New affordable business space is available in London’s East End just as lockdown restrictions ease, thanks to investment by leading small business landlord The Arch Company.

The company has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on refurbishing railway arches in the area for use by local small and medium-sized businesses. The investment means that there are now 48 new flexible, affordable workspaces available for companies to rent across East London, including light industrial units, warehouses, leisure and office space.

Among the projects completed recently is the modernisation of a 1,056 sq ft property at Gales Gardens, where a vacant arch has been transformed into an ideal space for light industrial or storage use. The arch is at the heart of a community of small businesses that includes food manufacturers, catering companies, and brewers. A further 39 arches in the borough will be refurbished over the next 18 months, helping to increase the availability of affordable commercial space in the area.

Several of the properties that The Arch Company has returned to market over the past 18 months have already been snapped up by new businesses, despite the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The company has completed 24 new lettings since October 2019, with new tenants including a design firm and a music publishing company backed by pop star Emeli Sandé. Both now occupy previously empty arches on Poyser Street. Other new tenants include a cloud computing and data specialist that will occupy arches on Three Colts Lane and on Hemming Street; and new food delivery companies who have moved into arches at Bow Triangle Business Centre.

Ben Duck ploughed all his savings into starting his new brewery and taproom, Gravity Well Brewing, from an arch in Leyton just as the country went into lockdown last summer. He said: “The taproom is a minute away from the brewery and near to the overground station so is very visible and should attract lots of footfall. It has lots of outdoor space, which has been absolutely crucial with the Coronavirus restrictions. When the second lockdown hit, the taproom couldn’t operate, and our only source of income was bottling from our kegs by hand. We had a rent holiday from The Arch Company and that helped us get into a better position with a mobile canning company allowing us to produce thousands of cans. We’re optimistic – the strategy was just to open and meet our costs, because when things return to normal it will be a sure thing.”

Steph Giordano made the decision to expand her business, Baked by Steph, last August, taking on a railway arch in Bethnal Green. Before the pandemic, she had been baking batches of cookies from her home kitchen. The move into her arch put her at the heart of a vibrant food and drink community on Paradise Row. Steph said: “It was definitely a giant leap of faith to scale up in the middle of a global pandemic, especially since we had to close for months, but we took the risk and it’s fuelled our expansion and won us some huge orders.” Using specialist design software and machinery in her production methods now that she has the space, Baked by Steph has secured orders for thousands of baked and uniquely-decorated cookies from household names including Tiffany and Co., Disney and Marc Jacobs since opening last summer.