East End, London

If you ask virtually anybody what they know about the East End of London, the chances are they will include Jack the Ripper in the list. Jack was responsible for the brutal murders of a number of prostitutes in the area in the autumn of 1888 in the most gruesome of circumstances. He was never caught and there are literally dozens of theories as to is identity. I suspect we shall never know for sure. Most commentators agree on five of the victims but there is great debate as to whether these were the only five. Which brings me to the title of this tip.

Martha Tabram was an alcoholic common prostitute, one of the literally hundreds of thousands plying their trade in the area. On the night of 6th August, 1888 Tabram, known also as Turner was drinking in a pub in the East End with another prostitute, the dlightfully named "Pearly Poll" and two soldiers from the nearby Tower of london. At about quarter to midnight, they paired off and Martha and her soldier boy went down this alley, known in those days as Georges Yard to do, well, I shall leave it to your imagination. Some time later, a neighbour heard screams of "Murder" but ignored them, that being quite common in this rough area at the time.

Martha's body was found the next morning and was found to have been stabbed no less than 39 times. Obviously, suspicion fell on the soldiers but no-one was ever charged with the murder.

If you visit Gunthorpe Street now, you can see that it is still cobbled and when I wander down it, i wonder if these are the actual cobbles that Martha walked over on her last, fateful journey.

Murders were commonplace in the East End and prostitution is a notoriously dangerous occupation so it is entirely possible that Martha's death was unconnected to the Ripper. But maybe, just maybe.

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We visited Brick Lane because we wanted to check the markets of the area(Brick Lane and Spitalfields) but we came across a multi culti area with lots of history. It was always a place of immigration and welcomed through the centuries Flemish, French, Russian, Bengali, Protestant, Jew and Muslim people. Our local friends and many useful street signs gave us a lot of information so we could spent half day walking around the area. (most of the info here are from these signs)

Back in 16th century Brick Lane was just a field path outside the City of London, actually it was the east boundary of the medieval Augustinian Priory of St Mary Spital (hense the Spitalfields). Brick Lane took its name from the brick kilns that brought here by early Flemish settlers.

It started to take a shape of a town at the end of 17th century when it got connected with City of London with streets. At that time (1680s) Protestant Huguenot refugees escaped from France due to religious persecution) bringing silk-weaving skills and making Spitalfields creating a silk weaving centre and later garment making. The community is gone but there still some houses of that ear in nearby streets.

The brewing industry was active since 1666 (!) and Joseph Truman purchased a brewery in 1679 that extended during 18th century when the Directors House was built and closed down only in 1980s! It is now a thriving arts and business centre. At Fourner street you can see how the streets after 1718 laid out with grand flat-fronted classical houses(characterised by sash windows and elaborate doorways) that are now protected as Historic Buildings.

In 1714 Nickolas Hawksmoor designed the beautiful Christ Church Spitalfields(Commercial Street and Fournier street). It was completed in 1729 in baroque style with an imposing tower and spire(pic1). It was almost demolished during the 1960s but a full scale restoration 1976 is back in life. We went inside and got surprised not only of the nice interior(pic 2) but from the musicians that were playing some spiritual songs with guitars etc! Some tablets on the wall were weird, for exable one of them reads:”this tablet has been erected by the president and members of the London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews”!

In 1744 Huguenot church was built(Brick Lane and Fournier street) and in 1819 became a Methodist Capel and later (1897) was converted into a synagogue due to Jewish community that settled here from 17th century while thousands of Yiddish speaking Russian Jews arrived at 1880s. However by the 1930s, with increased prosperity, the jewish community began to move to other parts of London, the wartime bombing of the Blitz hastening their departure. After WWII settlers from Bangladesh came to Brick Lane(some of them after serving in the merchant navy during the war) and found jobs in Jewish tailoring works which in time they took over while others opened the famous curry restaurants of the area(pic 4).

By the building that was a synagogue converted into a mosque in 1976(Jamme Masjid) for the local Muslim community of the area. It’s amazing how the building shows the continuity of the historic fabric that has survived and the manner in which diverse newcomers have become integrated. The newest addition is the new minaret-like structure by DGA Architects.

On our way back to Bethnal Green station we saw St John at Bethnal Green(pic 5)

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I don't know exactly what it is about St. Kate's Docks that keeps me coming back, but whatever it is, I've ranked it at #7 on my "Top 10 Things to do in London" list. St. Kate's Docks is just East of the Tower Bridge on the North bank of the Thames. It's just a quaint little area with some shops and restaurants, and is a marina for small yachts and sail boats. They've added a Starbuck's here several years ago, but that hasn't totally changed the ambiance of the area (nothing against Starbuck's, but they have a way of making a quaint area "commercial"). There's the cozy looking Dicken's Inn which houses two restaurants and a tavern. I've not eaten there, but it appears pretty popular with the locals and tourists alike. Mala's, which is a decent Indian food restaurant, is located here too.

This is just a great little area to stroll through, shop, have a cup of coffee (yeah, I know I'm a hypocrit), or have a leisurely dinner. Since it's right by the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, you could easily make it a full day in this area. (Check out the two websites listed below for more info on the area.)

The area surrounding St. Kate's docks (closest to the Tower Bridge) has an interesting sun dial and a really nice dolphin statue. Of course this affords some nice views of the Tower Bridge too!

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Sandy's Row is one of London's last small (narrow) streets.

It's home to Sandy's Row Synagogue (the oldes, dating from 1854) and a house with number One and a Half.

Furthermore you'll fin the Idian restaurant Gulshan here.

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A short street with quite a lot of history. These houses were built in the 1700's for silk-weaving Huguenots who had fled from France. The notable feature is the large attic windows which allowed plenty of light for the loom workers.
Today is is the center of the Bangladesh community, in fact, the London Jamme Masjid Mosque is just around the corner. It originally was a Huguenot chapel, then a synagogue, and now a mosque.

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Artillery Passage is one of the remaining City of London smaller passages and at just 5 minutes walking from Liverpool Street station. In the 17th century is was known as Smock Alley. As the name suggest it was a passage to the former Old Artillery Ground.

While researching for our trip to Europe last year I happened across a website that listed free stuff to do in London. Intriqued by the word FREE I explored the site a little bit and saw a free comedy night on Mondays at the Theatre Royal Stratford East . Upon further exploration I saw that they had a new play scheduled to start in September which was written by Ray Davies of the Kinks called Come Dancing.

The information said it was based on a song of his written in 1983. I had never heard of it before so I went out on Youtube, found the video of the song and absolutely loved the video and the song. Soon after, I made a decision right there that instead of going to a normal West End London production we would go to the East End.

We thoroughly enjoyed the play that evening, had great seats in this smaller venue and I was able to record a little bit of the closing song along with a couple of quick pictures at the end. And to top it all off, as we were leaving the theatre for the evening we actually got to meet Ray Davies and he spent a few moments chatting with us, asking us where we were from and said he would be in Chiago again and to see him there. A real nice, quiet and shy gentleman.

We didn't get to the FREE comedy night.

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Brick lane is at the centre of the Bengali community in east London.
It was originally the centre of the Jewish community but the Bengali has started to move in in the 19th century. A few Jewish shops remain.
There is a large market held here on a Sunday and in the surrounding streets.
Brick lane and the surrounding area has a reputation throughout England for good retro shops [shops that sell second hand goods and replica goods from the 60’s and 70’s]. As my daughter is very into RETRO, we spent the morning in this district.
Although it was defiantly not my scene, I found the atmosphere very interesting.