Mile End in London – A history
We begin our journey here in the Mile End. The region takes its name from one stage to mark placed the only mile east of the boundary of the City of London at Aldgate. Although long gone, the event will be established near Stepney Green Station Metro.
One thing that will become clear during our trips is that you're never far History alive. The buildings and traditions continue to shape their environment, even if their original purpose has long since been usurped or forgotten. A beautiful example is target = "_blank"> Queen Mary University of London. The history of the site begins with Barber Beaumont, a colorful character in London early nineteenth century.
The Beaumont was a talented young artist, but made his fortune in insurance, since the founding of the Fire Bureau County. He then found the Life Institute and Provident Savings Bank, one of the first friendly societies. These people work encouraged save money and were the precursors of construction companies today. Back in London after the Napoleonic wars, his attentions turned to philanthropy. Determined to bring culture to the east of London, he built a museum, concert hall and library – the Eastern Athanaeum.
However, the true legacy of Beaumont is the trust fund he had left on his death in 1841. This should be used to build a home for higher education in east London. Over 40 years later his vision became reality with the opening of the People's Palace of Queen Victoria in 1887. The site included a technical college, a gymnasium, swimming pool, library, hall concert and winter gardens. Thousands of East Londoners came to witness the Queen open the Palais du Peuple. Thousands more came to hear presentations given at the People's Palace and Queen's Hall. In 1931 the palace was destroyed by fire, leaving only ashes where the Queen's Hall existed. An appeal fund was launched in 1937 King George VI laid the foundation stone for the new building. One of the few remaining Palace of the People is the Octagon Victorian. Once a library, its design is based on the reading room of the British Museum, there is now a Central University. After a recent restoration has returned to its original splendor and is a target = "_blank"> unusual location for any event.
Victorian philanthropy has contributed greatly to the east of London. Philanthropists were concerned not only with physical well-being of the masses but also their spiritual and cultural development. Columbia Street Market has been designed as a sustainable project, create jobs and housing for locals. Whitechapel Library and Art Gallery was established to broaden the horizons and prospects for their visitors. Both still intact, they have adapted to changing times and needs.
The Columbia Road market flower became a treasure to the east of London, busy and lively every Sunday morning. However, it was not intended to be completely is like that. Angela Burdett, granddaughter of Thomas Coutts (a founder of Coutts Bank) has been left an endowment of two million pounds, making it the richest woman in England. Instead of accepting one of the many offers of marriage she received, she embraced philanthropy. Causes of cotton ginning for Nigeria to a statue of Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh benefited from his largesse.
His main concern was to provide grants if sustainable and to this end in 1864, she donated £ 20,000 to build the British market. Unfortunately, the market has never been profitable and its closure in 1886, its buildings turned into warehouses and workshops. Market Street remained, but it took until the 1960s that the renaissance began. A growing interest in gardening has fueled the continued success of the market. Visit on Sundays and the street is filled with colorful flowers for sale. Coffee shops and boutiques line nearby streets.
The former Whitechapel library was built with funds donated by the series successful newspaper publisher John Passmore Edwards. Edwards was approached by passionate social reformer Samuel Augustus Barnett Cannon as someone which could facilitate his vision of a library and art gallery. The building they created received one entry into the hot Architectural Guides Pevsner, and inside it has been influenced generations of Londoners is. Famous visitors included the First World War poet Isaac Rosenberg, a painter Mark Gertler and novelist Esther Kreitman. The library was closed in August 2005, replaced by the "New Ideas Store 'more down the High Street. The library is combined with the adjacent Whitechapel Gallery, the increased exposure and teaching space, the continuation intentions of the philanthropist to the arts and culture in east London.
Another fascinating heritage of Whitechapel is the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, established in 1570 during the reign of Elizabeth I. It is the oldest manufacturing company in Britain, manufacturing and bells incessantly associated equipment for over 400 years. During its illustrious history it has built many famous bells, the Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia From the tower of the Hotel Independence to summon citizens to the first reading of the Declaration of Independence, and Big Ben, the bell of the Houses of Parliament, which, at 13.5 tons is the largest bell to have been thrown away.
A much less salubrious side of Whitechapel is one that has become entwined in the myths and legends of London, that of Jack the Ripper. The killings began in Whitechapel during the second half 1888. The victims were prostitutes casual. They were strangled, their throats slit and their bodies mutilated. The unsolved mystery of Jack the Ripper has lived in the imagination of writers and fascinated generations of historians. Much has been written and speculated about she. However, despite many theories, the identity of the serial killer was never found. Today you can book a visit to the region to experience first hand in places where these horrible events have occurred.
Of Whitechapel we continue on Whitechapel Road to Brick Lane, Spitalfields. Spitalfields Market is changing and is home to cosmopolitan restaurants and shops selling jewelry crafts and designer clothes. It began as a market in a field near the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital (one of the medieval England's largest hospitals). In 1682, John Balch, silk thrower, was granted a royal charter allowing it to make a market in the region every Thursday and Saturday.
The market has quickly established himself and soon became a center for selling locally grown produce. Work to create the structure that covers the market today began in 1876 when a former Market Porter, Robert Horner, purchased a lease short term premises. The market continued to grow and expand, but became too large for the region and in 1991 the market for products moved in Leyton.
Excavations on the site after removal revealed an even earlier history. Romans placed their cemeteries outside limits of the City and London (or Londinium as it was then called) was no different. Spitalfields was in this area. In the end 1990s an amazing discovery was uncovered: a Roman sarcophagus containing a high status, dressed in silk Roman lady, buried with its accessories reaction.
The population of East London has continued to shift and change, creating a living history. Each new wave bringing with her new habits, tastes, trades and traditions, the influence of which can still be glimpsed. The Huguenots fled persecution in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. They settled in Spitalfields, bringing with them skills in weaving and textiles. They chose this area because of its location outside the city limits and jurisdiction of city guilds and their restrictive legislation. In the late nineteenth century, the area once again became home to escape these troubles when 150,000 Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms in Europe there are installed. Proof of Jewish influence can still be experienced at the world famous Beigal bakery on Brick Lane. The street is buzzing now with renowned restaurants of Bangladesh, the scents and spicy aromas of curry scent the air.
Further east we arrive in Docklands. Now a center of financial activity and glass towers, over the years he was at the gates of the known world, animated by trade. Large boats up the Thames with their exotic cargoes. One of the best known of ancient docks is St. Katharine Docks. Now, luxury apartments to watercraft at home and well appointed, it began as a sacred site.
In 1148, Matilda of Boulogne has established a hospital, Start a long association between her and the queens of England. However, despite several years of royal patronage, the hospital came time hard, ravaged by fire, storms and riots. In 1827, the hospital was demolished and built docks. Navigation and Commerce played a role important in the history of East London. Many of its inhabitants would have worked in the docks, some moved in May from foreign countries.
A famous group of settlers formed the first city of London, China in Limehouse. Between the years 1880 and 1930, Limehouse became synonymous with his Chinese residents. Much of the reputation of the region at that time came from authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu Evil, creating an atmosphere of mystery and danger. It was to Limehouse that Oscar Wilde eternally young Dorian Gray came in search of opium.
And if we reach the outskirts of East London. William the Conqueror made his mark on the landscape of east London, with a monument that became a iconic emblem of the capital and recognized worldwide. Tower of London was built to hold the cement of William to England. Top defenses on the southeast corner of the Roman wall has evolved into what is now called the White Tower (so named after white – lime in 1270).
The name "Tower of London 'is perhaps a little misleading, because it is actually a collection of towers, each with its own history. His sturdy walls have allowed prisoners such as Sir Walter Raleigh and Guy Fawkes have witnessed gruesome killings and even housed a zoo, created in 1235 by a gift of three leopards of the Holy Roman Emperor King Henry III. About 150 people still live in the walls of the Tower, mainly Yeoman Guards (Beefeaters) and their families. More than 2.1 million visitors passed through its doors in 2005, but tourism is not a new development in its history, in fact as early as the 1590 people paid for trips.
Visitors to the Tower in the late nineteenth century would have been able to benefit from a form enough new transmission. The Tower Subway was the underwater tunnel second to be built in the world (Brunel's Thames Tunnel, which now houses the East London Line, had the glory of being the first) and ran from Tower Hill on the north side of the river to the vine on a path the south shore. The tunnel was first underground railway in the world and its passengers commuting from one end to another in just 70 seconds. But his character Single does not contradict its inherent problems. Although fast, the train was small and cramped. In his Dictionary of London Charles Dickens commented on The lack of space the head. The Italian writer Edmondo De Amicis has been more forthcoming in his description: "In the water below, in the dark depths River, where suicides meet death, and that over your head are passing ships, and that if a crack should open in the wall, you would not even time to recommend your soul to God. The tunnel took three months before its closure and re-installed as a tunnel on foot, a much more success, with over 20,000 people per week with him, until he was caught by the opening of Tower Bridge in 1894. Today, Tunnel transport lines of television cable around the River.
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