Publisher's Synopsis
The East End of London - famous for its brash and bejewelled Cockneys, characterful criminals, flourishing markets with cheeky barrow boys, gutsy pub sing-alongs, dog-racing, pigeon fancying, jellied eels, and pie and mash - is a place at one appealing and unruly, comforting and incomprehensible. Gilda O'Neill, herself an East Ender, shows that there is more to this fascinating area than a collection of cliches. She traces its story from earliest prehistory to the petty crime and scandal of the Victorian underworld; from the Golden Age of the East End of popular living memory, with its strong community and sense of place, to the recent encroachment of the sparkling steel-and-glass wonders of trendy Docklands. Using oral history as well as more traditional sources, she builds up a collection of memories and stories about yesterday, bringing us, with wit and honesty, the East End's real story.
