1In the last few weeks, we've been looking at various aspects of the social history of London,
2and this morning we're continuing with a look at life in the area called the East End.
3I'll start with a brief history of the district,
4and then focus on life in the first half of the twentieth century.
5Back in the first to the fourth centuries AD,
6when the Romans controlled England,
7London grew into a town of 45,000 people,
8and what's now the East End -
9the area by the river Thames, and along the road heading north-east from London to the coast -
10consisted of farmland with crops and livestock
11which helped to feed that population.
12The Romans left in 410, at the beginning of the fifth century,
13and from then onwards, the country suffered a series of invasions by tribes from present-day Germany and Denmark,
14the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, many of whom settled in the East End.
15The technology they introduced meant that metal and leather goods were produced there for the first time.
16And as the East End was by the river,
17ships could transport goods between there and foreign markets.
18In the 11th century, in 1066 to be precise,
19the Normans conquered England,
20and during the next few centuries London became one of the most powerful and prosperous cities in Europe.
21The East End benefited from this,
22and because there were fewer restrictions there than in the city itself,
23plenty of newcomers settled there from abroad,
24bringing their skills as workers, merchants or money-lenders during the next few hundred years.
25In the 16th century, the first dock was dug
26where ships were constructed, eventually making the East End the focus of massive international trade.
27And in the late 16th century,
28when much of the rest of England was suffering economically,
29a lot of agricultural workers came to the East End to look for alternative work.
30In the seventeenth century, the East End was still a series of separate, semi-rural settlements.
31There was a shortage of accommodation,
32so marshland was drained and built on to house the large numbers of people now living there.
33By the 19th century, London was the busiest port in the world,
34and this became the main source of employment in the East End.
35Those who could afford to live in more pleasant surroundings moved out,
36and the area became one where the vast majority of people lived in extreme poverty,
37and suffered from appalling sanitary conditions.
38That brief outline takes us to the beginning of the 20th century,
39and now we'll turn to housing.
40At the beginning of the century,
41living conditions for the majority of working people in East London were very basic indeed.
42Houses were crowded closely together
43and usually very badly built, because there was no regulation.
44But the poor and needy were attracted by the possibility of work,
45and they had to be housed.
46It was the availability, rather than the condition, of the housing
47that was the major concern for tenants and landlords alike.
48Few houses had electricity at this time,
49so other sources of power were used, like coal for the fires which heated perhaps just one room.
50Of course, the smoke from these contributed a great deal to the air pollution
51for which London used to be famous.
52A tiny, damp, unhealthy house like this might well be occupied by two full families,
53possibly including several children, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
54Now, before I go on to health implications of this way of life,
55I'll say something about food and nutrition.