Thomas and James Jennings, plumbers, were probably responsible for erecting this building in place of its set-back eighteenth-century predecessor in the 1860s when they took occupancy of the site. James Jennings, a locally prolific builder/contractor, was based here with a small builders’ yard to the rear up to the First World War. The upper-storey window openings in the stuccoed façade, incised as ashlar, were altered in 1937. The yard had been built over and a two-storey warehouse to the rear on Vine Court was rebuilt in 1922–3, for David Taub, a woollens merchant, the occupant and freeholder. The rear block was rebuilt again in 1960–3 for Alfred Cox Ltd, makers of surgical and orthopaedic appliances.1
Post Office Directories: Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, Building Control file 41898; P33681: District Surveyors Returns ↩