London is the UK’s capital city and is situated in the south east of England. It is Europe’s largest city with a population of over seven million. The city has a long and vast history stretching back to, and beyond, Roman times. The city stretches for more than thirty miles on either side of the River Thames. Due to its size, the city is very diverse ethnically, and this has led to the development of different neighborhoods. The one place that comes to mind immediately, when thinking of the city of London, and Londoners is the East End.

Londoner’s call everywhere east of the city of London, the East End. The East End is not an obvious first choice for sightseeing, but it does contain a number of popular places to visit. One such popular place is the Bethnal Green Museum which houses such a large variety of exhibits that there is something here of interest for people of all ages. One of the most popular exhibits is the unique antique Doll House collection with some of the doll’s houses on display dating back to 1673.

One of the reasons why most folk consider the East End of London to be the place where true Londoners reside is that this is where you will find the “Cockney”. To be a true Cockney it is said that a person must be born within hearing distance of Bow Bells (the bells of Bow Church). Strangely the word “Cockney” comes from the old English/Middle English word, which is actually spelt cokeney, which means “cock’s egg” or “misshapen egg”.

Between the years 1348 - 1350 the Black Death, or plague, raised it’s ugly head in London. With so many folk crammed into one small area it is not surprising to learn that so many people died that there was some difficulty in disposing of the bodies. Not only were there large numbers of corpses but there were also few people who were either, sufficiently fit, or willing, to dispose of the dead. This led to the vast majority being dumped into large pits which became known as plague pits. During excavations of such a pit near to Tower Bridge archaeologists discovered around 700 separate skeletons.

For many years London’s East End was home to the biggest port in the world (1788-1960). In the 1930’s, the docks employed 100,000 men who in turn handled 35 million tons of cargo.  The first dock to be built was the West India Dock on the Isle on Dogs (1800-02), this was followed by London Dock, near the city at Wapping. The East India Dock at Blackwall followed a few years later in 1806.

The East End of London has been home to many famous people over the centuries. Captain Cook, the famous explorer was born in Wapping. Captain Cook first met his wife, also from the East End, when she was only young; in fact she was the landlord’s daughter, at the inn where Captain Cook frequented. Another person associated with the East End was Joseph Merrick who is better known as the Elephant Man. Joseph had been “discovered” on the Mile End Road, where he appeared as an attraction in a freak show.

Over time an incredible number of myths have developed around some of the East End’s famous folk, usually based around the most infamous characters. Even today new myths continue to appear and the East End gangsters, known as the Kray Twins, are the source of some of the most recent. However, the vast majority, of myths and legends, are in relation to the true identity of “Jack the Ripper” who, in 1888, killed at least five women in the Whitechapel area of the East End.

At the time of Jack the Ripper the East End population consisted mainly of those of the Jewish faith. In the 1900’s many Jews had immigrated to the East End and in some areas, such as Whitechapel, up to 90% of the inhabitants were Jewish. This, sadly, led to many assuming that Jack the Ripper was a Jew. The modern East End is, as always, incredibly culturally diverse and will, most probably, continue to be so long into the distant future.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 3:16 am and is filed under East End. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.