Doris Nisbet as a baby, late 1920’s
Petticoat Lane c.1920
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The traders down Petticoat Lane used to shout out. The auctioneer would stand up on a stool. And they used to auction the china, the cups and saucers. Chap used to throw them up in the air, catch them, a whole bunch of them. shouting out.
Cyril Hiller
I’ve met a lot of East End characters – the good, the bad and the ugly, but all nice.
Aldo Caira
Vera Caley c.1935 Henrietta Street (now Allgood St.)
Bethnal Green E2.
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You thought you were lucky if you had two sets of clothes. Well, we was very lucky, we had two sets. My best dress was made out of sacking with a little collar. To get in it, I used to have to put my hands up, while mum pulled it on. My best dress was for Sundays.
Vera Caley
Swinging on the lampost, 1935
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Along the road there was a Cooper’s, that made barrels, and they were wooden. We’d stand at the gate, and the chap would say “Clear off you kids, what you standing there for?” And we’d say “Have you got any hoops you don’t want?” And in the end
they’d give you a wooden hoop,
a piece of wood and you’d go
and play hoop and stick in the road. You could go up and down the street, no traffic, only buses along the main road, so you
didn’t have anything to worry about.
Lil Murrell
Market trader, Petticoat Lane c.1936
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To go to the ‘penny pictures’, there was a deal, you had to go to Sunday School first. Because they gave you a little card, it either had a crucifix on it, or
figure of Jesus, or the Angels. And on the back they’d stamp a star for each time you attended. And if you got enough stars, you had to get over twenty, you went to the pictures. So I made sure I got twenty stars. And I went.
Caroline Wheeler
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FACT: Population totals for the the ‘old’ boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar, Stepney, East and West Ham, show a dramatic fall from 925,193 in the 1931 census
to 522,185 in the 1951 census.
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Now you close the door and that’s the end of it. You shut your door and you’re inside alone. In my day if you didn’t see anyone for a few hours, there would be someone knocking at the door.
Marion Davies
My sister and I used to sleep in the single bed, and the five boys was in the double bed - three at the top, two at the bottom. So it was, “Ah, stop kicking me”, and we really did have a laugh. Now we look back and think, “My God, however did we manage?”
Vera Caley
We didn’t always have the rent. When they came round, they said, “Where’s your mother?” So I said that my mother was out. “When will she back?”
I said I didn’t know. But she wasn’t out. She was hiding in the bedroom because she couldn’t afford to pay the rent that week. And then we had a grocery shop in Nelson Street, and we used to buy food on the tick, ‘till we was able to pay them. You’d got to pay a bit more when they reckoned it all up, in their head.
Cyril Hiller
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Backs of East End tennement housing c.1910
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I’m not a typical East Ender but proud of the East End.
Lotte Tendler
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| FACT: In 1931, 60 people per acre lived in East London. By 1961 this figure had fallen to 40 people per acre.
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Sometimes you’d hear all the old girls sitting outside their doors of a night time, chatting, when it was hot weather. And the kids would be skipping, and the mums would be turning the rope and all that. We also used to have a bit of rope hanging from the lamp-post, swinging round that, but there was nothing else to do.
Linda Bragg
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Children skipping, using string from a fruit box, Shoreditch 1922
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School children celebrate Empire Day 24th May c.1935.
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We used to go to the Parish Hall which was decorated by the Union Jack. We used to sing patriotic songs, like Jerusalem. And the highlight of it was, after the service, and singing all the songs, we used to file out and be given an orange and a marzipan fish and the rest of the day off. So we always looked forward to Empire Day. If it was a fine day we’d go to what we called the New Park. We used to go what we called ‘camping’. We’d get an old sheet, tie it to the railings, and pin it down, and just climb underneath and just sit there imagining we were camping.
George Thurgar
Mick Miller, aged 5, standing back left with his mother, c.1927
on a Beano.
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I found a job that used to help the milkman. I used to help him everyday. I used to come out the school dinnertime. I used to run all round his route to catch him up. He had a horse and cart. Then I used to help him do all his milk round until he got round to the buildings where I lived. I used to go in there and have a sandwich or a couple of slices of bread. I used to come out and we used to finish round by the school. Then I used to go back to school. He used to give me 3 and 8 pence for that.
On Saturday I used to get up in the morning and run all the way to Watney Street, and I used to meet him in the yard, he used to come out of there with the horse and cart, I used to start his round in Lowell Street and we used to do his complete round – Lowell Street, Salmon Lane, Newell Street, Three Colt Street, Narrow Street, Lockside, Northey Street, all the way round, come up Newell Street by the Limehouse Town Hall and that was the last stop. Then we used to get on the horse and cart and that horse, although he was half asleep all the way round, he knew he was going home and he used to gallop down the round. It was so thrilling like, and of course, the carts only had iron wheels. They used to catch in the tramlines, they used to go round - it was a big thrill.
Mick Miller
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Everyone was ready for a laugh.
Alice Schreiber |
Providence Cottages
Poplar 1930
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I moved to Jubilee Street. They were London Hospital houses. Well conditions were very poor in Stepney. If there was a house vacant, and you saw that it was a bit, not a lot, but a little bit better than the conditions you were living in, you went into that house. Paid the rent to the landlord.
Cyril Hiller
Bow tram depot 1932-33
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If you walked down Angel Lane, everybody would be shouting out. You had the man who sold the wet fish, the fruit man, the place that sold stockings. As you walked along, everybody would be calling out. The trolley buses would be going up and down. It was just one load of noise.
Hilda Kennedy
And there was a man used to come round, known as the midnight baker, used to comec around ten o’clock at night with fresh bread.
George Thurgar
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The Wall’s Ice Cream Man.
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There was the Wall’s ice-cream man with the bicycle, selling ice creams and what you called snow-fruits. It was what you’d call a fruit lolly nowadays, but they was in a triangular tube. And if you couldn’t afford a whole one, he’d cut one in half for you.
George Thurgar
Kipper seller, Petticoat Lane c.1936
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When I was a kid, before the war, there was a railway works, and you had what you called a grotto. You spread out a cloth on the pavement, and you took all your mum’s ornaments, all silver things, jewellery, and you spread it all out onto a sheet. You waited for the men to come out of the railway works, and you’d say, “Please will you remember our grotto?” and they’d put a penny in the box. All kids done it, and of course we done it on a Friday; we wasn’t silly, because that’s when they got paid.
Hilda Kennedy |
Pool of London, late 19th Century.
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I used to go down to the docks with dad and climb up on the ships to meet his mates. I loved that, but I was nervous. They used to let a rope down on the side of the boat. And of course he got up it, and I was left on the side. And he’d say, “What about the girl, send her up.” And I had to get up this rope ladder to get on the ship. I was all right when I got there, because I had a lump of cake, and a mug of lemonade, or anything. I thought it was good, because I had enough to eat that day.
Caroline Wheeler
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Busker playing barrell organ.
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Out would come a man with a barrel organ, maybe one dressed up as a lady, and do a dance. It wasn’t half good, coming out with a penny to give him. There’d be another man that would come round, and he’d tip a tin of sand onto the pavement to do the old sand dance.
Vera Caley
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Tower Bridge at low tide c.1930’s
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Us kids lived and played at Wapping Docks. We used to go down when the tide was out, and think that was our beach, and play on the front. But then a warning bell would go, and you’d have to get off, because the tide was coming in. It was a good life as kids.
Caroline Wheeler
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