Stonemasons have been giving young people the chance to work with them in restoring a historical art deco arch in east London, instilling local pride in one of the capital’s most deprived boroughs.
The arch in Stratford is all that survives of Queen Mary’s hospital for the East End, opened in the 19th century for the local population who worked in factories and workshops, where accidents were common. It was described by one contemporary as “a lighthouse in a neighbourhood without illumination” until it was badly damaged during the second world war and, ultimately, demolished in 1983.
