1989
First Published
3.64
Average Rating
210
Number of Pages
For centuries the East End of London was synonymous with poverty and brutal labor, with Cockney solidarity and popular protest. The poverty is still there but now—once again—East London is beginning to reshape itself. Fashionable riverside restaurants multiply and shining new office buildings spread south toward the Millennium Dome. Now the term “East End” begins to have a different ring. Alan Palmer takes us back through four centuries of life in this great melting pot, which was once the very center of Empire trade. Both people and goods have flowed in and out of it, from the Huguenot weavers of the seventeenth century to the Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis of today. Its story is one of extremes—of narrow, dingy streets and grand Hawksmoor churches, of great social campaigners, and out-and-out criminals like the Krays. This fascinating book, with an introduction by London’s great chronicler Peter Ackroyd, captures the spirit of the East End and its people, of those who have left their mark on it and those whose lives were marked by it forever.
Avg Rating
3.64
Number of Ratings
25
5 STARS
12%
4 STARS
44%
3 STARS
40%
2 STARS
4%
1 STARS
0%
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Author
Alan Warwick Palmer
Author · 24 books
Author also writes under Alan Palmer Alan Palmer was Head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969, when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research.
