East End of London
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have universally accepted boundaries on its northern and eastern sides, though the River Lea is sometimes seen as the easternmost boundary. Parts of it may be regarded as lying within Central London. The term "East of Aldgate Pump" is sometimes used as a synonym for the area.
The East End began to emerge in the Middle Ages with initially slow urban growth outside the eastern walls, which later accelerated, especially in the 19th century, to absorb pre-existing settlements. The first known written record of the East End as a distinct entity, as opposed to its component parts, comes from John Strype's 1720 Survey of London, which describes London as consisting of four parts: the City of London, Westminster, Southwark, and "That Part beyond the Tower". The relevance of Strype's reference to the Tower was more than geographical. The East End was the urbanised part of an administrative area called the Tower Division, which had owed military service to the Tower of London since time immemorial. Later, as London grew further, the fully urbanised Tower Division became a byword for wider East London, before East London grew further still, east of the River Lea and into Essex.
The area was notorious for its deep poverty, overcrowding and associated social problems. This led to the East End's history of intense political activism and association with some of the country's most influential social reformers. Another major theme of East End history has been migration, both inward and outward. The area had a strong pull on the rural poor from other parts of England, and attracted waves of migration from further afield, notably Huguenot refugees, Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews, and, in the 20th century, Bengalis.
File:Olympic Park, London, 14 June 2011 cropped.jpg|right|thumb|The River Lea at Stratford, with the Olympic Stadium under construction in June 2011
The closure of the last of the Port of London's East End docks in 1980 created further challenges and led to attempts at regeneration, with Canary Wharf and the Olympic Park among the most successful examples. Paradoxically, while some parts of the East End are undergoing rapid change and are amongst the areas with the highest mean salary in the UK, it also continues to contain some of the worst poverty in Great Britain.
Uncertain boundaries
The East End lies east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. Aldgate Pump on the edge of the City is regarded as the symbolic start of the East End. On the river, the Tower Dock inlet, just west of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge marks the beginning of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and its older predecessors.Beyond these reference points, the East End has no official or generally accepted boundaries; views vary as to how much of wider East London lies within it.
In extending from the line of the former walls, the area is taken to include the small ancient extramural City wards of Bishopsgate Without and the Portsoken. The various channels of the River Lea are sometimes viewed as the eastern boundary.
Beyond the small eastern extramural wards, the narrowest definition restricts the East End to the modern London Borough of Tower Hamlets. A more common preference is to add to Tower Hamlets the former parish and borough of Shoreditch, which is now the southern part of the modern London Borough of Hackney. Other commentators prefer a definition broader still, encompassing districts such as West Ham, East Ham, Leyton, Walthamstow, parts or all of Hackney and Ilford.
The wider East London area might be said to comprise, or approximate to, the two eastern wards of the City, the former Tower Division and those parts of London east of the Lea.
Development and economy
Origins
The East End developed along the Thames, and beyond Bishopsgate and Aldgate, the gates in the city wall that lay east of the little Walbrook river. These gates, first built with the wall in the late second or early third centuries, secured the entrance of pre-existing roads into the walled area. The walls were such a constraint to growth, that the position of the gates has been fundamental to the shaping of the capital, especially in the then suburbs outside the wall.The walled City was built on two hills separated by the Walbrook, Ludgate Hill to the west and Cornhill, to the east. During the Anglo-Saxon period the two sides were under separate administration and had distinct economies, character, customs and regulations. Even beyond the walls, the Walbrook separated landholdings, with the Soke of Cripplegate to the west and the Soke of Bishopsgate to the east. The western side was more populous and prosperous, it had the cathedral, the royal palace and its large market, Westcheap, was focussed on land-based trade. The east was poorer and more sparsely settled; its smaller market, Eastcheap, was sited near the river to allow it to specialise in seaborne trade. These intramural distinctions would persist, if less markedly, and influence the development that subsequently occurred beyond the walls.
Beyond the wall, the landholdings which would ultimately shape modern administrative divisions were in place before the Domesday census of the 1070s. The land outside Aldgate was held by the Cnichtengild, a fighting organisation responsible for the defence of Aldgate and the nearby walls. The land inside and outside Bishopsgate seems to have been the responsibility of the Bishop of London, who was promoting building in the underdeveloped eastern side of the walled area, and who may also have had a role in defending Bishopsgate itself. Apart from parts of Shoreditch, the rest of the area was part of the Bishop of London's Manor of Stepney. The Manor's lands were the basis of a later unit called the Tower Division, or Tower Hamlets which extended as far north as Stamford Hill. It is thought that the manor was held by the Bishop of London, in compensation for his duties in maintaining and garrisoning the Tower of London. The oldest recorded reference to this obligation is from 1554, but it is thought to pre-date that by centuries.
These landholdings would become the basis of the ancient parishes and city wards which, by occasional fission and mergers, developed into the administrative units of today.
Five monastic institutions, centres of learning and charity, were established just outside the walls: Bedlam, Holywell Priory, The New Hospital of St Mary without Bishopsgate, the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate, Eastminster near the Tower, and St Katherine's on the Thames.
Bromley was home to St Leonards Priory and Barking Abbey, important as a religious centre since Norman times was where William the Conqueror had first established his English court. Further east the Cistercian Stratford Langthorne Abbey became the court of Henry III in 1267 for the visitation of the Papal legates, and it was here that he made peace with the barons under the terms of the Dictum of Kenilworth. It became the fifth largest Abbey in the country, visited by monarchs and providing a retreat for the nobility. Edward I held his parliament at Stepney in 1299.
The lands east of the City have sometimes been used as hunting grounds for bishops and royalty. The Bishop of London had a palace at Bethnal Green, King John is reputed to have established a palace at Bow and Henry VIII established a hunting lodge at Bromley Hall.
The rural population of the area grew considerably in the Medieval period, despite reductions caused by the Norman Conquest and the Black Death. The pattern of agricultural settlement in south-east England was typically of dispersed farmhouses, rather than nucleated villages. However the presence of the city and maritime trades as a market for goods and services led to a thriving mixed economy in the countryside of the Manor of Stepney. This led to large settlements, inhabited mostly by tradesmen to develop along the major roads forming hamlets such as Mile End and Bow. These settlements would expand and merge with the development radiating out from London itself.
Emergence and character
Geography was a major factor influencing the character of the developing East End; prevailing winds flow, like the river, west to east. The flow of the river led to the maritime trades concentrating in the east and the prevailing wind encouraged the most polluting industries to concentrate eastwards.Metalworking industries are recorded between Aldgate and Bishopsgate in the 1300s and ship building for the navy is recorded at Ratcliff in 1354, with shipfitting and repair carried out in Blackwall by 1485 and a major fishing port developed downstream at Barking to provide fish for the City. These and other factors meant that industries relating to construction, repair, and victualling of naval and merchant ships flourished in the area but the City of London retained its right to land the goods, until 1799.
Growth was much slower in the east, than in the large western suburb, with the modest eastern suburb separated from the much smaller northern extension by Moorfields adjacent to the wall on the north side. Moorfields was an open area with a marshy chararacter due to London's Wall acting as a dam, impeding the flow of the Walbrook and restricting development in that direction. Moorfields remained open until 1817, and the longstanding presence of that open space separating the emerging East End from the western and small northern suburb must have helped shape the different economic character of the areas and perceptions of their distinct identity. Shoreditch's boundary with the parish of St Luke's ran through the Moorfields countryside. These boundaries remained consistent after urbanisation and so might be said to delineate east and north London. The boundary line, with very slight modifications, has also become the boundary between the modern London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington.
Building accelerated in the late 16th century, and the area that would later become known as the East End began to take shape. Writing in 1603, John Stow described the squalid riverside development, extending nearly as far as Ratcliff, which had developed mostly within his lifetime.
File:City of London Ogilby and Morgan's Map of 1677.jpg|thumb|centre|500px|Ogilby & Morgan's 1673 map of London. The East End is developing beyond Bishopsgate and Aldgate and along the river – it is separated from the other extramural suburbs by Moorfields
The polluted nature of the area was noted by Sir William Petty in 1676, at a time when unpleasant smells were considered a vector of disease. He called for London's centre of gravity to move further west from the City towards Westminster, upwind what he called "the fumes steams and stinks of the whole easterly pyle".
In 1703 Joel Gascoyne published his map of the parish of St Dunstan Stepney, which occupied much of the East End area. He was commissioned to do so by the Vestry of the parish, who needed such a map for administrative purposes. The map shows Stepney divided into Hamlets, these were territorial sub-divisions, rather than small villages, and later became independent daughter parishes in their own right.
In 1720 John Strype gives us our first record of the East End as a distinct entity, rather than a collection of parishes, when he describes London as consisting of four parts: the City of London, Westminster, Southwark, and "That Part beyond the Tower".
The relevance of Strype's reference to the Tower was more than geographical. The East End was the urbanised part of an administrative area called the Tower Division, which had owed military service to the Constable of the Tower for time immemorial, having its roots in the Bishop of London's historic Manor of Stepney. This made the Constable an influential figure in the civil and military affairs of the early East End. Later, as London grew further, the fully urbanised Tower Division became a byword for wider East London, before East London grew further still, east of the River Lea and into Essex.
The contrast between the east and west ends was stark, in 1797 the Prussian writer and historian Archenholz wrote:
Writing of the period around 1800, Rev. Richardson commented on the estrangements between the east and west:
The East End has always contained some of London's poorest areas. The main reasons for this include:
- The medieval system of copyhold, which prevailed throughout the Manor of Stepney into the 19th century. There was little point in developing land that was held on short leases.
- The siting of noxious industries, such as tanning and fulling downwind outside the boundaries of the City, and therefore beyond complaints and official controls. The foul-smelling industries partially preferred the East End because the prevailing winds in London traveled from west to east, so that most odours from their businesses would not go into the city.
- The low-paid employment in the docks and related industries, made worse by the trade practices of outwork, piecework and casual labour.
- The concentration of the ruling court and national political centre in Westminster, on the opposite, western side of the City of London.
In 1817 the Lower Moorfields was built on and the gap with Finsbury was fully closed, and in the late 19th century development across the Lea in West Ham began in earnest.
As time went on, large estates began to be split up, ending the constraining effect of short-term copyhold. Estates of fine houses for captains, merchants and owners of manufacturers began to be built. Samuel Pepys moved his family and goods to Bethnal Green during the Great Fire of London, and Captain Cook moved from Shadwell to Stepney Green, where a school and assembly rooms had been established. Mile End Old Town also acquired some fine buildings, and the New Town began to be built.
By 1882, Walter Besant was able to describe East London as a city in its own right, on account of its large size and social disengagement from the rest of the capital.