Our history

Gateway Housing - over 80 years of history

Gateway Housing Association is a housing association committed to the East London area. We have over 2,700 homes in management, including supported housing, shared ownership and leasehold properties.

Gateway HA began life in 1926 as Bethnal Green Housing Association. The first scheme at Queen Margaret Flats (still owned and managed by Gateway today) was opened in 1929. Bethnal Green Housing Association was renamed Bethnal Green and East London Housing Association (BGELHA).

Stepney Housing Trust built schemes in Stepney in the 1930s to relieve the slums and overcrowding in the area. The most notable were Searle and Frances Gray Houses on the Ocean estate. Frances Gray House were opened by the Duchess of York (later the Queen Mother) in 1933.

Stepney Housing Trust merged with BGELHA, as did the Isle of Dogs Housing Society.

Victoria Park Housing Association (VPHA) was founded in 1971 to redevelop the site of St Mark's Church in Victoria Park. Towards the end of the 1980s, VPHA redeveloped the site of Bethnal Green Hospital, providing 162 houses and flats. The scheme was opened in 1993.

VPHA and BGELHA merged in 1992 to form Bethnal Green and Victoria Park Housing Association (BGVPHA). A year later, a transfer of engagements was taken from Oxford House Housing Association.

Victoria Park Home Ownership was set up in 1981 as a shared ownership subsidiary to provided shared ownership to people who were not able to buy on the open market. In November 2006, BGVPHA and VPHO merged.

In the late 1990s, BGVPHA started our most ambitious project in Central Stepney, with three large Council blocks being demolished and new street properties being built and completed in 1999.

This was followed by the demolition of Frances Gray and Searle Houses, on Duckett Street and Ocean Street, where street properties also replaced these 1930s blocks. More homes were also built in the Limehouse Fields area. These developments resulted in over 300 new homes enhancing Stepney and aiding the redevelopment and regeneration of the area.

In 2001, Tower Hamlets Council began its Housing Choice process, a consultation with residents eventually regarding the transfer of Council homes in Tower Hamlets to housing associations. The residents of the Council's sheltered blocks voted to transfer to BGVPHA in May 2005, and transfer took place in November of the same year.

Gateway Housing Association was formed in April 2008 when BGVPHA merged with Labo Housing Association. BGVPHA and Labo had worked together closely since Labo was formed in the mid 1980s.