Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
An illustrated walk from Aldgate East to Stepney Green, focusing on Jewish history. This is a continuation of our earlier walk which explored Spitalfields and Brick Lane.
This is another walk courtesy of Tower Hamlets Council. Today’s post covers walk 2 from this pamphlet, which is available here.
Picking Up Where We Left Off
If you want to refresh yourself on Part I of our Jewish history walk in the East End, you can find it here. In that walk we went from Aldgate to Aldgate East, via Spitalfields and Brick Lane. Part II picks up pretty much exactly where we left off. In today’s walk, we will go from Aldgate East to Stepney Green. It’s mostly along Whitechapel Road, with a couple of detours along the way.
In the pamphlet from Tower Hamlets Council’s Idea Store website, this second Jewish history walk has the title ‘Rabbis, Radicals and the Yiddish Theatre’. Compared to the first walk, we will see a few more places of public Jewish life – theatres, former synagogues and businesses. As with the first walk, however, this story requires some imagination to piece together. The walk exhorts us to explore the ‘vanishing’ Jewish East End, and at times we will literally be looking at the gaps where buildings used to be. Understanding how communities have come and gone and what traces they have left behind is still a valuable endeavour, however, and can inform how we understand the past and the present.
On that note, let’s head back to Aldgate East and along Whitechapel Road.
Jewish History Walk – Aldgate East to Whitechapel Gallery
Our previous Jewish history walk ended on Whitechapel High Street near the Whitechapel Gallery and Library. This one begins a couple of blocks back, at Aldgate East. On the corner of this intersection once stood Gardiners department store, the “Harrods of the East.” Gardiners took its place in history in 1936 in the Battle of Cable Street. The main confrontation between Oswald Moseley’s fascist Black Shirts and local Jewish residents, dockers, communists and others took place outside Gardiners. We saw a mural dedicated to these events when we walked along Cable Street on our Black history walk.Down Angel Alley, which frankly I wouldn’t have ventured down if not encouraged by this pamphlet, is Freedom Book Shop. This isn’t specifically a Jewish business, but some figures important to the local Jewish story are represented here eg. Rudolf Rocker. For a long time there was certainly an overlap or a sympathy between communism/other ‘isms’ and Jewish immigration to the East End. Even if someone obviously thinks this is all ‘junk’.We’ve caught up with the spot where our previous walk ended. Here’s the Whitechapel Gallery and Whitechapel Passmore Edwards Library (now also part of the Gallery). The local Jewish population in the early 20th Century used these cultural centres heavily.
Jewish History Walk – Altab Ali Park to Fieldgate Street
Altab Ali park is named for a young man who tragically died in a racist attack in 1978. Altab was a young Bangladeshi textile worker, whose murder mobilised the local community. Barely 40 years after the Black Shirts were fought off just up the street, it shows how the local community in this area continued to be impacted by racism and prejudice. For the purposes of our walk, on the opposite side of this park you would once have found the Jewish National Theatre. Actress Anna Tzelniker once said:
“Jewish immigrants needed the Yiddish theatre for their souls, just as they needed bread to eat. Many of the plots were melodramatic, but the poor immigrants saw the plays as an escape from their drab surroundings. Once the immigrants became proficient in English, the Yiddish Theatre began to die.”
Anna Tzelniker, quoted in walking guide pamphlet
Continuing along Whitechapel High Street, around here was where you could once find the ‘Hatton Gardens of the East End’. We saw the real Hatton Gardens on this walk. There were about 18 jewellery shops in Black Lion Yard, plenty to choose a nice engagement ring.On our way to our next stop we pass the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Founded in 1570, it only closed in 2017. Supporters have now lost the fight against luxury hotel developers, despite high profile supporters including Grayson Perry.I didn’t really get a good shot of the former Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, and the reason why exemplifies the layers of history in this area. In 2003, this was one of four remaining active synagogues in East London. That is no longer the case – regular services ceased in 2009. It was later purchased by the East London Mosque, a massive complex which largely surrounded the synagogue in any case. These days it is a Zakat Centre (for the receipt of donations to charity). Since it was a Friday, there was a queue of worshippers around the block waiting to get into the mosque. It didn’t seem respectful to include them in my photos so you get this close-up instead.
Jewish History Walk – Tower House to Edward VII Memorial Fountain
Tower House. Guess what it is these days? Yes that’s right, flats! Back in the early 20th Century this was a doss house (low cost lodgings). In 1907 Joseph Stalin shared a bed with a mate here while attending the 5th conference of the Russian Social Labour Democratic Party.Seen here is the Royal London Hospital. Not an active part obviously – the historic buildings will become Tower Hamlets Council facilities. Because of the local Jewish population, this hospital had wards catering to the orthodox community and serving kosher food.Here is one of those gaps where history used to be and imagination is required. In the middle of the image, where you can see the gap between buildings, is where the Pavillion Theatre stood. This was another Yiddish theatre, but before this had a life as a Victorian theatre staging pantomimes and melodramas.It’s a bit hard to see because I didn’t cross the street, but perhaps you can spot the monument to Edward VII. The local Jewish community erected it in his honour. It also doubled as a drinking fountain.
Jewish History Walk – Sidney Street to ‘The Waste’
Down the end of this street once stood an infamous address – 100 Sidney Street. In January 1911 two Jewish anarchist immigrants, wanted for murder, were hiding out here. The police arrived, the house caught fire, and two bodies were all that remained. But did one of them escape? The incident was certainly star-studded. Home Secretary Winston Churchill insisted on being present throughout the siege. and Alfred Hitchcock later made two films about it. Another missing building for our next sight; just past the Georgian terraces once stood the Workers’ Friends Club and Institute. Rudolf Rocker founded it – we met him earlier at the anarchist bookstore. Rocker was German but not Jewish. Nonetheless he learned Yiddish, organised Jewish workers into unions, and organised the 1912 Tailors’ Strike.A little bit further on at O’Leary Square is Rinkoff Bakery. It’s mentioned in our pamphlet as the only Jewish bakery left in the East End, so I was pleased to see it very busy when I visited. The challah was great, as were some cinnamon buns I bought.Back on Whitechapel High Street, the green space across the street is ‘The Waste.’ Many political demonstrations have taken place here. This includes the tailors during their 1912 strike; and Theodor Herzl addressing a meeting here.
Jewish History Walk – Paragon Theatre to Stepney Green
The Genesis Theatre was once the Paragon Theatre of Varieties. Charlie Chaplin performed here, among others – he billed himself as the ‘Hebrew comic.’This Victorian block of flats is the Dunstan Dwellings. Our pamphlet describes it as “virtually an anarchist commune” at the time Rudolf Rocker lived here.A very dilapidated fountain in memory of Leonard Montefiore. Montefiore was from one of the great philanthropic Jewish families in the East End.Not part of our walk but I can’t go past a ruin. These are the remains of a Baptist chapel, now on a Crossrail construction site.Yet another of the East End’s 150 former synagogues. The East London Synagogue had a beautiful Byzantine interior until its conversion into flats.More Rothschild 4% Dwellings, which we learned about on our first walk.Stepney Green Jewish School has now moved to Ilford. In a rare move, it doesn’t seem to have become flats – instead I think I spotted something about artist studios.Rosalind Green Hall, also on Stepney Green, was once an Orthodox Synagogue. This blog post has more information and some pictures from inside.And finally on our exploration of the Jewish East End, is no. 37 Stepney Green. Now a private residence once more, from 1870 to 1913 it was a Jewish retirement home.
So there we have it. We have crossed the East End in terms of Jewish stories – homes, businesses, synagogues; individuals and communities. We certainly get the feeling of a neighbourhood in a state of constant change. Nonetheless the imprint of East London’s Jewish community is evident and to some extent indelible. I hope this walk will inspire you to seek out hidden histories either in the East End or in your own area.
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One thought on “Jewish History Walk in the East End: Part II”
One thought on “Jewish History Walk in the East End: Part II”