East End Echoes – London walk from Mile End to Poplar via Limehouse (4K)

East End Echoes – London walk from Mile End to Poplar via Limehouse (4K)

My end gateway to the East mile end so cold for the obvious reason that it’s a mile from oldgate it’s the end of the mile from oldgate sounds obvious doesn’t it it’s a place that goes back into the Middle Ages at the very least is mentioned as Mile End in the 13th century and today

It’s the start point for an amazing walk I’m picking up actually on two comments I received um I think they were both our Instagram actually telling me to go and look at places in popla which I’m going to do but I want to start the walk here

At a place that is one of those amazing little hidden gems I was going to say it’s a cemetery but a hidden little corner of London that has a kind of quite incredible historical story to it it’s just up here off the mland road and we’re just going to cross the Region’s

Canal here and I think part of the the walk we will go down the Regent Canal from here for a bit I think that’ be quite nice wouldn’t It so the 18th century Cemetery we’re looking for I think is behind that very modern building in the grounds of uh Queen Mary University so I think this little Alleyway here should take us to the site with a bit of luck wow what an astonishing site I’ve

Never actually seen it like this before I think mostly come through here in the dark this is the novo Cemetery it’s a sefardic Jewish cemetery which was established in 1733 for what was then a a slowly growing Jewish community that had been reestablished um in the 17th century at

The time of Oliver croma fly enough and I’ll tell the story in a bit but I just want to take in the the kind of power of this site is kind of incredible isn’t it the great topographical writer Walter George Bell WR writes in his book uh

Where London sleeps 1926 a book I use quite a lot from my book this other London um he writes very touchingly about the other Cemetery the V Cemetery which was established in 1657 and was full up by the 1720s hence another Cemetery was required and this one was established then in

1733 but he talks about the power of these um of the gravestones lying down flat not a single one of them is upright he says this is a sphardic Jewish tradition not to stand um tombstones upright in the air I think it’s something to do yeah I I

Can’t remember he doesn’t really say why but when you see it like this it’s powerful right I don’t know if anybody knows the tradition behind that I’d be Keen to to find out if you wanted to pop it in the comments I think this Cemetery was still in use in the early 20th

Century certainly when Bell was writing in 1926 there was still people being buried here it looks pretty full up but doesn’t it now it’s kind of incredible isn’t it the V cemetery is not far away I think it’s oldy Road where the original the first sapharic Cemetery to be

Established in London after the Jewish Community is reestablished after absence of something like I think it was like 350 year absence um and Bell tells that story brilliantly in his book say published in 1926 um that symmetry is kind of locked off and closed and closed up I’ve been

There a couple of times on it’s mentioned in Alit really it’s a location in the wonderful book Alit so I’ve been I’ve done two alet walks that one of them that ends there one I did with the in Sinclair we end there and I went there with my friend Bob and Roberto

Smith the artist and we went to the to the to the V Cemetery as well but it links back these tombstones here link back to a really sort of important part of the story of London when a Jewish Community was a sizable Jewish community of any kind of note was established at

The time of William the just after the Norman Invasion um a number of Jewish people came with with William or with with the Normans I should say from Normandy from Ruan and can and other kind of Norman cities and established a reasonable siiz Jewish community in London which were then all expelled in

1290 by Edward I and all the Jews were expelled they all had to leave on ships a number of those ships were wrecked and people were left to drown in the sea there’s some terrible stories about ferryman taking them out into the temps and dumping them on sand banks and

Leaving them to drown was a terrible moment the I think what B writes about is that memory of the expulsion what was called the expulsion 16,000 in 1290s a significant number of people to be expelled from our city but then funny enough under the under the rain of oliv

Romwell he’s not known for any kind of religious tolerance he um invited or allowed Jews to reestablish a Jewish community in London uh and gave permission for a burial ground in an orchard not far away in ordinary Road in 1657 so this links back to that kind of quite important story and it’s

Interesting to see the way Bell writes about that in the 1920s and he tells the sort of story of the persecution of Jews in medieval Europe leading up to an event he was invited to at the other Cemetery which apparently the V cemetery is otherwise known as the house of Life

The house of life there are a few notable burials here amongst them is a fellow known as uh Shalom bazaglo apologist for any mispronunciation there and he was in um he was born in Morocco and he was born in mares and grew up in southern Morocco which was a a

Cabalistic center Center of cabalistic study and was persecuted and came to London and where he carried on and his studies of the cabala and published a number of books on the cabala in London see London is the city of Visionaries and Mystics our next uh notable locations are down in Popa I

Think what we do is we’ll go through the the University campus grounds here and then get on the Region’s canal and head south towards Limehouse and popler a here it is is the beautiful Regent Canal I don’t think I don’t think I can walk very far on this side I think I

Have to go I have to go out and round I think that’s um that was a really almost quite profound start to the the walk today I think something that I needed funnny enough I I’m not feeling great in myself today it happens I think it particularly happens in middle age

Perhaps I don’t know but I was feeling a bit flat you know bit low I would go any further than that but um and you kind of know that you need something to remind you of what to be grateful for and I’ve got an awful lot to be grateful for and

I think reading um reading that chapter from where London sleeps written in 1926 about the background too actually it’s the the the V I think that’s correct is Portuguese so Veo Veo Cemetery reading the story of that and uh the story of uh the Jews in London and in

Europe in the Middle Ages just kind of you know it’s quite profound and and you think about your own life think I’m I’m you know I should perk up so good I’m not saying reading that miserable story has made me feel better about myself but um it makes you great right

Makes you grateful for the things that you that you have now it’s going to it’s going to be upbeat I think it’s going to be upbeat actually the places we’re going to the two suggested places one of them is a street that is apparently really quirky artsy street that was recommended to me

By fish and Bicycle Club I think they’re called or he’s called they’re called uh on Instagram apparently it’s going to be demolished I think that’s part of the Christmas Treet regeneration thing and the other one was a pub which was I think last known as The African Queen I

Think I’ve got the notes written down that was suggested to me by uh Sue Bales and it’s like a lost pub and that has quite an interesting quite a long history I think the pub that is there now the building is there is the latest building there was a there

Was um an older building that I think is linked to I don’t know where I picked this up but I wrote this note a few years ago is linked to to the sons of Africa and I’m watching Taboo at the moment have you watched taboo on the

Bbci player it’s so good we’ll talk more about that later cuz I could talk about for age it’s so good if you like this stuff London oh my God that for me is the best evocation of early 19th century London now I say that like I was there

Obviously I wasn’t I don’t know but what I imagine when I see it it’s just great all these wooden Shacks down by the temps are whopping with some pools in the background it really get what read about that about that ear of what London looked like what the Waterfront looked

Like oh my God it’s so it’s amazing it’s about the East India Company the American uh you know the nent American colonies it’s brilliant there’s a character in there who is one of the sons of Africa so that’s when I saw that today I thought he’s a good character I

Was watching an episode with him last night obviously I’m not going to talk too much about the show cuz if you haven’t watched it I don’t want to ruin it for you I thought I know rather than double back on myself and go back through the campus I’ll walk North along

The canal and go up on that bridge and down the other side but it’s a Railway Bridge so now I have got a oh well there’s a lesson there that I probably learned before and ignored but there you go the around we Go my l was a significant location in The Peasants Revolt of 1381 it’s where what Tyler and his followers from Essex 100,000 people 100,000 people camped out here at my end forcing uh one of the Richards Richard II Richard theii to ride out here to meet what Tyler and the other

Representatives and where actually Richard conceded to their demands to end surf them throughout the kingdom you might think wow great story happy ending well that isn’t the way it played out isn’t it Tyler took his followers into the City and he was uh tricked and he was murdered by the

King’s Men and they I can’t remember what the final settlement was but it certainly wasn’t the what Tyler had hoped for and it you know M ends story historic Place and this section here of the Regent Canal goes down to Limehouse Basin is the uh is the original the first part of the Regent Canal to opened and opened in 1816 it was finally completed in 1820 which unfortunately was um around the time that they invented steam

Engines in the way Network started from there so the Region’s Canal never really ever lived up to its potential as a as a transport part of the transportation Network it was quickly superseded by the railways but it is now a great place of leisure and people live along here in the narrow

Boats in 1845 there was a plan to convert the canal into a railway line called the Regent Canal Railway that would run from Paddington to City Road Basin the scheme ultimately fell through lack of funds as did several other similar Schemes the wonderful myland Park here with mend Stadium down there that was used for some open air concerts I think pulp and blur and people played there in the hey day of Brit pop and I think pulp even wrote a song called M end about the

Whether it was about the gig or about the area I’m not sure but if you look at the old azs my old AZ here which I think is from the 1950s early 50s it’s actually not dated I had to ring them to get a date for it

But um it shows this area around here was was was housing was built was was built environment the southern end was King George’s Fields but all this here this was streets so it’s an interesting reversal of what you would expect a green space was created where once there was uh there were Buildings right now to enjoy a nice stroll along the toe path of the region Canal So here’s the the Ragged School Museum from the top paath view and this was established by Dr Bernardo in 1877 does that make it the original Dr bernardo’s home I’m not sure but um it was built in 1877 to look after some of the poorest kids in in London generally and I was

Reading a book actually I think it’s called Dr Jonathan’s walks in London or Jonathan’s walks in London it dates from the uh okay late Victorian period and it’s richly Illustrated and he talks about the terrible plight of kids in the East End around sort of Step knee

Limouse and the way that families often just couldn’t afford to keep them so the kids were just turfed out to the street to fend for themselves oh so I think we are just going to walk down the Regent’s canal and turn away uh East just before we get to the

Limehouse Basin to our next two locations which is so lovely to stroll along here I walked across here with Tom Bolton when we were walking the the black ditch one of the Lost rivers of London from Tom’s wonderful book or volume two of Tom’s wonderful books on walking the Lost rivers of London

Accurate walking guides to a number of them I’ve I’ve used Thomas book a couple of times for my lost Rivers walk most notably uh the Hackney Brook and it cuts across this bit of open ground Here I love the the shape of this Iron Bridge here it’s great isn’t it isn’t that wonderful tube Bridge the canals really are one of the great features of London we’re so lucky to have this extensive Canal Network it’s fully accessible to people to walk along cyclists of course

Joggers cuz you know look at places like Paris which has a wonderful canal canal San Maran but I think that’s the only one right we’ve got quite you know quite a decent Canal Network running around London it’s interesting when you look at the um the London plan that was written

During the war 1943 published 1944 and even there they do envisage the transition of the canal network over towards Leisure use Leisure and Recreation back when it still had some sort of industrial use when these areas around here were still industrial although they would have been heavily

Bombed obviously during the war and they looked into the future and they thought no this will be transitioned into well what it is today really which is I mean we’ve probably just followed that plan I know but it is interesting that foresight those plans and how those

Plans over time have come into fruition thankfully a lot of them didn’t like another inner at least another one or two inner orbital RADS like the north circular there’s going to be two more inside the north circular we’ve destroyed London so I’m going to turn off the region Canal here just before

Limehouse Basin which is I feel like I got to go seems H but no I am going to turn off here and go up there to Commercial Road so this is back to the uh the territory now of the Ian n walk and actually we are going to walk down

Grandy Street which is in that video but I just completely disregarded the comment from Sue or the message from Sue about the uh the pub so I shall link to all the related videos down below uh Castle trough drinking fountain here underneath Railway Bridge from 1886 and here we have the the Lee

Navigation limouse cup just a section of it called the the limouse cup another another example of a fantastic little Waterway carving through the heart of East London and here’s the Magnificent Church of an’s Limehouse built in 1730 and designed by Nicholas hawksmore and consequently designated a very strong psychogeographical nodal point which uh

Gives it great potency in the sacred geography of London a church heavily associated with Ian Sinclair who was a parks’s gardener I think he worked in this graveyard for for the council working on the garden here it’s one of the most uh important sites in Ian’s map his map of London that he

Drew the psycho geography of London uh that he designed and was drawn by Brian Catlin and was in that Exhibition at swedenberg house featured in the video I made there recently about his exhibition histories and Hauntings what a magnificent lump of limestone and in fact fact there is the pyramid as that features in that exhibition there’s a photograph of of Ian I think it’s Ian or Brian Catlin Stood Beside that pyramid there that mysterious Pyramid the map is for mean’s book L heat very influential map in the whole well you might say the kind of waffle I come out with sometimes this idea of the Sacred city of London and the map partly links together the churches designed by Nicholas hawksmore and hawksmore I think is

Associated with mysticism because he was into a lot of that stuff I think he was into cabala he was a Freemason of course he was a Freemason he was an actual Mason I mean a literal one he worked with stone and the map links together these churches these hawksmore churches

From St L St an’s Limehouse here through St Luke’s and Beyond and also takes in another of the kind of locations in the mythology of London like The Penton Mound uh it’s a beautiful vision of London a beautiful vision of London and the structures like this tombs like this

Are really curious aren’t they I imagine this is to do with the Victorian obsession with all things Egyptian I think it was called egyptomania and you see obelisks and pyramids all over uh London that were built in the Victorian era it’s great now we are along East India Dock

Road another reminder of the immense power of the East India Company there was a government within a government it’s brilliantly portrayed in taboo the the Tom Hardy drama on the bbci player fantastic the way that they had their own Army in fact they thought they were more powerful than the Crown the British

Crown itself they thought they were the most powerful company or organization or whatever you want to call them in the world it’s amazing watch that drama it really brings that period to life some of the area we’re about to pass through was covered in that recent video the

Iann video I’ll link to that below so you have to excuse me skipping over some of the the history here of Lansbury estate the uh the old Victorian Chinatown all that kind of stuff that’s in that other video so now turning into Grandy Street we’re looking for a lost pub down here I

Think I’ve seen a photograph of it so I think I know what it looks like now I think here it is what was last known as The African Queen it closed in the in the 1990s I think I’ll put the date on the screen if that’s incorrect built in 1866 as the South

African Tavern and then the African Tavern and finally the African queen and Sue who sent the um who sent it the I think well suu told me about it told me he was going to look for it she thought it had a link to the sons of Africa a

Really interesting group they were active in London in late 18th century and 19th century London a group of African men living in uh London some of them were former slaves who were you know leading lights in the Abolitionist Movement the movement to end slavery so

I think the I’m not sure if the dates quite work for link to the African queen unless there was a previous Pub on this site that they used but uh a lovely bit of trivia about the African queen is is where apparently it said that Max by

Graves used to record some of his records in here that’s beautiful isn’t it that’s too good not to include right one more site to include on this Walk abeli Street I think that’s right alel Street Abel Street which is nearby in POA we should get there in this beautiful sunset This is Brownfield Street well so we’re going underneath the balron tower which it looks like now it’s been fully renovated but I think it’s also probably been fully privatized right cuz that was the tragic thing that happened here where they decanted all the tenants out to do the works and then decided

They couldn’t afford to do the work so they sold it that’s what I remember being told when I was up in the penthouse of the bont Tower with a load of developers and whatnot hope I’m wrong about that and that didn’t happen bit of uh bit of underpass

Action this is quite a colorful underpass this is an interesting mural Francis Bacon on the right I’m not sure who that is on the left I have to look this up it’s interesting Francis Bacon I think is most associated with with whopping and I might be doing a bacon

Themed walk with Ian Sinclair very soon this is in D Street wow so this is abeli Street we just got here in the last of the light I think this must be the colorful part of it that fish and Bicycle Club mentioned I thought they meant colorful in terms

Of car I didn’t realize they meant colorful literally colorful it’s kind of beautiful isn’t it will be shame if it all gets knocked down I guess it’s going to get swept up into the crisp Street development they mentioned the Tommy flowers Pub there it’s a cute looking

Little Pub I think Tommy flowers was a boxer wasn’t it cuz there the Tommy flowers in the West End I’m getting it confused with something Else so you can see the new build apartments at the end there so maybe what’s going to Happ happened is they’re just going to sweep up the street and wipe it all out it’s a shame not to have seen it about 15 minutes ago when it would have

Caught the sunset that’s what I thought I would do get here for Sunset I just missed it it really show off the colors but it looks like it’s yeah in the middle of a regeneration you can see like place the people speak and sort of community centers that are set up what have

You um but I don’t know much else about history other than this area was heavily bombed in the blitz it was absolutely destroyed and this estate was built after the war so apparently the name comes from the Scottish engineer who bought land here to house his workers he

Were working on the docks I thought it was a place in Wales abeli but it’s a place in Scotland so as Heritage from in you know London’s industrial past it’s a fascinating end of the walk I say I might try and get back down here before

I post this video to get a shot of it in daylight if I can um that may not happen due to I don’t know when this video will go live by the way so now appropriately I’m going to get the um the DLR doite railway from um that’s the buzzing of a

Door over there uh do light railway from East India station which feels like very appropriate end and I feel like now I need to my dad’s song that he wrote for me for the walk that I did out to North oing to the most eastern point in London

Like that should be the um the play out music for every video what do you think I can’t imagine someone saying no don’t use that but it’s not always appropriate over Meadow over stream but maybe this was once Meadows and streams this I really enjoyed this walk today I really

Needed it today like I mentioned earlier on in the video bit bit of low mood kicking in so coming out here today and piecing together these sort of very poignant locations has been a really lovely thing to do I’ve really enjoyed I Love Walks like this kind of walks I

Would have just written about Once Upon a Time so it’s nice for me to do them and capture them on video and bring you with me quite a simple walk so I always like to say I look forward to seeing the next walk wherever that may be and like

I say two of the locations here were just suggestions that were sent to me on Instagram but you know I’m really love following up on your comments and your suggestions and I’ve got a list of some that come from the recent Q&A that I will follow up on as well so thanks once

Again it’s over the meadow over the stream it’s where I’m going and where I have been it’s been a long day now it’s time for a bear and now for home of course I must it’s over the meadow over the Stream

From the 18th Century Novo Cemetery to Hawksmoor’s St Anne’s Church Limehouse via the Regent’s Canal then two historic locations in Poplar.
Thanks to my supporters on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/JohnRogers
Related videos:
East End Architecture London Walking Tour | Stepney & Poplar https://youtu.be/wVnkLF35zJo?si=cAi7C4hoO7Vgspuq
Histories and Hauntings – Iain Sinclair at Swedenborg House https://youtu.be/LabMSocsLlE?si=jHIX3vN-gQPuL1Yr
East End Walk following W.G Sebald’s Austerlitz https://youtu.be/IpEKUalZg8Q?si=GGv7uBRYlma87-7q
Secrets of the City with Iain Sinclair https://youtu.be/CHyizbQ6Tmc?si=mjm6kafyFxcIWVts

Featured in this video: Mile End Road and the story of the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, Novo Jewish Cemetery established in 1733, Regent’s Canal and the story of the failed Regent’s Canal Railway, Mile End Park, The Ragged Museum, Commercial Road, the Limehouse Cut, St Anne’s Church Limehouse, East India Dock Road, Grundy Street and site of the African Queen Pub, Chrisp Street Market, Balfron Tower, Aberfeldy Street, East India DLR Station.
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Music:
Best Kept Secrets – Rue Rosa
Big Sky – Gavin Luke
Dismantle – Peter Sandberg
In the Beginning of Time – Of Water
Minor Emotions – Megan Wofford
From Epidemic Sound
Over the Meadow Over the Stream – Alan Rogers

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