big white space to rent

@wildflowers_co Ace Hotel cafe and restaurant

@EatMoveBloom it has to be @URCHEEKY on Redchurch Street

@londonbdg @LeydenGallery is a wonderful gallery and shop, Albion Cafe Boundary Road, Labour and Wait shop

Three things about Shoreditch
Where is artwork — but no fish — on the menu?
The centrepiece of chef Mark Hix’s Tramshed restaurant in Rivington Street, Shoreditch, is a giant Damien Hirst formaldehyde tank featuring a chicken perched on a cow’s back. The restaurant serves only main courses of chicken and steak, and no fish.

Who connects a curtain with a globe?
William Shakespeare wrote for The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a theatre company which almost certainly first performed his Henry V at the Curtain Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse in Curtain Road, Shoreditch. The company appeared there for a season before moving in 1599 to the Globe in Southwark. Remains of the Curtain were unearthed in 2012 and a new performance space is planned when the site is developed. There is a plaque commemorating the theatre in Hewett Street.

Where did Shoreditch make housing history?
The Boundary Estate, with red-brick Arts & Crafts-influenced tenement blocks radiating off Arnold Circus, lays claim to being the first council estate. It was built between 1890 and 1900 by the Metropolitan Board of Works and completed by London County Council, which was formed in 1889.

Schools


Primary
Shoreditch’s state primaries are all judged “good” by Ofsted. There are two state comprehensive schools, both of which get good results at GCSE — Central Foundation Boys’ (ages 11 to 18) in Cowper Street, judged “good”, and Bethnal Green Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Gossett Street, judged “outstanding”.

Private
There is one private primary school, The Lyceum (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Paul Street. The two City of London schools, in the City, are high-achieving private schools. The girls’ school (ages seven to 18) is in Barbican, while the boys’ school (ages 10 to 18) is in Queen Victoria Street.

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