Origins The East End developed along the Thames, and beyond
Bishopsgate and
Aldgate, the gates in the
city wall that lay east of the little
Walbrook river. These gates, first built with the wall in the late second or early third centuries, secured the entrance of pre-existing roads (the modern
A10 and
A11/A12) into the walled area. The walls were such a constraint to growth, that the position of the gates has been fundamental to the shaping of the capital, especially in the then suburbs outside the wall. The walled City was built on two hills separated by the
Walbrook,
Ludgate Hill to the west and
Cornhill (of which
Tower Hill is a shoulder), to the east. During the Anglo-Saxon period the two sides were under separate administration and had distinct economies, character, customs and regulations. Even beyond the walls, the Walbrook separated landholdings, with the
Soke of Cripplegate to the west and the
Soke of Bishopsgate to the east. The western side was more populous and prosperous, it had the cathedral, the royal palace (which later moved to Westminster) and its large market, Westcheap, was focussed on land-based trade. The east was poorer and more sparsely settled; its smaller market, Eastcheap, was sited near the river to allow it to specialise in seaborne trade. These intramural distinctions would persist, if less markedly, and influence the development that subsequently occurred beyond the walls. Beyond the wall, the landholdings which would ultimately shape modern administrative divisions were in place before the
Domesday census of the 1070s. The land outside
Aldgate was held by the
Cnichtengild, a fighting organisation responsible for the defence of Aldgate and the nearby walls. The
land inside and outside Bishopsgate seems to have been the responsibility of the Bishop of London (the Bishop of the
East Saxons), who was promoting building in the underdeveloped eastern side of the walled area, and who may also have had a role in defending Bishopsgate itself. Apart from parts of Shoreditch, the rest of the area was part of the Bishop of London's
Manor of Stepney. The Manor's lands were the basis of a later unit called the
Tower Division, or Tower Hamlets which extended as far north as
Stamford Hill. It is thought that the manor was held by the
Bishop of London, in compensation for his duties in maintaining and garrisoning the
Tower of London. The oldest recorded reference to this obligation is from 1554, but it is thought to pre-date that by centuries. These landholdings would become the basis of the
ancient parishes and city wards which, by occasional fission and mergers, developed into the administrative units of today. Five monastic institutions, centres of learning and charity, were established just outside the walls:
Bedlam,
Holywell Priory,
The New Hospital of St Mary without Bishopsgate, the
Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate,
Eastminster near the Tower, and
St Katherine's on the Thames.
Bromley was home to
St Leonards Priory and
Barking Abbey, important as a religious centre since
Norman times was where
William the Conqueror had first established his English court. Further east the
Cistercian Stratford Langthorne Abbey became the court of
Henry III in 1267 for the visitation of the
Papal legates, and it was here that he made peace with the barons under the terms of the
Dictum of Kenilworth. It became the fifth largest Abbey in the country, visited by monarchs and providing a retreat (and a final resting place) for the nobility.
Edward I held his parliament at Stepney in 1299. The lands east of the City have sometimes been used as hunting grounds for bishops and royalty. The
Bishop of London had a palace at
Bethnal Green,
King John is
reputed to have established a palace at
Bow and
Henry VIII established a hunting lodge at
Bromley Hall. The rural population of the area grew considerably in the Medieval period, despite reductions caused by the Norman Conquest and the Black Death. The pattern of agricultural settlement in south-east England was typically of dispersed farmhouses, rather than nucleated villages. However the presence of the city and maritime trades as a market for goods and services led to a thriving mixed economy in the countryside of the Manor of Stepney. This led to large settlements, inhabited mostly by tradesmen (rather than farmers) to develop along the major roads forming hamlets such as Mile End and Bow. These settlements would expand and merge with the development radiating out from London itself.
Emergence and character Geography was a major factor influencing the character of the developing East End; prevailing winds flow, like the river, west to east. The flow of the river led to the maritime trades concentrating in the east and the prevailing wind encouraged the most polluting industries to concentrate eastwards. Metalworking industries are recorded between Aldgate and Bishopsgate in the 1300s and ship building for the navy is recorded at
Ratcliff in 1354, with shipfitting and repair carried out in
Blackwall by 1485 and a major fishing port developed downstream at
Barking to provide fish for the City. These and other factors meant that industries relating to construction, repair, and victualling of naval and merchant ships flourished in the area but the City of London retained its right to land the goods, until 1799. Growth was much slower in the east, than in the large
western suburb, with the modest eastern suburb separated from the much smaller northern extension by
Moorfields adjacent to the wall on the north side. Moorfields was an open area with a marshy chararacter due to London's Wall acting as a dam, impeding the flow of the Walbrook and restricting development in that direction. Moorfields remained open until 1817, and the longstanding presence of that open space separating the emerging East End from the western and small northern suburb must have helped shape the different economic character of the areas and perceptions of their distinct identity (see map below). Shoreditch's boundary with the parish of
St Luke's (which, like its predecessor
St Giles-without-Cripplegate served the Finsbury area) ran through the
Moorfields countryside. These boundaries remained consistent after urbanisation and so might be said to delineate east and north London. The boundary line, with very slight modifications, has also become the boundary between the modern London Boroughs of
Hackney and
Islington. Building accelerated in the late 16th century, and the area that would later become known as the East End began to take shape. Writing in 1603,
John Stow described the squalid riverside development, extending nearly as far as
Ratcliff, which had developed mostly within his lifetime. and
Aldgate and along the river – it is separated from the other extramural suburbs by
Moorfields The polluted nature of the area was noted by
Sir William Petty in 1676, at a time when unpleasant smells were considered a vector of disease. He called for London's centre of gravity to move further west from the City towards
Westminster, upwind what he called
"the fumes steams and stinks of the whole easterly pyle". In 1703
Joel Gascoyne published his map of the parish of St Dunstan Stepney, which occupied much of the East End area. He was commissioned to do so by the Vestry (local government) of the parish, who needed such a map for administrative purposes. The map shows Stepney divided into
Hamlets, these were territorial sub-divisions, rather than small villages, and later became independent daughter parishes in their own right. In 1720
John Strype gives us our first record of the East End as a distinct entity, rather than a collection of parishes, when he describes London as consisting of four parts: the City of London,
Westminster,
Southwark, and
"That Part beyond the Tower". The relevance of Strype's reference to the
Tower was more than geographical. The East End (including the
Tower and its Liberties) was the urbanised part of an administrative area called the
Tower Division, which had owed military service to the
Constable of the Tower (in his ex-officio role as
Lord Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets) for time immemorial, having its roots in the Bishop of London's historic
Manor of Stepney. This made the Constable an influential figure in the civil and military affairs of the early East End. Later, as London grew further, the fully urbanised Tower Division became a byword for wider
East London, before East London grew further still, east of the
River Lea and into
Essex. The contrast between the east and west ends was stark, in 1797 the
Prussian writer and historian
Archenholz wrote: Writing of the period around 1800, Rev. Richardson commented on the estrangements between the east and west: The East End has always contained some of London's poorest areas. The main reasons for this include: • The
medieval system of
copyhold, which prevailed throughout the Manor of Stepney into the 19th century. There was little point in developing land that was held on short leases. Estates of fine houses for captains, merchants and owners of manufacturers began to be built.
Samuel Pepys moved his family and goods to Bethnal Green during the
Great Fire of London, and
Captain Cook moved from
Shadwell to
Stepney Green, where a school and assembly rooms had been established (commemorated by
Assembly Passage, and a plaque on the site of Cook's house on the Mile End Road). Mile End Old Town also acquired some fine buildings, and the New Town began to be built. By 1882,
Walter Besant was able to describe East London as a city in its own right, on account of its large size and social disengagement from the rest of the capital.
Accelerated 19th-century development As the area became built up and more crowded, the wealthy sold their plots for subdivision and moved further afield. Into the 18th and 19th centuries, there were still attempts to build fine houses, for example
Tredegar Square (1830), and the open fields around Mile End New Town were used for the construction of estates of workers' cottages in 1820. This was designed in 1817 in Birmingham by Anthony Hughes and finally constructed in 1820. Globe Town was established from 1800 to provide for the expanding population of weavers around Bethnal Green, attracted by improving prospects in silk weaving. Bethnal Green's population trebled between 1801 and 1831, with 20,000 looms being operated in people's own homes. By 1824, with restrictions on importation of French silks relaxed, up to half these looms had become idle, and prices were driven down. With many importing warehouses already established in the district, the abundance of cheap labour was turned to boot, furniture and clothing manufacture. Philanthropic
housing associations such as the
Peabody Trust were formed to provide homes for the poor and to clear the slums generally. Expansion by the railway companies, such as the
London and Blackwall Railway and
Great Eastern Railway, caused large areas of slum housing to be demolished. The
Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 (
53 & 54 Vict. c. 70), gave local authorities, notably
London County Council, new powers and responsibilities and led to the building of new philanthropic housing such as
Blackwall Buildings and Great Eastern Buildings. By 1890, official
slum clearance programmes had begun. These included the creation of the world's first council housing, the
LCC Boundary Estate, which replaced the neglected and crowded streets of Friars Mount, better known as The Old Nichol Street Rookery. Between 1918 and 1939 the LCC continued replacing East End housing with five- or six-storey flats, despite residents preferring houses with gardens and opposition from shopkeepers who were forced to relocate to new, more expensive premises. The Second World War brought an end to further slum clearance.
Industry and innovation Industries associated with the sea developed throughout the East End, including rope making and shipbuilding. The former location of roperies can still be identified from their long straight, narrow profile in the modern streets, for instance Ropery Street near
Mile End. Shipbuilding for the navy is recorded at Ratcliff in 1354, with shipfitting and repair carried out in Blackwall by 1485. On 31 January 1858, the largest ship of that time, the
SS Great Eastern, designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched from the yard of
Messrs Scott Russell & Co, of
Millwall. The vessel was too long to fit across the river, and so the ship had to be launched sideways. Due to the technical difficulties of the launch, after this, shipbuilding on the Thames went into a long decline. Ships continued to be built at the
Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at
Blackwall and
Canning Town until the yard closed in 1913, shortly after the launch of the Dreadnought Battleship
HMS Thunderer (1911). against the launching chains of the
Great Eastern at Millwall in 1857 Heading eastward from the Tower of London lie six and a half mile of former docklands; the most central of the docks – just east of the Tower, is
St Katharine Docks, built in 1828 to accommodate luxury goods. This was built by clearing the slums that lay in the area of the former
Hospital of St Katharine. They were not successful commercially, as they were unable to accommodate the largest ships, and in 1864, management of the docks was amalgamated with that of the London Docks. The
London Docks were built in 1805, and the waste soil and rubble from the construction was carried by barge to west London, to build up the marshy area of
Pimlico. These docks imported tobacco, wine, wool and other goods into guarded warehouses within high walls (some of which still remain). They were able to berth over 300 sailing vessels simultaneously, but by 1971 they closed, no longer able to accommodate modern shipping. The
West India Docks were established in 1803, providing berths for larger ships and a model for future London dock building. Imported produce from the
West Indies was unloaded directly into quayside warehouses. Ships were limited to 6000 tons. The old Brunswick Dock, a shipyard at
Blackwall became the basis for the
East India Company's
East India Docks established there in 1806. The
Millwall Docks were created in 1868, predominantly for the import of grain and timber. These docks housed the first purpose built granary for the Baltic
grain market, a local landmark that remained until it was demolished to improve access for the
London City Airport. The first railway (the "
Commercial Railway") to be built, in 1840, was a passenger service based on cable haulage by stationary steam engines that ran the from
Minories to
Blackwall on a pair of tracks. It required of
hemp rope, and "dropped" carriages as it arrived at stations, which were reattached to the cable for the return journey, the train "reassembling" itself at the terminus. The line was converted to standard gauge in 1859, and steam locomotives adopted. The building of London termini at
Fenchurch Street (1841), and
Bishopsgate (1840) provided access to new suburbs across the
River Lea, again resulting in the destruction of housing and increased overcrowding in the slums. After the opening of
Liverpool Street station (1874), Bishopsgate railway station became a goods yard, in 1881, to bring imports from Eastern ports. With the introduction of containerisation, the station declined, suffered a fire in 1964 that destroyed the station buildings, and it was finally demolished in 2004 for the extension of the
East London Line. In the 19th century, the area north of Bow Road became a major railway centre for the
North London Railway, with marshalling yards and a maintenance depot serving both the City and the West India docks. Nearby
Bow railway station opened in 1850 and was rebuilt in 1870 in a grand style, featuring a concert hall. The line and yards closed in 1944, after severe bomb damage, and never reopened, as goods became less significant, and cheaper facilities were concentrated in Essex. The River Lea was a constraint to eastward expansion, but the
Metropolitan Buildings Act 1844 led to growth over that river into
West Ham. The act restricted the operation of dangerous and noxious industries from in the metropolitan area, the eastern boundary of which was the
Lea. Consequently, many of these activities were relocated to the banks of the river. The building of the
Royal Docks consisting of the
Royal Victoria Dock (1855), able to berth vessels of up to 8000 tons;
Royal Albert Dock (1880), up to 12,000 tons; and
King George V Dock (1921), up to 30,000 tons, on the
estuary marshes helped extend the continuous development of London across the Lea into Essex. The railways gave access to a passenger terminal at
Gallions Reach and new suburbs created in
West Ham, which quickly became a major manufacturing town, with 30,000 houses built between 1871 and 1901. while in 1892
Frederick Bremer built the first British motorcar in a workshop in his garden. The
London General Omnibus Company built the first mass-produced buses there, the
B-type from 1908 onwards and in 1909,
A. V. Roe successfully tested the first all-British aeroplane on
Walthamstow Marshes.
Decline and regeneration The East End has historically suffered from poor housing stock and infrastructure. From the 1950s, the area was a microcosm of the structural and social changes affecting the
UK economy. The closure of docks, cutbacks in railways and loss of industry contributed to a long-term decline, removing many of the traditional sources of low- and semi-skilled jobs. The docks declined from the mid-20th century, with the last, the
Royal Docks, closing in 1980. Various wharves along the river continue to be used but on a much smaller scale. London's main port facilities are now at
Tilbury and
London Gateway (opened in 1886 and 2013 respectively), further downstream, beyond the Greater London boundary in
Essex. These larger modern facilities can accommodate larger vessels and are suitable for the needs of modern
container ships. There has been extensive regeneration, and the East End has become a desirable place for business, Many of the 1960s tower blocks have been demolished or renovated, replaced by low-rise housing, often in private ownership, or owned by
housing associations.
Transport improvements By the mid-1980s, the
District line (extended to the East End in 1884 and 1902) and
Central line (1946) were beyond capacity, and the
Docklands Light Railway (1987) and
Jubilee line (1999) were subsequently constructed to improve rail transport in the area. There was a long-standing plan to provide London with an inner motorway box, the
East Cross Route, but only a short section was built. Road links were improved by the completion of the
Limehouse Link tunnel under
Limehouse Basin in 1993 and the extension of the
A12 to connect to the
Blackwall Tunnel in the 1990s. The extension of the
East London line provided further improvements in 2010. From 2021, the
Elizabeth line will create an east–west service across London, with a major interchange at Whitechapel. New river crossings are planned at
Beckton, (the
Thames Gateway Bridge) and at the proposed
Silvertown Link road tunnel, intended to supplement the existing
Blackwall Tunnel.
City fringe regeneration The continued strength of the City's financial services sector has seen many large office buildings erected around the City fringe, with indirect benefits accruing to local business. The area around
Old Spitalfields Market has been redeveloped and
Brick Lane, dubbed ''London's curry capital
, or Bangla Town'', has benefited from the City's success. Art galleries have flourished, including the expanded
Whitechapel Gallery and the workshop of artists
Gilbert and George in
Spitalfields. The neighbourhood around
Hoxton Square has become a centre for modern British art, including the
White Cube gallery, with many artists from the
Young British Artists movement living and working in the area. This has made the area around Hoxton and
Shoreditch fashionable, a busy nightlife has developed, but many former residents now driven out by higher property prices and gentrification.
East London Tech City, a cluster of technology companies has developed in and around Shoreditch, and the
Queen Mary University of London has expanded its existing site at Mile End, and opened specialist medical campuses at the
Royal London Hospital and Whitechapel.
Regeneration at Canary Wharf and docklands , 2016) The devastating closure of the docks and the loss of the associated industries led to the establishment of the
London Docklands Development Corporation, which operated from 1981 to 1998; the body was charged with using deregulation and other levers to stimulate economic regeneration. As a consequence of this, and of investment in the area's transport infrastructure, there have been many
urban renewal projects, most notably
Canary Wharf, a huge commercial and housing development on the
Isle of Dogs. Another major development is
London City Airport, built in 1986, in the former
King George V Dock to provide short-haul services to domestic and European destinations. There has been extensive building of luxury apartments, mainly around the former dock areas and alongside the Thames. The Docklands regeneration has been a success, but being based on service industries, the work does not closely match the skills and needs of the dockland communities.
Regeneration around Stratford The
2012 Summer Olympics and
Paralympics were held in the
Olympic Park, created on former industrial land around the
River Lea. The park includes a legacy of new sports facilities, housing, industrial and technical infrastructure intended to further regenerate the area. Nearby, the
University of East London developed a new campus and many more cultural and educational facilities are being developed in the Olympic Park. ==People==