The Secret Life of Streets (BBC Two)

[Anna]

Thanks for Bethnal Green Parishes map Pegleg. I've been finding some very useful old OS Maps online which help but of course Parish boundaries did chop and change over the years. Cali's cabbie could of course have had grandparents who lived in Old Nichol and family folklore does come filtering down through the generations and if he still lived in the area then continuity of memory would be preserved. (We had a family tale that great-great-great-grandfather's first wife died by being thrown from a carriage. In fact, from the various death certificates we now have, it was his second wife's mother who suffered that fate!! But, alas, not from a handsome carriage but a two wheeled cart in Greenwich)

Whilst looking at Arnold Circus I came across a fact, not sure if totally true, but the rents were too expensive for the dispossessed tenants and out of the original population only 11 were rehoused there, the accommodation going to the 'wealthier, respectable, poor' and so the others were pushed out further East into equally dire accommodation.. I suspect it was like the Peabody Estates in that you had to meet quite strict criteria to be allocated an apartments there. Of course now that Shoreditch is quite up and coming and rather chi-chi and unaffordable where do the remaining poor get moved to?

[Serial_Apologist]

Of course now that Shoreditch is quite up and coming and rather chi-chi and unaffordable where do the remaining poor get moved to?

A very big question indeed, Anna, and one that will need urgent answers to be found in years to come, as the outcome of the currrent recession filters down. In the "post-WW2 Settlement" it was to places like the new estates on the edge and the new towns, while immigrants populated what had been poor working class inner-city districts, like this one.

[Pegleg]

Arnold Circus.


Apart from eating in Brick lane and browsing in the Petticoat Lane markets, this is not part of London I've spent much time in. But it's hard to imagine someone who has never heard of the “East End”, or of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Whitechapel, if only in the context of the lurid “Jack the Ripper” stories.

London's “East End” has attracted a multitude of writers over the ages. Whether it's Victorian contemporary journalism, histories or fiction, or modern studies, they all speak of poverty and degradation in the “East End” and often crime. The story of the “Old Nichol” and the LCC Boundary-Street Estate which replaced it is well documented, and it was always going to be fascinating to see how the programme makers would weave the stories of past and present estate tenants together with some of the main characters of the historical plot: the various act of parliament; the role of the Metropolitan Board of Works and the LCC; Rev. Osborne Jay of the Holy Trinity Church, Bethnal Green; Arthur Morrison author of “A Child of the Jago” and even the writings of the self-confessed real life criminal Arthur Harding. What would they emphasise in this episode?

The programme started with the Boundary-Street Estate raising phoenix like from the rubble of the “Old Nichol” slum, with only a brief glance back in time. Jay and Morrison were never mentioned, nor were the various act of parliament that lead to the slums destruction. The slum was only seen through the eyes of Booth and a descendant of the Goffe family, interviewed c1888 by Booth when living at 6 Half Nichol Street, home to 18 people in a two storey building with limited rooms. Records show the Goffee surname was once common in Bethnal Green in the 18th and 19th centuries, but you won't find a Goffe in the BT phone book for London E2 today. In a kind of echo of past pathetic voices, Allan Goffe described his family as “losers, doomed to failure, and everything we touched turned to dross”. I really wonder to what extent these comments were encouraged by the film makers to fit their own narrative.

The rest of the programme follows the path a young local authority planning officer introduces when he talks about a building starts when it opens and the rest of its life is when is get used by people back and forth. In other words, the focus was to be on the life of the Boundary-Street Estate.

Here we get some fuzzy dates, “work began in1894” and “opens for business in 1896”. The facts appear to say that demolition of the “Old Nichol” slum began in 1893 and only the first building on the new estate was open in 1896. They said absolutely nothing about the estate's grand official opening on 3rd March 1900 at 8pm by the Prince and Princess of Wales. We do at least get the solitary mention of where “Arnold Circus” get its name, from what the programme makers called “a LCC official”. This seems rather to down play Sir (Robert) Arthur Arnold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Arnold

Even the website of the Estate laundry has a better history than this:

http://boundarylaunderette.wordpress...ate-a-history/

But really is was historian Sarah Wise who shone a forensic light on the story to the “Old Nichol” in her acclaimed 2009 book “The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum”. If you can't loan, or don't want to buy, a copy, you should listen to her 47min lecture on the subject given at Calvert22 in 2010:

http://www.calvert22.org/e/education...rah-wise-talk/
http://www.calvert22.org/audio/histo...-circus-10.mp3

Sarah Wise also wrote a critical analysis of Arthur Morrison's book “A child of the Jago” at the London Fictions website:

http://www.londonfictions.com/arthur...-the-jago.html

Should we believe everything Morrison say? She explores the relationship between Rev. Osborne Jay and Morrison, and challenges the view that the “Old Nichol” was a hot-bed of crime. There's a useful list of further reading here, and quite a few of the books can be found at archive.org.

Another voice that the programme doesn't touch upon is that of East End criminal Arthur Harding who was born and raised in the “Old Nichol” slum. Harding had been interviewed at length by (marxist) historian Raphael Samuel who produced “East End Underworld: Chapters in the Life of Arthur Harding” as part of his “History Workshop Series”.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i...page&q&f=false

Harding had actually produce his own manuscript about his life and it's questionable as why Raphael Samuel choose to re-write it. This, and some of the problems of recording oral history, are discussed in this audio interview given by Stefan Dickers, one the archivist at the Bishopsgate Institute.

http://archive.org/details/LostSteps...fanDickers_910

Harding's manuscript was been digitised and is on-line at the Bishopsgate's website:

http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten...eship-to-Crime
http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten.../Chapters-1-10
http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten...Chapters-11-21
http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten...Chapters-22-31

If nothing else, it's worth reading the first few chapters which describe the grinding poverty and harsh environment of the “Old Nichol” slum. He has his own memories of Jay and Morrison. Apart from his criminal activities Arthur Harding was involved with Mosley's Black Shirts, yet he talks about the Jewish community with respect and some fondness.

I can't speak of the anti-Semitism or racism that successive waves of immigrants may have faced in the “East End” over the decades, but the programme makers made frequent use of words like “haven”, “sanctuary” and “community” in connection with Arnold Circus. Whether Jewish or Bangladeshis really did feel protected from these threats, or were simply pleased to a have a home to call their own is hard to say. Certainly, many of the former residents had nothing but fond memories of their time there, and the Begum family, although overcrowded, did not voice any great discontent.

Perhaps the dreamers dream of the LCC as voiced in the programmes ending that a built environment could change people's lives had in some way come to fruition. But the great irony was that over a hundred years ago the people of the “Old Nichol” were left with just the dream. As Sarah Wise says in the epilogue of her book:
“As a rehousing scheme for the poor, Boundary Street was a red elephant – a very beautiful one: a role model for the latest in sanitary science and affordable aesthetics, but as an improvement to the lives of the locals, a disaster”.

[Pegleg]

Arnold Circus.

There's a lot of history and literature to get your teeth into if you're so inclined. Here are some additional links:


The Old Nichol/Boundary-Street Estate

http://www.casebook.org/victorian_london/morebg.html Bethnal Green 1863 from the Builder.

http://www.mernick.org.uk//thhol/dwelpoor.html Dwellings of the Poor in Bethnal-Green
From: "The Illustrated London News", 24th October 1863.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Ni...ackest_Streets Many refs. to Sarah Wise's book.

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/07/...arnold-circus/ brief history

http://foac.org.uk/history/ brief history

http://boundarylaunderette.wordpress...ate-a-history/ a better history with good photos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Estate more detail

http://lovelondoncouncilhousing.blog...ry-estate.html good modern photos

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/societ...-circus-london

http://www.kuhlschrank.com/?p=459 Of the Old Nichol only 11 were able to live in the new estate.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/c...ies-har/943302

Housing, MBW & LCC

http://www.thefullwiki.org/Metropolitan_Board_of_Works

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housin...asses_Act_1885

http://www.thefullwiki.org/Local_Government_Act_1888

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Arnold

http://www.victorianlondon.org/organisations/lcc.htm Charles Dickens Jnr. c.1908

http://archive.org/details/cu31924030085116 The housing question in London. Being an account of the housing work done by the Metropolitan Board of Works and the London County Council, between the years 1855 and 1900, with a summary of the acts of Parliament under which they have worked (1900) - pp190-211 The Boundary-Street Estate.


Rev. Osborne Jay/Arthur Morrison

http://boundarylaunderette.wordpress...thor-the-jago/ A good account

http://www.mernick.org.uk/thhol/survunfi.html To Check the Survival of the Unfit
A New Scheme by the Rev. Osborne Jay, a Militant Bethnal Green Parson, for Sending the Submerged to a Penal Settlement. From: "The London", 12th March 1896

http://archive.org/stream/cu31924013...ge/n0/mode/2up A Child of the Jago

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/morrison/arthur/ ebooks of Morrison's entire(?) works.

http://www.artintheblood.com/mh/mhintro.htm Arthur Morrison

http://www.londonfictions.com/arthur...-the-jago.html An excellent article by Sarah Wise, many of her “References and Further Reading list” are on archive.org.

Sarah Wise, historian and author.

http://www.calvert22.org/e/education...rah-wise-talk/
http://www.calvert22.org/audio/histo...-circus-10.mp3
The author of “The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum” gives a 47 minute lecture based around her 2009 book. Some slides

Arthur Harding, East End Criminal born in the “Old Nichol”

http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten...eship-to-Crime
http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten.../Chapters-1-10
http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten...Chapters-11-21
http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/conten...Chapters-22-31

http://archive.org/details/LostSteps...fanDickers_910 Stefan Dickers is the Library & Archives Manager of the Bishopsgate Institute and talks about Arthur Harding and historian Raphael Samuel.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i...page&q&f=false
East End Underworld: Chapters in the Life of Arthur Harding, Raphael Samuel History Workshop Series.

Isaac Bogard , East End Criminal

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/fo...howtopic=85996

East End Crime

http://archive.org/details/laterleavesbeing00will
Later leaves, being the further reminiscences of Montagu Williams, Q.C 1891

Illustrations/Photos

http://www.victorianweb.org/graphics/dore/gallery1.html a Gustave Dore gallery

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avail/s...865117/detail/ Boundary-Street Estate today

Other Reading

http://www.mernick.org.uk/thhol/titles.html Victorian writings on the East end.

http://archive.org/details/talesmeanstreet03morrgoog Tales of Mean Streets

http://www.londonfictions.com/arthur...ndon-town.html Detailed review by Eliza Cubitt

http://archive.org/details/tolondontown00morr the book, “To London Town”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People_of_the_Abyss by Jack London

http://archive.org/stream/peopleofab...ge/n0/mode/2up the book

http://archive.org/details/storiesofexile00johniala contains a “Night in the Workhouse” by James Greenwood

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/lit/

http://www.casebook.org/victorian_lo...in-london.html

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=r...page&q&f=false
The Government of Victorian London, 1855-1889: The Metropolitan Board of ...
By David Edward Owen, Roy M. MacLeod

London labour and the London poor (Volume 1) - Henry Mayhew
London labour and the London poor (Volume 3) - Henry Mayhew

Modern Times

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...ietysupplement

http://youtu.be/FF9qLdIzzog Radio Arnold Part 1

http://youtu.be/X2EABogK3xw Radio Arnold Part 2

[Serial_Apologist]

Pegleg

You really have devoted a lot of time and effort on these searches, which I shall enjoy going through this weekend. They will take a weekend to just skim through, but are deserving of all the time you've spent and more.

May I say how enormously grateful I am.

[Caliban]

Pegleg

You really have devoted a lot of time and effort on these searches, which I shall enjoy going through this weekend. They will take a weekend to just skim through, but are deserving of all the time you've spent and more.

May I say how enormously grateful I am.

Seconded with an and a

Amazing work: looking forward to mining these riches (and from the previous Bermondsey episode)

[Pegleg]

Thanks for your encouragement. I did wonder if my posts where OTT, but I hope you enjoy exploring this story as much as I have. Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of this series, it's certainly revitalised my interest in London's social history.

You could say I'm time rich and cash poor, and now I no longer have the mobility to roam the library shelves the Internet has become indispensable. It never ceases to amaze me just what you can find if you have the time and patience.

But tonight is all about that special Victorian venue ….

[Anna]

And a belated thank you to Pegleg from me for his comprehensive list of links which I am working through. I now possess a copy of The Blackest Streets which I intend to start reading this weekend. I also noticed on Amazon a book called London in the 19th Century by Jerry White which looks interesting and I find my library stocks for future reading.

I was a little disappointed in the Arnold Circus programme, this was probably because I'd read about the background to the slum clearance before watching the programme and as Pegleg says: "the Boundary-Street Estate raising phoenix like from the rubble of the “Old Nichol” slum, with only a brief glance back in time. Jay and Morrison were never mentioned, nor were the various act of parliament that lead to the slums destruction" I felt that was a major omission but a most enjoyable series of programmes.

[Lateralthinking1]

Seconded with an and a

Amazing work: looking forward to mining these riches (and from the previous Bermondsey episode)

Wow. Yes indeed. Great stuff pegleg. I will be coming back to read this thread regularly.

I watched the Arnold Circus programme yesterday. Absolutely fascinating again. How typical that the 23 year old with great ideas should produce something that ultimately was unaffordable for everyone the project was intended to house.

The parts on Jewish London were very interesting - that theatre which only had Jewish performances and notices in the housing in both English and Hebrew. I hadn't realised quite how the culture had expanded beyond the families themselves.

More insights in the programme on what to me when younger were slightly mysterious squatters.

I thought Horace Cutler and the other 'before Livingstone' Tories came across a little better than I had thought of them before. Until now, I have thought of them as all bad.

I do like the subtle use of background music in this excellent series too.

[Serial_Apologist]

I thought Horace Cutler and the other 'before Livingstone' Tories came across a little better than I had thought of them before. Until now, I have thought of them as all bad.

Hmmm - one felt a bit of re-writing history with the guilt of hindsight with Mr Cutlass.