• Whitechapel RoadE1
  • Mile End RoadE3
  • Bow RoadE3
To the City
To the Olympic Park
  1.  1
  2.  6
  3.  7
  4.  8
  5.  8
  7. 11
  8.  13
  9.  14

161a Bow Road


Significant Building

  • Completed: 1919
  • Built by: H.E Tufton
  • Historic period: Inter-war: 1919-1939
  • This is a significant building
  • Current Use: Retail

Built for the Stratford Co-op by their surveyor, H.E. Tufton c.1900. 

The London Co-operative Society was founded to sell goods at reduced prices and to pass on benefits to members and customers rather than private investors. The facade displays a detailed stone carving of a beehive, representing the benefits that can be achieved with mutual cooperation.


Mr. Alfred Barnes was the President of Stratford Co-operative and Industrial Society and his name is written above the entrance of the building. Alf Barnes was elected as an MP in 1922 for the constituency East Ham South and became a Cabinet Minister for the Attlee administration after 1945.