East of Eden is owned by Abby McLachlan, who had the idea of creating a yoga studio and lifestyle hub called East of Eden in Walthamstow back in 2013, even optimistically buying a url. Her background was the music industry, but she'd been unhappy doing that for a while, and when she became unexpectedly pregnant, that career was no longer viable long term, not as a fulltime single mum. In 2014, she met a yoga teacher called Naomi Costantino who was up for giving it a go, and the dream became a reality. East of Eden opened in March 2015 with a single small community studio offering 19 yoga and mat Pilates classes a week, with a temperamental booking system (Fynder - remember that?!), a cash box and a handwritten sheet for dropins. In Autumn 2015, they launched a crowdfunding campaign with seedrs and successfully raised investment to take a second studio next door, commencing a big build in January 2016. East of Eden reopened in April 2016 with a 30 mat, light filled yoga and mat Pilates studio with showers and changing rooms, a living wall filled with oxygenating plants and a dedicated reformer Pilates and barre studio. Naomi left the business later that year.

Since 2016, East of Eden has gone from strength to strength, increasing the timetable to over 100 classes a week, launching retreats and teacher training, and participating in local events such as Art Night, the Walthamstow Garden Party and the Borough of Culture 2019. You can also find East of Eden offering yoga, sound and meditation outside E17 at the Natural History Museum under the moon and in the Hintze Hall, and in the past, at the Barbican and Wilderness Festival. Winter 2019/20 sees the launch of Attune, a collaboration with Hayden Thorpe, ex Wild Beasts to put on live music and yoga events in an art gallery in Waterloo, and later in 2020, we will be working with the Imperial War Museum.