Deutsch London’s East End
BETHNAL GREEN – Heart of the East End + visit the new Young V&A
This is the area – only 3 miles from the City – most associated with the term ‘East End’, typified in the now legendary plucky resistance to the horrors of the Blitz. But there are so many more layers of history to this area. There is still a ‘village green’ and many elegant 18c houses, grand Victorian ‘villas’, and interesting social housing. In the 19c it declined from rural retreat to notorious Victorian slum and is now slowly being ‘gentrified’. Walk ends at the erstwhile Museum of Childhood, after a 3 year redesign reopened in 2023 as the Young V&A. (It is great for adults too and has a nice café!).
GANSTERS OF THE EAST-END – IN THE STEPS OF THE KRAY TWINS
Reggie and Ronnie Kray are now part of the folklore of the East End. These notorious and violent gangsters dominated and terrorised post-war London. The walk weaves round the backstreets of Bethnal Green and Whitechapel, tracing their life and crimes, ending at the infamous Blind Beggar Pub.
JEWISH LONDON – PERSECUTION AND PERSEVERANCE (inc. Bevis Marks Synagogue)
A walk tracing the history of the Jews in London, from their arrival with William the Conqueror, to the establishment of the Jewish East End. Visit the oldest synagogue still in use in England, at Bevis Marks (entry charge – subject to opening hours) (Could end with a curry in Brick Lane).
MILE END AND THE EAST END’S HIDDEN CEMETERIES
It is a fascinating and surprising area with elegant Georgian terraces and impressive old buildings refurbished into ‘desirable residences’. But the main surprise is 2 relatively unknown cemeteries. Tower Hamlet Cemetery is numbered as one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ Victorian cemeteries forming a ring round London. The other ‘hidden cemetery’ is the Novo Sephardic Jewish cemetery in the grounds of Queen Mary University (A good place to talk about the history of the Jews in the East End). A morning walk could end at gastro pub…the Morgan Arms www.morganarmsbow.com.
POPLAR - From East India Company to Festival of Britain site and ‘Call the Midwife’
Lying a stone’s throw North of Canary Wharf yet a million miles away in atmosphere. Although succumbing to creeping gentrification, it still retains its East End community spirit, evolved during its pre-and post-war era of deprivation. Originally the home of East India Co. captains and directors, many of the housing would still be familiar to the midwives – (the walk passes the original ‘Nonnatus House)’. Poplar became the test bed for post-war planning with the showcase ‘Festival of Britain’ housing estate. However it is still a surprisingly leafy area.
SPITALFIELDS + WHITECHAPEL – IMMIGRANT LONDON
Only yards from the City of London, yet atmospherically a million miles away, this area has seen waves of immigrants since 17th century. See foundations of a medieval charnel house, Huguenot weavers’ houses, traces of the Jewish East End. Now it is home to London’s Bangladeshi community. (Curry in Brick Lane, or a 10min extension through Whitechapel to Tayyabs a Bangladeshi restaurant not yet on the tourist trail). A version of this walk concentrating on Spitalfields and omitting Brick Lane could be linked to a visit to the Denis Severs House www.dennissevershouse.co.uk in the afternoon.)
STEPNEY AND LIMEHOUSE
A linear walk through 2 of the East End’s contrasting ‘hamlets’ – Stepney, site of rich 18c merchant houses and many remnants of the Jewish East End, – and Limehouse, single-mindedly focused on its maritime heritage with its rope walks and seamen’s hostels. The walk can end with a drink/lunch at the 17c riverside Grapes pub, known to Pepys, Dickens and Oscar Wilde and now part-owned by Sir Ian McKellan.
SYLVIA PANKHURST AND THE EAST END SUFFRAGETTES A walk round Bow, a less frequented area of the East End, but one associated with the East London Federation of Suffragettes, led by Sylvia Pankhurst. This walk traces the life and work of Sylvia and the ELFS, particularly their initiatives to ameliorate the lives of factory girls. Still an area of deprivation, but fast changing as a result of the ‘Olympic Effect’. (could end with meal in a gastro-pub www.morganarmsbow.com )
WAPPING AND ST. KATHERINE’S DOCK
These areas immediately East of the Tower were amongst the original 21 medieval ‘Tower hamlets’ of Stepney. Whilst mainly subsumed into the great docklands of the 19c. and the regeneration of the 20/21c. some traces of their earlier colourful history remain. Narrow cobbled streets, towering warehouses and old dock walls, riverside pubs, 17c charity schools, a Hawksmoor church and modern apartment developments all feature.