THE LITTLE HISTORY OF THE EAST END

• 186 pages
• The History Press, 2020
• £12 RRP
• Available for purchase from Amazon, Waterstones, WH. Smith, The History Press and from all good bookshops

♦ “Though ambitious in scope, the book is also very readable, packed full of fascinating details and narrated in lively prose. As a Whitechapel native, Gordon has a keen sense for topics that are especially worth examining, and the text is divided into short thematic sections on subjects such as prostitution, shipbuilding and religious institutions… We discover how the imprint of successive waves of inhabitants shaped the area. Our classical conquerors gave us Roman Road and Ermine Way (the A10 from Bishopsgate to Lincoln); the East End tradition of cloth production dates from Saxon times; Bow Bridge was brought to us by the Normans in 1110; Shakespeare’s first theatre was built in Shoreditch under the Tudors; Truman’s Brewery began life in Brick Lane during the Stuart period and had by 1873 become the largest brewery in the world. The Victorians brought gentrification, and by 1911 Thomas Cook was selling an ‘Evening Drive in the East End’ for 5s.”
(Part of review in Hackney Citizen – 10.11.2020)

♦ “As readers will see, the East End has a lot more to offer than criminals, and in The Little History with its suggested limitations the main focus is on local growth and change… It charts its beginnings in the Stone Age … all the way to its jam packed 20th century status as a place of innovation and diversity… Fascinating … with plenty of tales to share.”
(Southend Echo, review – 28.10.2020)

♦ “… informative, easy read, entertaining, well-written, engaging…”
(Amazon Uk review)

THE FIRST EAST END CELEBRITY
This had to be Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived in rooms over the gate at Aldgate from 1374 to be near to his work as Commissioner of Customs in the Port of London. It is likely that the accommodation was funded by his brother-in-law-to-be, John of Gaunt, although Chaucer’s wealthy father (a vintner) had land, shops, gardens and even a brewery in the vicinity.
Chaucer lived there for twelve years, a period during which many of his poems were written and where he started writing The Canterbury Tales. There is a reference to the convent at Stratford-atte-Bow (i.e. St. Leonard’s) in this famous book, the prioress having studied French there which she “spak ful faire and fetisly”.

The area would have been busy, the building astride a muddy highway into London, a caretaker employed to keep the road under the gate in good repair, and with tolls charged from 1376, but this does not seem to have damaged his creativity. 14th century threats of invasion from the French may have worried him, however, following the death of Edward III – because by 1377 there were ordinances in place to fortify the gate with portcullises, and residents were told to be ready to defend the city.

HERE COME THE WITCHES
By the time James I took over the throne from Elizabeth, the number of executions for witchcraft had declined, and there was less support for his virtual campaign against witches. So he instigated the 1604 Witchcraft Act which changed the law so that hanging became mandatory for a first offence, even if no one had died as a result.
Joan Peterson, “The Witch of Wapping” lived on Spruce Island (near Shadwell) was perhaps just attempting to help the sick, as did so many in the 17th century in areas affected by overcrowding and poverty, the resultant illnesses especially prevalent among nonmariners. Some thought there was more to it, and at her Old Bailey trial it was said that “the Devil often came to suck her, sometimes in the likeness of a Dog, and at other times like a Squirrel” – such “evidence” obviously provided by those she had failed to cure. Sadly for her, she also owned a black cat (!) and she was hanged at Tyburn in 1652.

Others were luckier. Joan Kent features in the Old Bailey trials of 1682. Because her case rested on an incident in Spitalfields, the assumption is that she would have lived nearby. The accusation of witchcraft stemmed from her desire to buy two pigs on credit from “Mr Chambler” but credit was refused, the pigs then becoming sick, and his five-year-old daughter developing swellings “all over her body” resulting in her death. Another witness swore that she had a teat on her back (with which to feed a “familiar”) and another swore that she had overturned his coach when he refused to carry her. However, Joan convinced the jury that she was a good, honest, church-going woman and they found her Not Guilty.
Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Poplar shipwright, served around four months in a variety of prisons in 1654 on being accused of witchcraft, with some it seemed regarding her as saint rather than sinner. Anti-Cromwell, she was a passionate preacher and had one of several spiritual revelations when at “John Simpson’s church in Aldgate” [possibly St. Olave’s nearer modern day Fenchurch Street]. It was in Cornwall that she was accused of witchcraft, leading to her trial, while back in London she was revered as a prophet. Certainly she had a way with words, and was adept at talking her way out of tight corners.
Living in Red Lion Street, Spitalfields, Nicholas Culpeper was a famous herbalist at the time, treating patients at his pharmacy in Commercial Street, Shoreditch, without charging the poor, to the fury of medical colleagues. He gave advice on health and wrote books about herbal cures. But a widow from Shoreditch accused him of witchcraft in 1643 and he was imprisoned, but the story goes that the widow had not been cured of whatever ailed her and was taking her revenge with her accusation. It appears that although she was supported by the medical establishment, not happy with his “free” cures, his trial resulted in acquittal.