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yen_powell

yen_powell

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3 hours ago, XTreme said:

Amazing story Yen!

What drew so many Jews to the East End?

The Brick Lane beigal shop!

 

From a Jack the Ripper site

 

AREAS OF SETTLEMENT

By the mid-nineteenth century, Anglo-Jewry had moved away from the original area of settlement in Aldgate and was to be found in Marble Arch, Canonbury, Dalston, and other havens of middle class tranquility.

The Aldgate area had become, as had the rest of the City, largely non-residential and filled with warehouses, offices and banks.

But, the district immediately east of Aldgate was about to become the Jewish area par excellence.

By 1914, 90 per cent of all Jews in England would live in the crowded streets and alleys of Whitechapel, Spitalfields and St George's in the East.

A ghetto was in formation.

Why did the refugees choose this area to settle in?

One reason was the presence of earlier poor Ashkenazi immigrants in the area; another was the existence of the soup kitchen.

THE POOR JEWS TEMPORARY SHELTER

Yet another was the existence from 1885 of the Poor Jews Temporary Shelter in Leman Street.

This institution was founded by Hermann Landau (1849-1921). An immigrant, having been born at Constantinov in Poland, he rose to become a Hebrew teacher and, later, a stockbroker.

Another attraction was the numerous chevrot (societies or clubs based on towns of origin) which existed to aid the newcomer.

WHY THE DISTRICT BECAME THE GHETTO

But two factors helped to determine that this district would become the ghetto.

Firstly, the majority of refugees arrived by steamer from Hamburg and these docked at Irongate Wharf by Tower Bridge (where the Tower Thistle Hotel now stands in St Katharine's Dock); it is a universal wisdom that immigrants first settle where they get off the ship.

Secondly, and most decisively, the East End in general was the least desirable part of town and, within the East End, the parishes of Spitalfields, Whitechapel and St George's were the least opulent of all. The immigrants had little choice but to settle here. They could not afford alternative accommodation, and would probably not be accepted as tenants elsewhere in the metropolis.

The Jewish communities which had arrived in earlier centuries were, or would become, middle class. But in the nineteenth century working-class Jews were arriving.

The earliest identifiable group of Jewish industrial workers were the Dutch Jews who settled in the Cobb Street, Leyden Street and Toynbee Street area of Spitalfields in the 1850s. It was among these workers, who were involved in the cigar and cigarette manufacturing industry, that the first strike of Jewish workers in England took place in 1858.

The East European refugees introduced three elements which had not hitherto been present to any extent in Anglo-Jewry: socialism, trade unionism and Zionism.

The Anglo-Jewish community had been very comfortable until the arrival of these strangers who dressed differently, spoke a foreign language (Yiddish) and carried their radical religious or political ideas with them.

They were not really welcome, but they were fellow Jews and so, initially, they had to be welcomed. But as early as 1882 the Board of Guardians of the Jewish Poor was taking advertising space in the Jewish press in Russia and Romania warning potential immigrants that if they came to England they would face great hardships and that the Board would give them no relief in the first six months of their residence.

The Board was swimming against the tide; the immigrants had faced a stark choice of choice life (if they left) or death (if they stayed). The hardships of England were as nothing compared to the hardships of home.

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Tango

Tango

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3 hours ago, XTreme said:

Amazing story Yen!

What drew so many Jews to the East End?

I think it was that the rag trade grew up around there and at that time there were a lot of displaced Jewish people who found work there. There's still a lot of tailoring going on in the area, but it's mainly the Bangladeshi who are there now.

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yen_powell

yen_powell

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I spotted two young boys standing in the street with no shoes on.

I also now understand the comment made in Steptoe and Son when Albert is bemoaning the lack of father's name on his birth certificate and suggesting it may have been the Muffin Man who called round a lot because his mum cried when he died. Harold says that his Dad does have a very flat top to his head.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/03/01/charles-spurgeons-londoners-o/

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XTreme

XTreme

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33 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I spotted two young boys standing in the street with no shoes on.

I also now understand the comment made in Steptoe and Son when Albert is bemoaning the lack of father's name on his birth certificate and suggesting it may have been the Muffin Man who called round a lot because his mum cried when he died. Harold says that his Dad does have a very flat top to his head.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/03/01/charles-spurgeons-londoners-o/

Amazing pics.....but didn't everybody look dirty in those days?

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yen_powell

yen_powell

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Another good one if you like a life story. You have to read the first article before you read the second one so you understand how Joseph expresses himself.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/03/03/milly-abrahams-dressmaker-x/

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/12/30/so-long-joseph-markovitch/.

 

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XTreme

XTreme

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8 hours ago, yen_powell said:

Another good one if you like a life story. You have to read the first article before you read the second one so you understand how Joseph expresses himself.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/03/03/milly-abrahams-dressmaker-x/

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/12/30/so-long-joseph-markovitch/.

 

Amazing people Yen!

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yen_powell

yen_powell

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1 hour ago, XTreme said:

Amazing people Yen!

About 20 years ago I was out and about in east London with my late boss Steve. An old man, with his head down, shuffled slowly past us, his clothes dirty, tattered and creased. Steve said quietly in my ear, "See him, he used to be the hardest bastard in the whole of east London, people would cross the street to avoid him, now look at him!"

I fell for that, Steve did that every time he saw an old bloke shuffling about.

He also used to say "But Dad, I love him" every time he saw a particularly tattooed scruff bag as well. But the point is, you see people wander past all the time and you will never know their life story or what they have gone though most of the time. Occasionally you will get to hear a small part of their life if you get to know them better.

 

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busabeast

busabeast

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14 minutes ago, XTreme said:

That is a very strange person Yen! Even by your standards!

What i want to know is what's his real name........ @Six30 is asking wanting to make contact, he was saying something about a long lost love but feels a connection somehow 

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Six30

Six30

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58 minutes ago, Richzx6r said:

What i want to know is what's his real name........ @Six30 is asking wanting to make contact, he was saying something about a long lost love but feels a connection somehow 

 

xxgiphy.gif

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XTreme

XTreme

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10 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

Illiterate (I had to bloody look up how to spell that), gay, road sweeper who had to follow a list of streets he couldn't read to do his job. Good story today.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/04/22/kevin-obrien-retired-roadsweeper-x/

Another amazing character Yen!

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yen_powell

yen_powell

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I don't think I have put the gay Sikh punk rocker on yet, he was a teenager in the mid to late 70s. Next time he comes round on the blog I will post it, another cool story.

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