Bethnal Green (East London)

“‘Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead 

Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green, 

And the pale weaver, through his windows seen 

In Spitalfields, look’d thrice dispirited.” (Lines 1-4)

Bethnal Green is an area in London’s East End. In the 19th century, at the time East London was written, it was one of London’s poorest districts and was widely regarded as a slum. Many Huguenot and Irish immigrant weavers inhabited the area at the time, it doubled as both a residential area and a manufacturing hub; key industries were, along with silk-weaving, chair-making and market gardens. Today, it is a low-to-mid class area of London, has a significant immigrant population and is undergoing a process of gentrification.

Comparison of Bethnal Green's weaver's fields then and now.