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 north and east sides, though the River Lea is sometimes seen as the eastern boundary. Parts of it may be regarded as lying within Central London (though that term too has no precise definition). The term "East of Aldgate Pump" is sometimes used as a synonym for the area.
This article is about the district of London. For the BBC's soap opera, see EastEnders. For other uses, see East End (disambiguation).
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.
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[1] 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,[2] it also continues to contain some of the worst poverty in Great Britain.[3]
Development and economy[edit]
Origins[edit]
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,[16] secured the entrance of pre-existing roads (the modern A10 and A11/A12) 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.[17]
The walled City was built on two hills separated by the Walbrook, Ludgate Hill to the west and Cornhill (of which Tower Hill is a shoulder), to the east.[18] During the Anglo-Saxon period the two sides were under separate administration and had distinct economies, character, customs and regulations.[19] 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 (which later moved to Westminster) 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.[20] 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 were in place before Domesday. The land outside Aldgate was held by the Cnichtengild, a fighting organisation responsible for the defence of Aldgate and the nearby walls.[21] The land inside and outside Bishopsgate seems to have been the responsibility of the Bishop of London (the Bishop of the East Saxons[22]), who was promoting building in the underdeveloped eastern side of the walled area,[23] 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[24] 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.[25]
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.
Culture and community[edit]
Cockney identity[edit]
Despite a negative image among outsiders, the people of the area take pride in the East End and in their Cockney identity. The term Cockney has loose geographic and linguistic definitions with blurring between the two. In practice people from all over the East End, the wider East London area and sometimes beyond, identify as Cockneys; some of these use the Cockney dialect to some degree and others not.
A traditional definition is that to be a Cockney, one had to be born within the sound of Bow Bells, situated on Cheapside. The eastern topography is mostly low lying, a factor which combines with the strength and regularity of the prevailing wind, blowing from west-south-west for three quarters of the year,[120] to carry the sound further to the east, and more often. In the 19th century the sound would have been heard[121] as far away as Stamford Hill, Leyton and Stratford, but modern noise pollution means that the bells can only be heard as far as Shoreditch.
The Cockney dialect has lexical borrowings from Yiddish, Romani, and costermonger slang, and a distinctive accent that includes T-glottalization, a loss of dental fricatives, diphthong alterations, the use of rhyming slang and other features. The accent is said to be a remnant of early English London speech, strongly influenced by the traditional Essex dialect,[89] and modified by the many immigrants to the area.[122]
Cockney English is spoken widely in the East End, other areas of East London and in many traditionally working-class areas across London.
The position of the Cockney dialect in London has been weakened by the promotion of Received Pronunciation (RP) in the 20th century, and by the scale of migration to London. This has included both gentrifying domestic migration (RP speakers) and the scale of international migration. Conversely, out-migration from East London has spread the Cockney dialect beyond the capital.
The Cockney dialect taken beyond London is sometimes referred to as Estuary English, heavily influenced by Cockney and named after the Thames Estuary area where the movement of East Londoners to south Essex and to a lesser extent parts on north Kent led it to be most widely spoken.[123] Within London Cockney speech is, to a significant degree, being replaced by Multicultural London English, a form of speech with a significant Cockney influence.
By tradition any child born at sea was considered a parishioner of Stepney[124] (the parish covered most of the East End at one time), and could claim Poor Relief there. They might, by extension, also be called an East-ender. The maritime association is remembered in the old rhyme:
Outside perception[edit]
Reputation[edit]
Society at large viewed the East End with a mixture of suspicion and fascination, with the use of the term East End in a pejorative sense beginning in the late 19th century,[232] as the expansion of London's population led to extreme overcrowding throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants.[49] The problems were exacerbated with the construction of St Katharine Docks (1827)[233] and the central London railway termini (1840–1875) that caused the clearance of former slums and rookeries, with many of the displaced people moving into the East End. Over the course of a century, the East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality.[13]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the : Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Jewish Encyclopedia". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
