Description
This e-seminar is the first of two in which Professor Paul Johnson explores the rich and dramatic history of the East End of London. Using Spitalfields, a historic corner of the East End, as a window onto the history of social and economic change, you will learn about the great surges of immigration from Ireland, Eastern Europe, and Bangladesh; about the creation, destruction, and re-creation of tightly knit communities; about labor and toil in one of the poorest and most restive districts of London; and consequently about the religious, political, and social fault-lines that divided and defined British society.

You will also visit some of the most historic and atmospheric locations in London: from an immense Victorian match factory, site of the match girls' strike of 1888, to Petticoat Lane market, where East Enders have sold everything from exotic animals to secondhand clothes to their last remaining belongings. Through images, maps, video, eyewitness testimony, and critical examination of original sources, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of one of Britain's legendary areas.