Originally published on Icon
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Finding a factory on the Enfield banks of the River Lea is hardly a surprise. The river has been a part of London’s industrial landscape, as an artery of supply chains running from Hertfordshire down into London’s north-east, since at least the 16th century. Today, the river’s banks and the surrounding Lea Valley are still dotted with the warehouses, sheds and big-box retailers that typically make up the peripheries of major European cities. Far from glamorous, this is a vital territory where things are manufactured, stored and moved for the everyday running of the city.
Areas such as these have, however, been pushed further and further out of London’s centre as its economic priorities have shifted, a change already seen further downstream at Hackney Wick where new-build apartment blocks exhibit an industrial chic in homage to the industries they have replaced. Bloqs, a lively open-access factory established in 2012, has been one of the enterprises swept up in this creeping exodus. ‘Our journey was from Hackney out to Haringey, from Haringey out to Enfield, further and further out,’ explains co-founder Al Parra. Bloqs now has a new building, east of Tottenham, which seeks to signal a sea change for light industrial businesses and workers in London…
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Originally published on Icon
George Kafka 