East End Lives
The London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham are more popularly known as the East End, arguably one of the most culturally diverse areas in Britain, a result of a long history of migration and movement.
Starting in the 1660s with the arrival of Sephardi Jews from Spain, the East End has also welcomed the Huguenots (French Protestants), families from China and the Indian subcontinent as well as Africans who had escaped from slavery. After both World War I and World War II the East End welcomed ex-servicemen from across the British Empire, including India, Africa and the Caribbean, who settled in the area and started families. More recently the East End has welcomed families from all over Eastern Europe. All of these communities have added to the distinct character of childhood and family life in the East End.
Life Stories
These stories include accounts of children arriving in Whitechapel from Romania to escape Hitler's Europe knowing only five words of English; of being moved eight times from one squatter camp to another in South Africa during the apartheid years; of living as a Romani child on a bombsite just off Petticoat Lane after the Second World War and of walking as a twelve-year-old through the forest to escape the bullets and wild animals during the civil war in Rwanda.
Coming to the East End
Coming to the East End tells the stories of people arriving in the East End from countries all over the world: from Jews escaping Hitler's Europe before the Second World War; children joining their parents from the Caribbean; to young women from Turkey or Bangladesh joining their new husbands in the 1960s.
Daily Life
These memories offer interesting insights into different aspects of everyday life in the East End, in particular food, school and shopping. There are sons and daughters accounts of shopping with their parents as well as references to the social, economic and political environment in which they carried out their daily lives.
Discrimination
These accounts tell of the discrimination experienced by different groups of immigrants living in London's East End, showing how people have fought racism and fascism together, notably in the Battle of Cable Street, as well as on an individual level - in the classroom, the workplace and the street.
Festivals and Rituals
Religious festivals are of special importance to certain faith communities. In the East End of London many religious festivals are celebrated by people of different faiths and from different backgrounds.
Play and Leisure
These stories tell us about the play and leisure activities of people of the East End when they were children. They show how children here and abroad have often created games or toys from nothing when little money or resources were available.
