London has always been a city of arrivals. For centuries the East End has been the home of those seeking safety, opportunity, a fresh start.
From early Roman settlers, to Huguenot weavers fleeing persecution in France, the thousands of Jewish refugees escaping the pogroms of eastern Europe, Irish families driven here by famine, to the present Bengali neighbourhood. Each community arrived with little, built something remarkable, and left their mark indelibly on these streets. The streets hereabouts continue to evolve.
Walk through Spitalfields and Whitechapel today and the layers are still visible everywhere you look. The finest Georgian streets in London, built by French silk weavers who hung songbirds in their windows. A building on a single corner that has been a Huguenot chapel, a Methodist chapel, a synagogue and finally a modern day mosque. A mural on a corner wall that cuts through everything with just two figures holding hands. This is one of the most human, colourful and vibrant, endlessly changing walks in London.
Along the way:
- The Kindertransport memorial at Liverpool Street, one of the most powerful artworks in the city
- Artillery Passage and the finest surviving Georgian shopfront in London, dating to 1756
- Princelet Street, the best preserved Huguenot street in Britain, where French was once spoken and songbirds hung in the windows
- The building on Fournier Street that has been a Huguenot chapel, a Methodist chapel, a synagogue and a mosque
- Brick Lane, Whitechapel and the STIK mural that says everything about this community in two simply drawn figures
Approximately 2 hours Starts: Gail’s Bakery, Liverpool Street Station Concourse