Historical events and places in London’s East End.
A tale of a pleasure trip on the River Thames from London Bridge that turned into a terrible tragedy that shocked the nation. The text is taken from a book passed down to me by my grandfather called: Fifty Great Disasters & Tragedies That Shocked The World. Published in the opening years of the 1930s and a book I read many times as a young child. Fascinated by the stories.
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My grandfather (left back row) worked for MacDonald Syers for years. They were a lift engineering and electrical business based in Calvin Street, Shoreditch East London.
Here they all are very smartly dressed on a works outing to the seaside. Margate in Kent in June 1949.
Photo taken by Sunbeam Photo Ltd, 82 Sweyn Road,
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Here are a couple of images from the house I grew up in. Most of Ilford in Essex was built up around the late 1800s, during the Victorian style of architecture.
I can remember I used to talk to my friend who lived next door through our bedroom walls.
Long before soundproofing and cavity insulation was thought of. Also every house had a lovely tiled front path,
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My grandfather worked for a company based in Calvin Street, Shoreditch, East London. He spent most of his working life as a lift engineer / electrician in London.
Pre and post WW2. Here he is in action, working on machinery that must now be very very old!
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I’ve just started to go through my old photo albums and scan in some of the more interesting London images.
What I Know About This Photo.
The chap standing on the left is my grandfather’s step-father. He was one of the founders of the Met Police’s flying squad. A highly trained fast response police driver. I can assume that they have attended a burglary or attempted burglary at A.
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If you walk past the BSix Sixth Form College building in Hackney’s Clapton area, you may not notice anything too unusual about the site. But, this was once the site of one of the most impressive Tudor homes in the East End and, at one point in time, it was one of the royal palaces of Henry VIII.
The original building that came to be known as King’s Place and latterly Brooke House,
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The East End of London offers some interesting options for local cuisine not found anywhere else in the capital, or in the rest of the UK for that matter. You may have to dig around a little to find some of these once-common traditional delicacies, but, if you want to experience real East End life, this is certainly worth doing!
London’s East End Food
The area is also renowned for other cuisines introduced by immigrants over the years.
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The East End of London has been home to many major breweries over the years and even to a couple of distinctive types of beers. In the 19th century, the Mann, Crosman and Paulin’s brewery in Whitechapel created a beer that is held to be the daddy of the modern brown ales that are still drunk today.
In Bow, a brewer called George Hodgson and his son created India Pale Ale at the Bow Brewery,
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When we think about war damage in London, we tend to think about the Second World War. After all, the Blitz in 1940 caused significant damage all over the East End. Many civilians lost their lives, their homes and their places of work in the East End.
This area was a natural target for bombing raids, as it was so close to the docklands areas that were vital to the war effort.
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In the 1930s, one narrow East End street, Cable Street, became the location for one of the most famous anti-fascist clashes in England’s history. On the day, local residents fought against the fascist and anti-Semitic principles of Sir Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirt followers.
The Battle of Cable Street has become a celebrated anti-fascist event.
Oswald Mosley and the East End
Oswald Mosley was a politician who switched across the Conservative and Labour parties before setting up the British Union of Fascists in 1932.
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