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Our photos from the powerful exhibition 'Exiles: The Ugandan Asians story', which we visited in October.

[All pictures credited to the Royal Geographic Society]

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A local treasure, in the heart of Ilford town centre you will find Redbridge Museum.Charting the unique history of it's East End-Essex origins, visitors will be engaged with displays of memorabilia, period rooms and multi-media installations.

[All photos credited to Redbridge Museum]

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We were lucky enough to catch the last day of the Christmas Past gallery at the Geffrye last month. Here are some photographs- it's a shame they don't still sell those Videosphere televisions...

[All photos credited to the Geffrye Museum]

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"If a chap can't compose an epic poem while he's weaving a tapestry, he had better shut up, he'll never do any good at all"- William Morris

Some photos from a research trip we took recently to the delightful William Morris Gallery in Waltham forest. This is first in a series of photographs we will be sharing from museums, archives and galleries in London.

[All images credited to the William Morris Gallery]

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From the archives: This is a great picture of an interviewee's grandmother doing tricks with her terrier! The photograph's date is unknown, but we trainees think based on her outfit and hair, that it may be the Edwardian era (early 1900s-10s!) What do you think?

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From our archives: Pictures of fun in the sun from the Hackney Festival, 2000.

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Recently two of the trainees participated in the Community Winter Fest at Woodberry Down Estate in Manor Park. The Winter Fest was a celebration of Woodberry Down’s past, present and future, with activities, events and great food to bring the community together. We, in partnership with the Woodberry Down Community Organisation, put up a small exhibition about Woodberry Down before the estate was built. The photographs, maps and paintings exhibited, which spanned from the early 19th century to the 1930s, showed an area undergoing massive changes, from housing, to transportation and population.

The new Redmond Community Centre (where the Winter Fest was located) was swathed in tinsel, snowflakes and fairy lights, creating the perfect festive setting. In the front of the centre, children’s activities took place, including face painting, magicians and model building. There was a grand dinner of Indian curry and Caribbean cuisine in the conference room, which could only be accessed with a ration card! It felt like a post-war street party. Residents of the community laughed and ate together as children danced on the stage to music played by a DJ in the corner. A panto and a film were also played, though unfortunately we were not able to see them while manning our table.

Our room held tables all about the estate, from its past to its current stage in the regeneration process. It was a great night that led to lovely talks and more residents who want to share their stories of the estate! Do you have stories and photos about the estate that you would like to share? Contact us at: idroma@ech.org.uk

Happy holidays!

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Another picture from our archives. All aboard on the miniature railway in Barking Park, c. 1970.

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Queen's Market, December 2013.

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The East End will always be an area with a changing face, which has been shaped and molded by the influx many different ethnic groups and migrants who have made a home there in the course of its fascinating history. Next week, Eastside Community Heritage, in partnership with RAMFEL, will be hosting a reminiscence session on 'The Jewish Community in the East London diaspora'. We will be delving into the background of the diaspora of Jewish migrants in London, and the generations of untold stories there are to uncover. 

Jewish settlement in the East End can officially be traced back to 1649, when a small colony of Sephardic Jews who had settled in Spitalfields and a mile to the south, were discovered under Oliver Cromwell at the beginning of the Commonwealth period. As a historical figure, Cromwell will always be divisive, but even over 3 centuries after Edward I's edict expelling all Jewish people from the island, it begs the question whether a less radical ruler might have allowed them to remain. But remain they did, and specifically in the area surrounding Goodman's fields and north of Mansell Street, which would be forever changed. The famous Petticoat market would become later become home to more than a thousand tailoring shops after the 1880s. This was after a new wave of Jewish people arrived, the Ashkenazi Jews who came from mostly Russia, Poland and Lithuania, fleeing from the pogroms. 

It is clear that where Jewish people settled in London they were able to create a thriving community: they built synagogues, specialist shops, free schools. They set up educational, industrial, social, religious, infrastructures that ensured that people were model citizens; they went to school, they went to work, they went to the synagogue; they were able to make not just a living, but a good living. The Jewish communities essentially created the shoe trade, the rag trade and the furniture trade in East London.

For example, one group formed the Loyal United Friends Friendly Society to help new residents set up, find a job and support their living. Another group changed the L'Eglise Neuve (formerly a Huguenot church) into a synagogue.

However, there was a clear divide between the second generation Dutch and Spanish Jews already in the East End, the descendants of the Sephardi Jews known as the Choots [pronounced Hutz]), and the Ashkenazi newcomers from Eastern Europe. Even before the 20th century in London, there was already a diaspora of Jewish ancestry in London. Despite the common religion, there were differences between the Jewish different communities who conflicted with their own languages, customs and beliefs from their respective countries.

However, any implication that the Choots succeeded in becoming true East Enders because they were more anglicized is missing the mark.  The impact of Jewish cultures in areas such as Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Stepney and Mile End are still evident today because it changed the East End (and not the other way around). But  we know that as people's fortunes improved, they moved further on to Hackney, Dalston. Cricklewood, Golder's Green and Hendon. We are interested in talking to descendants from the diaspora about their own personal family histories, and putting these stories into a modern context.

All stories welcome, and please be advised, all refreshments will be kosher!

This event will take place from 4-5pm on the 11th December at Birkbeck College, University of London, 1 Salway Place, Stratford, London E15 1NN

[1] Ralph L.Finn, No Tears in Aldgate (Cedric Chivers, 1963)

[2] Ralph L. Finn, Grief Forgotten: The Tale of an East End Jewish Boyhood (London: Macdonald & Co 1985 [1968])

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Courtesy of the Library of the Society of Friends  

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Little Germany, Stratford 1914

Eastside Community Heritage is researching the story of the German immigrants who were living, working and imprisoned in Stratford and West Ham at the beginning of the First World War. There were over 50,000 Germans living in Britain, and a significant number settled in East London. Over the course of the war, over 32,000 Germans were interned due largely to fears of German spy networks existing, a fact propelled by the British press. Public outcry against German communities rose following the sinking of the civilian ocean liner RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat in 1915. Rioting began, with mobs smashing the windows of German-owned shops. It was within this larger context that an internment camp was set up in an old, disused Jute factory on Carpenter’s Road, Stratford in late 1914.

We intend to record ten oral histories of descendants of Germans, and those with stories of the experiences of Germans in the local area from this time. In addition to this, we will be hosting a public exhibition, as well as running workshops in various East London schools. Anyone with information relating to this topic is greatly desired!

Our first stage of research has included taking a look into the role played by the Quakers in providing relief for the internees within the camps, and of other ‘enemy aliens’ in distress, such as the struggling wives and children of internees. Our first research visit to the Library of the Society of Friends unearthed a great deal of useful facts and emotive descriptions on the Stratford Carpenter’s Road camp, such as the following snippet from a Quaker’s own camp inspection report on visiting Stratford:

  ‘The place consists of a large one-floor factory with one part set aside for meals and another small place for recreation, fitted with a small stage. It is clear and well kept, but very depressing in its nature and surroundings.’’

  Library of the Society of Friends

  We are lucky enough to be taking our next trip out to the Newham Archives, with the intention of utilising their wealth of visual and textual resources, and to see if the Stratford internment camp and the German communities in the area were documented from a local perspective.

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The deliveryman for H.L Grooms horse-drawn bakery service gives a smile for the camera, 1910.

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An absolutely amazing photograph from our archives. A rafting competition in Southend. This entry is from the Romford Brewery Raft Club, which was comprised of engineers, and built to resemble the Batmobile. 1970s.

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From our memorabilia archives; the Saving Queen's Market campaign in the press.

Image credits: Market Trader September 2004, Stratford Express December 2004, Stratford Express September 2005, Stratford Express September 2005, Stratford Express March 2005, Newham recorder March 2005

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Clapham Library, October 2013

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Trainees Idroma and Zoltan at the Black History Month exhibition 'Angels from the Empire' at Queen's Hospital in Romford, October 2013.