What better way to spend a balmy Tuesday evening than exploring the history of the edgy fringe of the City of London that is Spitalfields? The thread running through the walk was the successive waves of immigration that has characterised the area for centuries, brought here largely by the continually evolving textile industry. We met at the Kindertransport memorial in Hope Square, designed by a sculptor who was one of the 10,000 Jewish children to be evacuated from eastern Europe just before WWII. We made our way to Brick Lane via a goat, a medieval charnel house, a 10 acre banana storage unit, a synagogue, church, mosque and a former Huguenot enclave which formed the heart of the thriving silk industry in the eighteenth century. The smells of Banglatown followed us all the way to the site of the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor where our tour ended and a few of our number sought sustenance in the multitude of local eateries.
Organised by Tim Murphy