Hackney council has approved the plan for Grade 1 listed St. Michael's and All Angels Church and forecourt, Shoreditch, to become offices. The church building, had been constructed in 1865 and designed in a Victorian Gothic style by James Brooks. It is in the South Shoreditch conservation area.
 
Although it had stopped being used as a church in the 1960s it had become instead a destination for antique treasures. Geoff Westland, then Westland & Co and Adrian Amos of LASSCO had moved their architectural antiques and salvage into the former St. Michael's and All Angels Church in the late seventies. The church was to become a place worth visiting for the serious London buyer and a tourist shopping destination.
 
In 2007 Westland's had taken over the whole of St Michael's after LASSCO left to consolidate itself in Bermondsey, Vauxhall and Oxfordshire. The Westland London website was rightly effusive of what had by then become a fabulous emporium, exuding a hallowed, but understated, atmosphere of architectural salvage:
 
'Far Pavilions . . . after thirty years of shared occupation in this vaulted and cloistered English Heritage Grade I Listed location, Westlands continued to evolve and extend its display into the whole interior so that that there are now sixteen large galleries showing a very comprehensive selection of antique chimneypieces, fire grates, furniture, lighting, architectural elements and ornamentation of all kinds, on two levels and in the courtyard.
 
This extraordinary environment of interconnecting galleries of ever changing intimate settings and panoramic vistas, abundantly stocked, unfolding before visitors, takes your breath away.
 
The variety and 'splendidity' of the venue, to quote Woody Allen, is fascinating, informative and inviting, providing a tranquilly pleasing, wandering, browsing experience approaching that of a compact museum. Flanked to the south by Mark Square in the bustling sophisticated south Shoreditch triangle on the fringe of the City of London financial district, well complimented with fine restaurants, art galleries and hotels, you will find Westland London tucked away on Leonard Street 'at the sign of the Ascot Racecourse Clock Face'.'
 
Geoff at Westland & Co was rigorous on checking provenance and Salvo theft alerts, and the business became an early Salvo Code member. Geoff Westland had also grown as a dealer there and by the time he died, in 2013 was considered a towering presence in the world of architectural salvage. Adrian Amos said at the time, 'It was a privilege and an honour to be his property partner for nearly forty years.'
 
Westland London only recently moved, in 2019 to a Regency coach house in Willesden Green. They continue to specialise in fine architectural and decorative antiques, with a vast selection of period chimneypieces, fireplace accessories, lighting and mirrors. Both Salvo Code members and of LAPADA (London and Provincial Antique Dealers Association).
 
The new plans for St. Michael's, from Trehearn Architects on behalf of the landowner Mark Street Depository Ltd, will include a mezzanine floorspace and a new five storey building. The view of the church will be obscured from the north side.