East London by Walter Besant

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Title: East London

Author: Walter Besant

Release Date: February 11, 2019 [EBook #58869]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

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I

EAST LONDON

A Street Row in the East End.

IV

EAST LONDON

BY

WALTER BESANT

AUTHOR OF

“LONDON,” “SOUTH LONDON,” “WESTMINSTER,” ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

PHIL MAY, JOSEPH PENNELL, AND

L. RAVEN-HILL

NEW YORK

THE CENTURY CO.

1901

V

Copyright, 1899, 1900, 1901, by

The Century Co.

The DeVinne Press.

VI

CONTENTS

PAGE

I
WHAT EAST LONDON IS
1

II
THE CITY OF MANY CRAFTS
19

III
THE POOL AND THE RIVERSIDE
39

IV
THE WALL
101

V
THE FACTORY GIRL
114

VI
THE KEY OF THE STREET
153

VII
THE ALIEN
185

VIII
THE HOUSELESS
209

IX
THE SUBMERGED
227

X
THE MEMORIES OF THE PAST
253

XI
ON SPORTS AND PASTIMES
285

XII
THE HELPING HAND
317

INDEX
359

vi

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A Street Row in the East End
Frontispiece

Map of East London
5

London Street, Limehouse
11

A Typical Street in Bethnal Green
15

An East End Wharf
25

An East End Factory
31

Barge-Builders
36

The Water-Gate of London: Tower Bridge Looking Toward St. Paul’s
43

The Bank of “The Pool.” Looking Toward Tower Bridge
49

In the Docks
53

The Tower of London
57

The Water-Gate of London: Tower Bridge from the East Side of the

Tower

63

The Turn of the Tide on the Lower Thames
69

Coming Up the Lower Thames with the Tide
75

Off Shadwell
80

Ratcliffe-Cross Stairs
83

Limehouse Basin and Church
89

The Thames Side at Limehouse
93

Greenwich Hospital
97

Wade Street, Limehouse
117

In an East End Gin-Shop
125

The British Workman in Epping Forest
131

Brook Street, Limehouse
139

An August Bank-Holiday in the East End
145

A Music-Hall
150

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viii

The West India Dock Gates
157

The Barges that Lie Down the Thames
163

East London Loafers
169

The “Hooligans”
175

Sunday Gambling
179

Whitechapel Shops
190

A Corner in Petticoat Lane
197

A “Schnorrer” (Beggar) of the Ghetto
200

East and West Ham
215

East and West Ham, from the Marshes
215

Salvation Army Shelter
232

Sandwich-men
245

“A Quiet Dullness”
259

The Street and Old Church Tower, Hackney
262

An East London Suburb, Overlooking Hackney Marshes
265

Clapton
269

The Old Church, Stoke Newington
272

A Street in Stoke Newington
274

House in Stoke Newington in which Edgar Allan Poe Lived
277

Hampstead Heath, Looking “Hendon Way”
293

The Shooting-Gallery
299

On Margate Sands
305

Toynbee Hall and St. Jude’s Church
312

The New Whitechapel Art Gallery
322

The East London Mission
329

The New Model Dwellings
336

Dr. Barnardo’s Home, Stepney Causeway
340

Mile End Almshouses
347

“The Bridge of Hope,” A Well-known East End Night Refuge
355

I

WHAT EAST LONDON IS

2

EAST LONDON

3

I

I

WHAT EAST LONDON IS

N my previous books on London I have found it necessary to begin with some consideration of the history and
antiquities of the district concerned. For instance, my book on Westminster demanded this historical treatment,

because Westminster is essentially an old historical city with its roots far down in the centuries of the past: once a
Roman station; once the market-place of the island; once a port; always a place of religion and unction; for six hundred
years the site of the King’s House; for five hundred years the seat of Parliament; for as many the home of our illustrious
dead. But with East London there is no necessity to speak of history. This modern city, the growth of a single century,
—nay, of half a century,—has no concern and no interest in the past; its present is not affected by its past; there are no
monuments to recall the past; its history is mostly a blank—that blank which is the history of woods and meadows,
arable and pasture land, over which the centuries pass, making no more mark than the breezes of yesterday have made
on the waves and waters of the ocean.

It is, however, necessary that the reader should understand exactly what I mean by East London. For this purpose I

have prepared a small map showing the part of Greater London, which in these pages stands for East London. I include
all that area which lies east of Bishopsgate Street Without and north of the river Thames; I include that area newly
covered with houses, now a densely populated suburb, lying east of the river Lea; and I include that aggregation of
crowded towns, each large enough to form an important city by itself, formed of the once rural suburban villages called
Hackney, Clapton, Stoke Newington, Old Ford, Stepney, Bow and Stratford.

In order to save the trouble of a long description, and because the reader ought to know something of the natural

features of the ground on which East London stands, I have presented on the map certain indications by which the
reader, with a little study, may make out for himself as much of these natural features as are necessary. He will see, for
instance, that the parts now lying along the bank of the river were formerly either foreshore or marshland, overflowed at
every high tide, and lying below a low, natural cliff, which receded inland till it met the rising ground of the bank of the
river Lea. The figures on the map mark the sites of villages successively reclaimed from the river by a dyke or sea-wall;
if the reader were to visit these riverside parishes he would find in many places the streets actually lower than the high
tide of the river, but protected by this sea-wall, now invisible and built over. North of the cliff was a level expanse of
cultivated farms, woods and orchards, common ground and pasture land.

Map of East London.

This level ground was a manor belonging to the Bishop of London; the farmers, huntsmen, fowlers, and fishermen

occupying it were his tenants; he was jealous over encroachments, and would not permit the City to stretch out its arms
over his domain. The history of the manor belongs to the antiquary: to the East Londoner himself it has no interest; and
indeed, there is very little to tell. That Captain Courageous, Wat Tyler, marched his men across this manor. They came
by the road marked “To Bow.” One of our kings held a Parliament in the Bishop’s Palace; heretics were occasionally
burned here; there were one or two monastic houses; a bishop’s palace there was; and there was one parish church,
for the large parish called Stebenhithe, now Stepney. Farmhouses were scattered about; there were orchards and
gardens, lovely woods, broad pastures, acres of waving corn. The citizens of London, though this place belonged to the
bishop, had the right of hunting and fishing in its woods and over its low-lying levels; it was a right of the most valuable
kind, for the marshes were full of wild birds and the woods were full of creatures fit for man’s food. In the year 1504,
Sir Thomas More, writing to his friend Dean Colet, then Vicar of Stepney, says: “Wheresoever you look, the earth
yieldeth you a pleasant prospect; the temperature of the air fresheth you, and the very bounds of the heavens do delight
you. Here you find nothing but bounteous gifts of nature and saint-like tokens of innocency.”

The whole of the area between the northern road, which is our western boundary, and the river Lea is now covered

with houses and people; the peninsula, marked on the map by the number “VII,” consisting of low and malarial ground,
long stood out against occupation, but is now almost entirely covered over and absorbed by factories and workmen’s
residences; what is more, the people of the original East London have now overflowed and crossed the Lea, and
spread themselves over the marshes and meadows beyond. This population—not to speak of the suburban villas,
which now cover many square miles—represents a movement and a migration of the last twenty years. It has created
new towns which were formerly rural villages. West Ham, with a population of nearly 300,000; East Ham, with
90,000; Stratford, with its “daughters,” 150,000; and other “hamlets” similarly overgrown. Including, therefore, as we
must include, these new populations, we have an aggregate of nearly two millions of people, living all together in what
ought to be a single city under one rule. This should be a very remarkable city for its numbers alone; the population is
greater than that of Berlin or Vienna, or St. Petersburg, or Philadelphia. As a crowded mass of humanity alone it should
demand serious consideration. In other respects, however, it is more remarkable still. You will acknowledge with me
that in these respects and from these points of view, no other city in the world is like East London.

To begin with, it is not a city by organization; it is a collocation of overgrown villages lying side by side. It had, until

this year (1900), no center, no heart, no representative body, no mayor, no aldermen, no council, no wards; it has not

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