Jewish History Walk in the East End: Part I

An illustrated walk around the East End, including Aldgate and Spitalfields. The traces of Jewish history in this neighbourhood are fast-changing, different even than when our walking guide was published.

*This is another walk courtesy of Tower Hamlets Council. Today’s post covers walk 1 from this pamphlet, which is available here.*

An In-Depth Look At Jewish Life In The East End

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the resources provided by Tower Hamlets Council via their Idea Store (local library) website are great for seeing the area through different lenses. We started out by looking at Black history, walking from Tower Hill to Canary Wharf. Then we did a walk around Spitalfields, looking at Huguenot, Jewish and Bengali history. Today’s walk covers some of the same ground, looking at the East End Jewish community in depth. There are two walks in the pamphlet, the first of which we will be covering today, from Aldgate to Aldgate East via Spitalfields and Brick Lane. The second is from Aldgate East to Stepney Green: both can be covered in a couple of hours’ walking, but there is too much detail for one blog post!

The title of the Idea Store pamphlet is Exploring the Vanishing Jewish East End. And I couldn’t help but notice that it really is vanishing. The walks were written in 2003 – since that time, the number of active synagogues listed at the back has reduced. On the other hand, I was delighted that the last remaining East End Jewish bakery is still going strong (and makes great challah). You’ll have to wait for Part II to see it though. Even for those who are unlikely to undertake these walks themselves, I would recommend reading the first couple of pages of the pamphlet. There is an introduction by Steven Berkoff, who was still resident in the East End in 2003, and who shares some evocative memories of his childhood. The pamphlet’s author, Clive Bettington, founded the Jewish East End Celebration Society, also in 2003.

As we learned on our Spitalfields walk, this area has always been one of both change and continuity; join me as we explore the traces of Jewish East End in a spirit of celebration and historic curiosity.

The Jewish East End – Aldgate to Petticoat Lane

We start our walk not at a synagogue, but at a church: St Botolph’s, Aldgate. St Botolph’s is in the ward of Portsoken in the City, which has long had Jewish connections. Jewish people settled around here on their return to London in 1656 (King Edward I expelled them in 1290 and Oliver Cromwell agreed to their return), and most of the Aldermen of the ward since 1840 have been Jewish. It’s not on this walk for some reason but just up the street is Bevis Marks synagogue. I didn’t make a detour as it’s currently covered in scaffolding, but you can (sort of) see it on this walk here. The fountain honours the memory of Jewish philanthropist Frederick Mocatta, and the police post is just a bonus because I think it’s rather quaint.

Next we head up Blue Boar Alley to get off Aldgate High Street and head towards Spitalfields. Blue Boar Alley sounds like it has a great history attached to it, but is actually just a post-war pedestrian thoroughfare.

Petticoat Lane has tried to class itself up with a name change to Middlesex Street. It is nonetheless still better known as Petticoat Lane, site of a long-standing market. There is a great video here which includes historic Petticoat Lane at about 0:50. The market continues today (well, less so during Covid but you know what I mean), but with far fewer Jewish traders.

Empty shops nearby still hold clues to what they once traded in.

These dilapidated and fenced-off public toilets were once ‘The Parliament of Petticoat Lane’. This is where market traders would meet, chat, and in the words of our pamphlet, “put the world to rights.”

The Jewish East End – Spitalfields

Now this is where today’s walk starts to overlap a bit with the Idea Store walk around Spitalfields. Do you remember it? This is the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor on Brune Street. Now turned into apartments, like everything else in London. It dates to 1902 – the architect was Lewis Solomon, and it was one of many similar institutions in the area funded by wealthy West End Jewish philanthropists.

This is the first of today’s gaps where a historic site used to be. Here on Bell Lane was the 19th Century Jews’ Free School. It was at one time the largest school in the world. Former pupils include Bud Flanagan who we will see a bit later on. The school suffered bomb damage in WWII and moved to Camden. It lives on today in Brent as JFS.

Let’s now head up narrow Artillery Passage.

And just around the corner is Sandy’s Row Synagogue. Our guide mentions this as one of the remaining active synagogues in the East End, which is happily still the case today. Originally a Huguenot church, a Dutch Ashkenazi population began to grow in this area from the 1840s. They founded the Sandy’s Row Synagogue in 1854 – architect Nathan Solomon Joseph remodelled the former chapel. According to their website, Sandy’s Row can be visited during Open House weekend. I will investigate that later this year!

We have made it as far as Spitalfields Market! The sculpture, *I Goat,* is a reference to the succeeding waves of migration in the area.

The Jewish East End – Rows of Georgian Terraces

First a quick detour off our walking tour to check on Dennis Severs’ House on Folgate Street. There are many streets of preserved Georgian terraces around Spitalfields, but Dennis Severs definitely had the most creative response to them. He lived here from 1979 until his death in 1999, and created a dreamscape; the home of an imagined family of Huguenot silk weavers over the centuries. I love this spot and hope it’s able to reopen in the near future.

A couple of blocks over, Mark Gertler once lived at 32 Elder Street. Gertler was the youngest child of Polish Jewish immigrants. He studied at the Slade School thanks to a scholarship from the Jewish Education Aid Society; he was a contemporary of Paul Nash and Stanley Spencer among others. Suffering from tuberculosis and a number of personal hardships, Gertler committed suicide in 1939. The coal hole cover on the pavement outside the house depicts one of his most famous works, *Merry-Go-Round*.

Elder Street is a great example of the terraces of Georgian houses from the Huguenot period in Spitalfields.

Here is the former home of Bud Flanagan, who I mentioned earlier in connection with the Jews’ Free School. Flanagan was born Reuben Weintrop, and made his name as an entertainer in music halls. You may have heard of his songs *Underneath the Arches* or *Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?*

The Jewish East End – Georgian Terraces Continued

6 Princelet Street (the same street where we saw *Behind Closed Doors*) doesn’t look like much, but this is the first time we encounter another important aspect of East End Jewish life on this walk. This area was once home to several Yiddish-language theatres, including the 1887 Hebrew Dramatic Club on this site. This one had a short life, however. In 1888 17 people died in a stampede, and the theatre closed shortly afterwards. Another coal hole cover, this time with a viola, marks the site.

Another block, another blue plaque! 17 Princelet Street was home to Miriam Moses. She isn’t mentioned as part of our walk, but a quick search online tells us more. Moses was the first female Mayor of Stepney Green, and did a lot of charitable work locally, particular for children’s charities and women’s health.

Next door, 19 Princelet Street contains both a Huguenot home, and a synagogue which closed in the 1970s. It is the setting of the book *Rodinsky’s Room,* and on my list of small museums to (hopefully) visit after lockdown.

Before we leave Princelet Street, let’s just take a moment to appreciate all the wonderful houses and former shop fronts.

The Jewish East End – Brick Lane to Fashion Street

The Katz business was originally one which sold only string! How wonderful to be able to specialise to that extent. It closed in 1988 but the sign remains.

The Brick Lane Jamme Masjid is another building we have seen recently. It also perfectly exemplifies the layers of history in the area – Huguenot chapel to Jewish synagogue to mosque for the Bengali community. From the late 19th Century, this was the Machzike Hadath, or Spitalfields Great Synagogue (with steam baths immortalised by David Bomberg nearby). Fleeing pogroms and persecution, approximately 140,000 Eastern European Jewish people settled in Britain in the 19th Century. There were around 150 synagogues in the East End at this time. The number has decreased even since the four listed in our guide. But there is still a strong Jewish community in London, just elsewhere. The Machzike Hadath moved to Golders Green in the 20th Century, following this migration.

Fashion Street, complete with Abraham Davis’s Moorish Bazaar which we saw here. Our pamphlet asks us to notice how gentrified the street is becoming. I’m not sure it’s quite there yet. This street is important to two works by London’s Jewish authors. Israel Zangwill’s semi-autobiographical *Children of the Ghetto* begins here. Zangwill was another pupil of the Jews’ Free School. His work is an insight into Jewish life in Spitalfields in the early 20th Century. A later semi-autobiographical work, Arnold Wesker’s play *Chicken Soup With Barley,* is also set here. It follows a communist Jewish family through the turbulent history of the mid-20th Century.

The Jewish East End – Commercial Street to Toynbee Hall

Here are two buildings on Commercial Street which were formerly important to the local Jewish community. The top one was the Jewish and East End Model Lodgings, home to around 30 families. The bottom was home to the infants’ section of the Jews’ Free School. Arnold Wesker, the playwright mentioned above, studied here.

Further down Commercial Street is Toynbee Hall. Canon Samuel Barnett (along with his wife Henrietta) founded it in 1883. From the outset the purpose of Toynbee Hall has been as a resource for the local community. Their work has not changed despite a shifting local population; where once Jewish immigrants benefitted from legal advice and English lessons at Toynbee Hall, these services are now available to the Bangladeshi community.

Toynbee Hall was also home to a very early Jewish scouting troop, the Landsbergs. Or, as founder Captain Jose R Landsberg explained, although all of the early members happened to be Jewish, the troop was in fact open and inclusive. The main difference was undertaking scouting activities on Sundays instead of Saturdays to allow for the Sabbath.

The Jewish East End – Back Alleys to Whitechapel High Street

This arch is the only thing left from the Rothschild Building. The text reads “Erected by the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company”. This was a Rothschild-backed company where wealthy Jewish investors were guaranteed a 4% return, and the housing shortage for East End families was alleviated.

Unrelated to our walk but I spotted this great lockdown-themed mural near the 4% arch. It’s by Marija Tiurina.

Emerging from Gunthorpe Street onto Whitechapel High Street, we look behind us at Albert’s. The emblem above the shop is that of the defunct Jewish Daily News.

The final stop on Part I of our walk through the Jewish East End is here at the Whitechapel Gallery and former Whitechapel Library (now part of the Gallery). These two institutions were also the work of Canon and Mrs. Barnett who you will recall from Toynbee Hall. They felt that Jewish immigrants needed access to cultural centres. Indeed the library was particularly popular with local residents as a place to escape overcrowded tenements. As you can see from the blue plaque, the poet Isaac Rosenberg was among those who studied here.

That marks the end of Part I of our walk. We will resume Part II soon, which takes us from Aldgate East to Stepney.

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About Me

Erin Caswell