IN THIS WEEK IN EAST END HISTORY… September 3rd 1666 London is on fire and Samuel Pepys is making a run for, in his night shirt, on a cart bound for a friends’ house in Bethnal Green. His money and his plate and his diary are spared the flames but, in a few days, London is a write off. The King vows a new city will rise like a phoenix from the ashes, not built of straw or sticks, but bricks - and to make all those bricks many new brick fields will be needed, where clay can be cut and dried in the sun. One country path cuts through so many it becomes known as Brick Lane. September 5th 1557 ‘A Lewde Play’ is performed at the Boars Head Inn in Whitechapel. The first recorded theatre performance in the East End and one of the earliest in London, the Lord Mayor arrests the players and closes it down. September 6th 1993 At a bi-election, the Isle of Dogs elects the first British National Party, by a margin of just seven votes. People are appalled and comic songs are penned. They seek him here. They seek him there. He’s boots are black. His head is square. His name is Derek Beackon and he’s weak on tolerance. And he’s a dedicated follower of fascism. Several months later he’s voted out again. Oh, the power of comic songs. September 7th 1972 Slade have flown back from LA especially to play at the opening night at the Mile End Sundown...which was actually the Mile End Odeon trying really hard not to close down. A classic piece of futuristic Art Deco, with a tall tower and neon tubing to outline it at night, the Odeon always seemed rather slicker than the ABC down the road and was never carved up into multiple screens. Instead rock and roll was deemed its saviour and several cinemas across London became the new Sundown chain. Everyone in my class wanted to go to this gig. There wasn’t a lot of rock and rock in Tower Hamlets so to have Top Of The Poppers amongst us seemed incredibly exciting and exotic. Slade were four glittery brickies from the Black Country, but also beings from another world. None of us did go of course. We were too young and our parents wouldn’t let us. No noize woz felt. We had to stay back ‘ome. The sun went down on the Sundown after a single year and after a brief time as The Liberty, an Asian cinema, this landmark building was demolished. Something no one could get excited about stands in its place today.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 11:58:48 +0000
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