Rum do as artists throw open doors to public in Wapping’s old London Dock warehouse

Artists’ studio doors were flung open to the public for the first time in Wapping’s historic Pennington Street warehouse.

The public was invited to explore the network of 90 studios in the 200-year-old listed rum warehouse less than a mile from the Tower of London and see the artists at work on Saturday.

The studios, converted last summer from the old London Docks rum storage galleries, are run by Bow Arts charity which welcomed families, art curators, collectors and art lovers from all over London.

Part of the 15-acre former London Docks, which closed in the 1960s, became Rupert Murdock’s News International ‘Fortress Wapping’ printworks until it moved out four years ago.

It is now being transformed into a creative and residential neighbourhood by St George City developers, with a new public square, 180,000sq ft of commercial space and 1,800 new homes set in seven-and-a-half acres of open space.

The scheme includes a new pedestrian boulevard linking Vaughan Way to Tobacco Dock with shops, cafés and restaurants, giving public access to the Thames waterfront at Wapping for the first time in two centuries. The first families move into their new homes in the autumn.