Historical info on East London?

I Googled "Books on East End of London" and came up with a number of books dealing with the specific areas you are interested in. Whitechapel is well represented because of its connection with Jack the Ripper.

Make sure you use the East End of London - not East London. Same with the other side of London - West End, not West London.

I found a book titled The History of London that could be of help. Check the library for a copy.

Cheers!

Although not specific to the East End, 'Bloody Foreigners' by Robert Winder. It is about immigration over the centuries into the UK and Brick Lane for example has been a cultural centre over the years for Huguenots, eastern European Jewish immigration and Bangladeshi immigrants.

Sometimes the articles on Wikipedia are a good place to start.

East End Of London:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_End_of_London

Spitalfields:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitalfields

Brick Lane:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_Lane

Bethnal Green:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethnal_Green

Whitechapel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel

And just keep clicking on the other named places in these articles. Or enter your search word in the search box at the upper top right corner of the Wikipedia page. (Some of the other sections include: Aldgate, Limehouse, Shadwell, Stepney, Shoreditch and Wapping.)

Notice at the very bottom of each article, you will find the footnotes, under the heading "References". Look through these, because they refer to newspaper and magazine articles and books from which information was found for the Wikipedia article. These may be of use to you in doing your research.

At the bottom of the Wikipedia article on the East End of London, these books are listed as references. I think all four books would be great for you to read, if you can find them in a library (doubtful unless it's a University library) or order them from Amazon. I have included their ISBN numbers, which you will need to order.
* Marriott, John (2012). Beyond the Tower: A History of East London. Padstow, Cornwall: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300187750.
* Morris, Derek (2007). Mile End Old Town, 1740–1780: a social history of an early modern London Suburb (2nd ed.). London: East London History Society. ISBN 978-0-9506258-6-7.
* Palmer, Alan (1989). The East End. London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-5666-X.
* Tames, Richard (2004). East End Past. London: Historical Publications. ISBN 978-0-948667-94-7.

The Yale University Press books are top-notch, and may be the best of that bunch.

The History of London that someone else mentioned, is, I believe, by Peter Akroyd, and is a very good book. I have this book, and it has chapters on each section of London.

Good luck with your research!

For the past two years I have subscribed to a blog called Spitalfields Life. You can find it by googling "Gentle author Spitfields life. I have never received any Spam connected to this blog. The information is extensive and very engaging - the entire focus is on the East End of London. The link below leads to an article about the blog.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/mar/20/tales-from-city-local-blogs

A totally fascinating book was published in 2012 by Neil Fraser titled Over the Border: the other East End. It chronicled the history of the part of the east end (Stratford, Plaistow, West Ham etc) that is just beyond Whitechapel and Bethnal Green.

It was the part of London of the Olympics but Fraser was very sceptical of its effects on what had been a very tight knit working class community. It is a totally fascinating survey of the people, industry and social life the district.

It isn't a heavily touristed area unlike Brick Lane or Spitalfields which are "hip" if not yet gentrified.
The main things for tourists to visit are the Olympic site and the Theatre Royal Stratford East. some Americans starved of shopping malls might also be interested in Westfield at Stratford.

What time period are you researching, Laurel?

Hello Laurel

Good luck with your research - being a large city, with history back to Roman times, you will find many resources on both the 'East End' (historically the area between the City of London {Aldgate} and the River Lea), and 'East London', which is really historically part of Essex, and starts east of the River Lea (the main Olympics area was in East London, not the 'east end') .

One superb pictorial resource, that also has very good written chapters is 'The East End: Then and Now'. It's a large book, but well worth referring to. See http://www.afterthebattle.com/store/index.php?id_product=177&controller=product

Enjoy!

Thanks for all the information! Looking forward to reading all about the places I saw this past summer.