The East End: Four centuries of London life

The East End is on the seaward side of London and its history is inextricably linked with the most complex docklands of any industrial society, serving what used to be a great trading nation and an Imperial power. As well as goods entering the port, generations of immigrants have flowed in - Protestant Huguenots from France, Irish labourers fleeing the potato blight, Jews escaping Russian pogroms, and Indians and Pakistanis. This study examines the evolution of the Tower Hamlets - Bethnal Green, Poplar, Hackney and Stepney - and sifts through the facts relating to an area notorious for its violent crime, political unrest and poverty. He argues that the area is a microcosm of the tensions apparent in British society as a whole, derived from the impact of the Industrial Revolution, the age of the railway, the two World Wars and the current invasion of the young rich.