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Tribute to campaigner Will Poplar Labour MP Will Crooks was known as the ‘Guardian of the Poor’, campaigning to end poverty and inequality, and had an estate named after him on Poplar High Street. History Got a story to tell? If you have a tale about East End history, write to John Rennie or email him at johnrennie@gmail.com www.eastlondonhistory.com Take a journey round old East End sites without leaving your chair BY JOHN RENNIE WE know where history used to be kept – in dry, dusty tomes, packed with dates and the deeds of great men (they were always men). But the digital world, often maligned for dumbing us all down, has changed all that. A new app for the iPhone (though you can also access the information on your computer) brings the stories of ordinary East Enders to life, through a series of annotated walks or trails around the borough. Click open the app or website and you’ll see a map of the East End bedecked with coloured dots. Click on a dot and you open Bill’s Trail, Laurie’s Trail and so on. The trails themselves are clearly marked bold routes on the map, with distances included (most are around three quarters of a mile). And each trail has half a dozen points of interest. As you walk and reach each point on the map you click and an audio tour with pictures begins, your host telling you about the history of Brunswick Wharf or Petticoat Lane. And if you’re not feeling too energetic, you can do it all from the comfort of your armchair! The people who’ve made this all happen are a not-for-profit organisation called Manifesta. But, as Manifesta’s Marion Vargaftig points out, it’s the ‘trail leaders’ who drive the whole thing. “We have, at present, 16 people, aged 15 to 96,” says Marion. “They unearth, highlight and celebrate fresh takes on particular places that matter to them. They created their own trails - mini walking tours, guiding us through journeys of discovery, imaginatively weaving together personal stories and reminiscences with broader social history.” So there is Manny, the son of Russian- Polish Jews, who has spent his entire life in or near Whitechapel. He leads us on his walk around places he’s known since his teenage years –while sharing his memories and love of eastern European food. He starts at the Bevis Marks synagogue in the City. It’s the oldest synagogue in the UK, but as Manny relates, declining congregations nearly saw it sold off in 1886; today though, it’s the flagship of the British Sephardic Jewish community. And on to Cutler Street, by Petticoat Lane, and another victim of the Jewish diaspora out of the East End. It was once a thriv- At the other end of the borough, Bill –born close to Stepney’s St Dunstan’s Church, just like his parents – leads us on a walk around Blackwall. Bill has worked all around the world as an engineer but always returned to his East End home (he even built his own house in Poplar). His trail is all about the mariners and ordinary people who left the East End: this is where the original settlers left from to found Jamestown in Virginia in 1606. Here was the East India Dock, one of the powerhouses of Britain’s great trading empire. And Trinity Buoy Wharf and Lighthouse, keeping a watching eye over Britain’s once great maritime fleet. There is, too, the curiosity of Orchard Place, cut off from Poplar by the construction of those docks, and called London’s ‘Lost Village’. Lost for good now – the community was moved out in the 1930s when the area was destroyed for slum clearance by the former London County Council (LCC). But this isn’t just nostalgia. Bill hopes his trail will encourage people to look to the future, to improve their own, and other people’s, lives. And history is being made all the time. Up in Poplar, Roz, originally from Ireland but living and working in Poplar for 25 years, takes a special interest in the art that blooms on walls around the East End. Poplar Labour MP Will Crooks was known as the ‘Guardian of the Poor’, campaigning to end poverty and inequality more than a century ago. His name might be confined to the history books, but there’s no missing the colourful mural on the Will Crooks Estate on Poplar High Street. Stroll up to Hale Street and you’ll see the Poplar Rates Rebellion mural. Bright arresting images and simple captions boiling the story of the revolt to a few sentences… just enough to absorb as you pass by. A perfect slice of street agitprop. And it continues. A giant chihuahua painting brightens a drab brick wall on Chrisp Street, and there are a couple of Banksy’s (one wittily referencing that more contemporary East End trade of phone hacking). One of the delights as you follow the trails is the leaders themselves. Every age, every culture, every colour and with a myriad routes to Tower Hamlets… typical East Enders in fact. And every one fascinated by their East End home. There is Heena, born in Wales in 1990 before moving to Limehouse 15 years ago, and with parents born in Gujarat. Her focus is on the disappearance of independent retailers in Limehouse. Jon has lived in Poplar his whole life, but his family came from Italy. Marlene was born in Portugal, grew up in Sweden and is now settled in Poplar with her two children. Her trail focuses on examples of creativity in Poplar and Limehouse. The more you dig, the more you find, and as you get out there you’ll probably find your own landmarks to explore. In fact… why not make your own trail? We all have our own little bit to add to East End history. Manifesta worked on the app with the Heritage Lottery Fund, Tate Britain and its Arts Map initiative, the Museum of London Docklands, Toynbee Hall, Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, and local community organisations. www.inmyfootsteps.org Bevis Marks Synagogue Trinity Buoy Wharf features on Bill’s Trail A tour guide takes people on the Heritage trail The vapour baths were n0t just a place to sweat out the filth of the week, they were an essential part of social and religious life. Manny, the son of Russian-Polish Jews ing gold and silver market, but once the Jews moved out to Golders Green, the market went with them. Cutler Street was where the warehouses of the East India Company once stood. Petticoat Lane is more famous, but Manny is fascinating on the survival against the odds of this other market – as it mirrors its home area, with Huguenot traders, then Jewish, to the Asian and African stallholders and shopkeepers today. Finally to the Russian vapour baths at 86 Brick Lane, and universally known as ‘Schewzik’s’ after owner Benjamin Schwezik. They weren’t just a place to sweat out the filth of a week’s work, they were an essential part of social and religious life. Here it was that the men met on a Friday evening before synagogue; and there was a women’s day on Wednesdays. (It’s now home to a Bangladeshi supermarket, Banglacity, by the way). 6 – 12 APRIL 2015 N E W S F ROM TOWER HAMLETS COUNCIL AND YOUR COMMUNITY 13


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