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Where Nine-Tenths Of A Nation's Furniture Began
Locksmith Great Eastern Street: A Trade That Furnished A Nation
One Victorian account claimed nine-tenths of England's furniture was made along this stretch. One building here lived through all of it, warehouse to hotel. Dial 020 8534 4949 and reach someone who genuinely knows this street.
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Covering Great Eastern Street through the heart of Shoreditch. Open in Google Maps
Why Great Eastern Street Is Different
A street built almost entirely to furnish other people's homes
Great Eastern Street runs through the heart of Shoreditch, once the undisputed centre of English furniture-making. A gazetteer from 1868 put the claim plainly. Nine-tenths of the furniture made in England, it said, came from this district. Wholesale warehouses lined the surrounding streets from Old Street down to here, while workshops and smaller factories filled the quieter lanes behind them. The trade's real heyday ran from around 1860 to 1945, with finished pieces shipped not just across Britain but as far as Australia and South Africa.
Even so, most of the grand Victorian and Edwardian showroom-warehouses that once defined this trade still stand, built between roughly 1870 and 1910 with the plain, confident brick frontages typical of the period. Few are used for furniture anymore. Bars, offices, cafes and design studios have taken their place, but the buildings themselves remain a genuine, physical record of what this street used to do for a living.
One Address That Lived Through All Of It
Even so, few buildings here tell that story as fully as 61 to 63 Great Eastern Street. A builder named Henry Staines put it up in 1877; he lived in the northern half himself, while the rest operated as a warehouse and showroom for cabinet makers, first a partnership called Richards and Boswell, later Hart and Co by 1895. The building changed trades entirely in 1899. An art publisher and framer called Lee Brothers took over the southern half then, staying until 1918. Even so, a fire damaged the property in 1923. By the 1930s, a furniture company had moved back in. Trading there continued in some form right up until the last occupant was struck off the register in 1980.
The building didn't disappear after that, though. It's now a hotel, its brick frontage and high-ceilinged rooms repurposed once again for a trade nobody in 1877 could have predicted. So this street has spent a century and a half reinventing what happens behind its own doors, warehouse to showroom to publisher to furniture trade again to hotel, all inside the same four walls. We're considerably less concerned with what a building used to be. We just want its doors working properly now, whatever's currently behind them.
Short on time? solve a lockout straightaway, book a repair for later, or call our night line whenever suits.
What Great Eastern Street Businesses & Residents Call About
What this stretch of Shoreditch brings us
Converted Warehouse Offices
Former furniture warehouses here now house a genuinely varied set of modern tenants. Security work has to account for that layered past rather than ignore it.
Book aheadGround-Floor Bars & Cafés
Evening trade along this stretch depends on doors that open and close reliably all night. A dependable repair matters more where closing time can't wait.
Same-day priorityFlats Above Commercial Units
Several buildings here combine ground-floor trade with residential flats above. Each entrance gets assessed separately, not folded into the commercial unit below.
Book aheadDesign Studios & Start-Ups
Units here change hands faster than a conventional office lease would normally allow. Swapping the lock between occupants keeps that process straightforward.
Book aheadBroken Or Snapped Keys
Converted warehouse locks don't always give up a snapped key easily. This page walks through the careful way we deal with that. Call now
Late-Night Lockouts
Genuinely late hours are the norm here, well beyond when most commercial streets have settled down. That makes no difference to our response, whatever time it is.
Call nowA point worth making clearly: duplicate keys and card or intercom setup both fall to other specialists, not us. Speak to the managing agent's own contacts for those.
Locked Out On Great Eastern Street
A street with no real quiet hours
Daylight hours bring steady office and retail traffic here, not unlike any other commercial street nearby.
Once evening falls, though, the picture changes entirely. Bars and venues keep this strip genuinely lively long after most postcodes have wound down for the night.
Neither pattern changes our method. We work through every soft option available before a drill ever becomes necessary.
What's actually happened to your key changes what we do next. A snapped one and a missing one need different fixes, covered separately on our broken keys and lost keys pages.
Around Great Eastern Street
Neighbouring postcodes and streets
The Shoreditch postcode that holds this street.
The full EC2 overview, all six postcodes.
South-west, towards the old city wall.
South of here, towards the City.
South-east, the Great Eastern Railway's later terminus.
West along the top of this stretch.
What We Do
Services across Great Eastern Street
What A Building Remembers
Four trades, one address, no demolition required
Most buildings get knocked down once their original purpose fades. This one simply kept finding a new one, cabinet makers to publishers to furniture traders to a hotel, without ever needing to start from scratch.
The wider furniture trade's own story is told in full by this account of Shoreditch's Victorian warehouses. The listed building record for 87 Great Eastern Street gives a flavour of the architecture that survives nearby.
A lock earns similar patience from us. So long as it's still doing its job, there's little reason to replace it just because the building around it has changed hands once more.
If repair versus replacement isn't obvious for your own lock, tell us what it's doing and we'll settle the question honestly.
The Process
Booking a locksmith Great Eastern Street callout
- Contact usYour address, the unit, and a quick word on the problem.
- We arrange entryIf sign-off is needed, that gets sorted before we travel.
- A direct inspectionPricing only follows once the engineer has seen the door.
- Checked before we leaveBoth lock and door get tested, nothing assumed.
Access & Traffic
Reaching you along this stretch of Shoreditch
Heavy traffic runs along this street most of the day, with bus routes covering its length and loading restrictions in force throughout.
Both Old Street and Shoreditch High Street stations lie within easy reach, often the quicker way in when surface roads back up.
A different kind of busy takes over by evening, as bar and restaurant trade keeps footfall high well past when most commercial streets would have emptied. Our planning accounts for both.
Why People Call Us
What Great Eastern Street tenants and residents rely on us for
- We assess, not assume. Even so, what a building used to be matters less than what's genuinely fitted now.
- Gentle methods come first. A drill only appears once everything softer has failed.
- Late hours suit us fine. Evening trade on this street is simply part of the job.
- We don't shortchange homes. A flat gets the same care as any commercial job we take on.
- We say plainly what we skip. Spare keys and access-card work sit with other trades.
- No gap in availability. A dead quiet Tuesday or a packed Friday night, we answer either way.
Nearby
Areas around Great Eastern Street
Common Questions
Nine-Tenths Of A Nation's Furniture
Was Shoreditch really that central to English furniture-making?
By one 1868 account, nine-tenths of the furniture made in England came from here.
How long did that trade actually last?
Its heyday ran from around 1860 to 1945, with pieces exported as far as Australia and South Africa.
Do any of the old warehouses still stand?
Yes, several grand Victorian showroom-warehouses survive, now used as bars, offices and shops.
One Building's Whole Life Story
Is the history of any single building here actually documented in detail?
Yes, 61 to 63 Great Eastern Street has a particularly well-recorded past.
What was it used for originally?
A builder named Henry Staines put it up in 1877, living in part of it while the rest served as a cabinet-makers' warehouse.
What is the building used for today?
It's now a hotel, after passing through spells as an art publisher, a furniture trader again, and decades of change.
Booking On Great Eastern Street
Which stretch does this page actually cover?
Great Eastern Street itself, running through the heart of Shoreditch.
Do you work on converted warehouses as well as newer builds?
We do, and every building gets assessed individually, not sorted into one category or another.
Can you reach a lockout during a busy evening here?
Yes, and arriving on foot for that final stretch often proves quicker once the evening trade starts.
Is weekend cover realistic on a nightlife-heavy street like this?
Genuinely yes, seven days a week, whatever's happening on the street outside.
Do you handle flats as well as commercial units here?
Residential work happens too, though commercial jobs make up the bulk of what we handle here.
What if my building has its own entry arrangements?
Give us those details ahead of time, and we'll work our visit around them.
One building here has reinvented itself four times over. We just want your lock to keep working through the next one.
Office, bar, shop or flat on Great Eastern Street — reach out and we'll have the right engineer on the way.