London History

One of the world’s biggest marathons will again be rolling through Tower Hamlets on 22 April this year.

The hundredth Oxford-Cambridge varsity boxing match is to be held at York Hall in Bethnal Green in early March.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone calls on Londoners and businesses to unite in the fight against global warming.

Loads of interesting things going on during London’s East festival which runs from 1 to 6 March. Many of the activities centre on the Museum of London and http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/English/. Pencil in Friday 2 March, when the Museum is running ‘East End Shorts’ a series of movies showcasing the East End and the lives of its inhabitants. A fascinating collection from the fifties, sixties and seventies, they are a mix of documentary, semi-documentary and (in the case of Bronco Bullfrog, fiction played by local people rather than professional actors.

Other highlights include Vanishing Street, which explores the life of a typical Jewish community in 1960s Britain. Shot by Robert Vas in 1961 in and around Hessel St in the East End, it shows us its street market, kosher food shops, newspaper and synagogue … just as the bulldozers move in. The film will be introduced by BFI film historian Ian O’Sullivan. Bronco Bullfrog and all the films in East End Shorts will feature in London Calling, a collection of 100 films and television programmes about the capital, available to view free of charge in the new BFI Mediatheque (opening 14 March). Further details at www.bfi.org.uk.

‘London’s always been an ugly city,” says the writer Peter Ackroyd, sitting in the bar of the Zetter Hotel, designed by local architect Laurie Chetwood in the heart of Clerkenwell, London.

London in the nineteenth century was the greatest city mankind had ever seen. Its growth was stupendous. Its wealth was dazzling. Its horrors shocked the world. In one hour’s walk from west to east, London revealed a cavalcade of life chances - from all the prizes that civilisation could offer on the one hand to a barbarous struggle for existence on the other. As William Blake put it, London was ‘a Human awful wonder of God’. Jerry White’s extraordinary, 600-plus page opus attempts to map it.

The Australian government is fighting its British counterpart over the legality of scientists at London’s Natural History Museum testing the bones of 17 Aborigines it holds in its collection.

This blog came about as an offshoot from the weekly history pages I write for a paper called East End Life. I’ve been collecting these for the last few years on a dedicated website, www.eastlondonhistory.com and there are now several hundred of the things, everything from Helen Shapiro to Oswald Mosley, from Tower Bridge to the Blackwall Tunnel. Increasingly, there’s little bits of news, history, notices of shows and exhibitions, and just observations about London that don’t fit into the history pages. Increasingly too, my beat of Tower Hamlets and the East End becomes slightly frustrating, as interesting stuff happens elsewhere in London too. This then is to be the continuing blog of London history, oddments and stories … we’ll even go south of the river!

Terrific new exhibition at the renovated and rejuvenated Geffrye Museum in Bethnal Green. Home and Garden: 1914-1960 (Part Three):Major exhibition of paintings of middle-class urban domestic interiors and gardens from 1914-1960 Opening 20 February 2007. We’ll be taking a closer look at the exhibition and the permanent features of the Geffrye in an upcoming East End Life. Also catch a special tour of the Museum of London, where guide Robert Whitwell examines how The Great Fire of 1666 changed the city forever. The Museum of London also has ‘Belonging - Voices of London Refugees‘ until 25 February. Well worth a look.

Isle of Dogs Community Foundation has won a grant to commemorate the Virginia Settlers, who left Blackwall to ‘discover’ America in 1606. There are numerous connections between London’s East End and the USA, including the odd President, the Liberty Bell and a famous basketball team!