Angel Alley, 2025

Location London

Client Whitechapel Gallery

Collaborators 121 Collective - build

Angel Alley is the former public accessway that runs from Whitechapel High St to Gunthorpe St. It includes a courtyard area that sits between Whitechapel Gallery and Freedom Bookshop. The alley is no longer a throughway after the addition of a gate at one end and is now a public space where eight local stakeholders have specific rights of access.

Angel Alley represents a microcosm of the pressures facing many people in London: in particular, the ongoing displacement of communities, and a lack of access to affordable housing, healthcare and support services.

Whitechapel Gallery has been working with Msoma Architects, and a range of local partners and stakeholders, to better understand Angel Alley, with support from Tower Hamlets Council. The Alley is a complex site, filled with contradictions and contested narratives. Not everyone who lives and works around the Alley always agrees with one another, but the common ground is care for the Alley, wanting to ensure its future as a safe, healthy and accessible public space for everyone.