East-London

The East End of London is a barrage of old Hollywood films and Christmas pantomimes and the sprawl of the Docklands. The Docklands are full of contradiction encompassing the brand new with the old.

The change of pace and style in the End districts of Shoreditch, Hoxton, Spitalfields, Leytonstone and Whitechapel to central London is extraordinary. Traditionally a working-class area of London consisting of immigrants of Irish, French, Bangladeshi and Jewish descent, The East End was neglected in the early 1980s but is now looking up with the nouveau trendy taking over some sections such as Hoxton.

The East End is a good place to immerse yourself in modern, multicultural London, though there are no major attractions to draw you there.
The beautiful 18th-century almshouses of the Geffrye Museum were originally built to house the elderly poor with funds bestowed by the former Lord Mayor of London Robert Geffrye who made a fortune on the slave trade. Today the Museum provides a delightfully engaging peek at British domestic interiors ranging from Elizabethan times right up to the present day.

Once the world's greatest port, The Port of London was the core of the British Empire with its enormous global trade. It reached its physical capacity by the 19th century and then was bombed heavily in the Second World War. It had recovered by the 1950s but later failed to keep up to changing technology and lay derelict up until the early 1980s rejuvenation programme was launched. Further troubles were to follow with the recession but luckily they were short lived, and through expansion of transportation links the Docklands are on the up once more. The area presents a stark contrast between the very old and very new, and the new Museum in Docklands charts a fascinating look through the history of the Docklands from Roman trading to the renewal of the 20th century.

Leytonstone hosts a festival each July providing a varied programme of events and activities for all ages including drama, exhibitions, music and films.