Scotland

Of course most people know of London because of the Queen, who lives at Buckingham Palace and has a number of other properties around the city. There is much more to London than the Queen and the usual tourist attractions of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the likes. As the largest city in Europe the city is one of the most cosmopolitan in England and each sector of the city has it’s own uniqueness. To experience the quintessential London it is best to spend some time in the area known as the East End.

The East End of London is, really, most of the area found east of the city centre. Although most of the most famous tourist attractions of London are found in the centre the, often overlooked, East End has a number of incredibly popular attractions and places of interest. One place that is well worth a visit is the fantastic Bethnal Green Museum which has one of the finest collections of antique dolls houses to be seen anywhere with examples dating as far back as 1673.

Londoner’s who live in the East End are generally known, and commonly referred to, as “Cockneys”. However, to be a true Cockney the person has to have been born within the sound of “Bow Bells” (the “Bow Bells” are the bells from Bow Church). Strangely the word “Cockney” is derived from the middle English word “cokeney” which is the name given to misshaped eggs or cock’s eggs.

Sadly, during the dark times of the plague (1348-50), there were so many men, women and children killed that the dead had to be disposed of in large pits rather than individual graves. Archaeologists, digging in the area around Tower Bridge, found the remains of more than 700 bodies.

Between the years 1788 and 1960 London’s East End port was, by far, the largest in the world. At one time (in the 1930’s) the were about one hundred thousand men working in the port and the amount of cargo handled was incredible, around thirty five million tons. London had a number of important docks, the earliest being the West India Dock completed in 1802 (the East India Dock was built in 1806).

Over the centuries there have been a large number of famous, and some infamous, people who were born or lived in the East End. One of the most famous is Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), who was discovered in a freak show on the Mile End Road. The explorer Captain Cook, who hails from Wapping, met his wife in an East End Inn when she was only a sickly child. She was the daughter of the landlord. Captain Cook married his wife in 1762.

During the 1960’s the East End became famous for the gangster operations of the “Krays”. The Kray twins (Ronnie and Reggie) ruled an incredibly lucrative criminal empire which became headline news when they were finally brought to justice. One infamous East End criminal who famously evaded capture was “Jack the Ripper”. In 1888 Jack the Ripper brutally murdered five women then ceased much to the annoyance of the police. There were many suspects but little hard evidence and the debate continues to this day as to who really was the Ripper.

Many assumed that the Ripper was a Jewish person because, at that time, Whitechapel was almost entirely Jewish. The East End had always been where most new incomers first set up home when arriving in Britain. Even today the East End has a massively diverse multi-cultural populous and this is likely to continue for a great many years yet.