THE EAST END OF LONDON

The  End of London was in Victorian times, full of slums, the worst of which were the so- called rabbit warrens, also known as rookeries. They were situated in insanitary courts and alleyways, and were so rotten that they could be entered through holes in the walls. In Summer  these slums could be baking hot, like ovens. They bred disease and filth. 
Eventually they had to be demolished, their replacement being tenement flats, such as Rothschild Buildings in Flower and Dean Street, which was a turning off Brick Lane.
Although they were built to replace the slums they too became slums.
Today, Flower and Dean Street is no more. A new street, an alleyway called Flower and Dean Walk has taken its place.
Then there was Black Lion Yard, a narrow street that led off   Whitechapel  Road and ended up at the Old Montague Street end, being approached b y steps at the end of the street.            
Today Old Montague Street is a wide modern turning, whereas it was a narrow slummy street years ago.


Old Montague Street leads to Valance Road.   Down this road there was a school called Robert Montefiore.


One of the roads leading off from Valence Road is Hanbury  Street. Along here stood the Brady Club. This club contained a play centre and lots of other rooms.


Now for some more.


The Robert Sausage Centre is along Valence Road. This centre has a toilet that is exposed and pot scourers as toilet paper. When it is flushed a man comes out of the tank and kicks the lot down the S bend.
There as games like chip Rummikub where chips as formed to make a word and a fish if you get the bonus.
Lunches are served underneath the table.
The club does organise outings such as the Whitechapel Station tour and a trip to Ficklehampstead in Essex and Sperdon- on- Sea, which has a ten mile long pier. In fact it’s so long that its not uncommon to see hotels on the pier and Tesco stores.
The pier has a few sub piers branching off from it. There’s also the multi storey pier, a structure that contains piers underneath it. They’re approached by stairs.
There is a helicopter service along the pier.


Along Sperdon’s seafront is the Peter Peapod Playground. It contains the crooked house, upside down swings, a squareabout, plus more.


Other activities at the club include barefoot football and swimming in murky water.




The East End was the scene of a disaster that took place in Jane Street.
Children were playing in a derelict house when it collapsed. Quite a number perished.    It was under slum clearance at the time. In the mass clearout the whole area was pulled down, and long with this quite a number of streets disappeared, all the way up to Bigland Street.


There was once a case of a man near here whose fly zip burst open and all the insects crawled in and laid their eggs on his underpants. It only came to light when he took his trousers off and found a load of flies building their nests all over his underwear. He got out a blowlamp and blasted away the pests, but in doing so he burnt his pants. 
To do up his fly the man had to put chewing gum on the fly and that stuck it together. It was an emergency until he got a new zip.
The burnt pants were washed in reversal soap powder, powder that brings it back to what it was before it was set on fire.




The trouser fly got its name from the original practice of using houseflies to close up the trousers with, hence the name trouser fly.



Today the East End has changed. There are a lot more flats.


A lot of people have moved  out  of  the  area, to places such as Ilford.
Ilford developed from a village to a town in the 19th century.
There was once a case where a man drove a car down Gants hill Subway. He had drunk 200 pints of beer. On his rampage he careered down the escalator and drove his car onto the train where all the passengers sit. He then parked his vehicle on board the train right in front of  the seats blocking the gangway. Because of this people had to get out of the train by climbing out through the windows. The mad driver was arrested and put into a car drivers’ prison.
The man who entered a train driving his car came from Duck Street Stepney.  An East Ender two years before was born, he went to Billy Gruff primary School in Quaker Street. He had a teacher who was a real monster. He always gave the cane and threw potatoes at the boys. He never washed and swore a lot whilst teaching. He even rammed chalk down one of the boy’s throats.
PE was held in the dining room.
Boys were made to do PE whilst they were eating their lunch.