Results tagged “local history”

Fiona Rule didn't know London's docklands from a plate of pie and mash when she started research for her book - but she'd heard the stories.

Stories about the Blitz, of course - their finest hour - but mostly stories about the sense of community, the casual savagery of working life, the cheek-by-jowl two-up-two-downs with their tin baths and coal-specked washing.

Hay's Galleria, now a retail and eating experience in the shadow of Tower Bridge, is only the latest incarnation of a wharf that has seen a number of different visitors.

Roman remains suggested it was the site of a villa but its recorded history starts with its role as the city residence of the Abbot of Battle.

By Wharfinger

Bethnal Green was not yet a functioning Central line station by the start of the Second World War so, with no track laid, there was plenty of space for Londoners to seek night-time sanctuary from German bombers. Consequently, it became something of a central focal point for a community scarred by the Blitz.