The Villages of Stepney (1995 documentary)

A consideration of the old borough of Stepney before its absorption into the new borough of Tower Hamlets. Still photographs and illustrations are used to re-evoke the Stepney of the past, with special attention to the area's Jewish history. The video makes a sweep from Bow in the East, where Burdett Road meets the Mile End Road through Wapping, Shadwell, Limehouse and Spitalfields to Middlesex Street in the west where Stepney met the City. Along the way it reflects on the Royal London Hospital, Stepney Green, the Commercial Road, Beaumont Grove, the Dunstan Houses, the London Jewish Hospital, the Bricklayer's Arms public house, Montagu Street and the London Yiddish Theatre. Synagogues still standing and those gone are given particular attention, from the Stepney Orthodox Synagogue (now Rosalind Green Hall), the East London United Synagogue, the Philpot Street Synagogue and the Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road. Raines Grammar School on Arbour Square and the Talmud Torah School on Redman's Road provide jumping off points for reflections on Jewish education. The Zionist movement and anti-fascist action are remembered with reference to the Association of Jewish Youth. Jubilee Street provides a place to reflect on the Bangladeshi community that now dominates the area. The narrators commentary is supported by the words of historian Dr Gerry Black and the recollections of a number of local residents: Woofy Shaw, Sylvia Schneider, Frieda Hewson, Harry Borkin, Monty Goldstein and Monty Richardson.
Credits: Director, Aumie Shapiro; writer, Aumie Shapiro; editor, Michael Shapiro; photography, Henry Jacobs; photography, Bill Storey; photography, Albert Marchant; sound, Warren Recordings; music, Giora Feidman; sponsor, Sinclair Montrose Trust Ltd; sponsor, The National Heritage Arts Sponsorship Scheme.
Copyright: Springboard Education Trust, 1995.
Tower Hamlets Local History and Archives reference number: LC15077.

[@jasonparfitt5936]

I live in Buckinghamshire now ,but the one thing I am proud of is being born in Stepney Green .

[@fardinahmed313]

Its unrecognisable now

[@georgecommons839]

Good you should be proud I still live in Stepney I am RC but love the Jews the food and people happy

[@jasonparfitt5936]

@@georgecommons839 good on you mate ,wealthy area here but not a lot of happiness

[@Hamjaz]

Interesting piece of history. It would be better to rename the video 'Jewish history in Stepney'.

[@Jhossack]

Why. In a hundred years we won’t be discussing Muslim history in stepney. Unless that is indeed the subject. Try to be sensitive to others way of seeing the world brother.

[@Hamjaz]

@@Jhossack The video more or less talks about the Jewish people migration to Stepney and how they lived there. I found it fascinating to learn about Jewish community, considering I live in Stepney myself. So why not rename the video as 'Jewish history in Stepney or Jews living in Stepney. It would draw more attention to learn about this specific group of people. Why do you interpret this as me trying to be offensive and insulting towards Jewish people. Doesn't make sense. Please don't assume the worst in people just because someone mention certain groups of people. That's a miseducation on your part. My religion teaches me to respect and be peace with all humanity.

[@sue3119]

Really enjoyed watching this ❤️

[@cecilefox9136]

MY FATHER TAUGHT IN THE 80'S AT HACKNEY AND STOKE NEWINGTON COLLEGE.!

[@DeenM2099]

Interesting

[@abudanyal9929]

Beaumont Grove 💙

[@diane5891]

I was brought up in Stepney, early years a large Jewish presence, later years Bangladesh. East End people were finally pushed out

[@Victoricat]

They took our poverty so we could move up ?

[@garethjones9605]

You were not "pushed out", you chose to leave...

[@georgecommons839]

The east end has always changed way back french imagrent s to Irish who built the dooks to Jews to Bangladesh to east European I love them all the mix is my eastend

[@JfK--OBJECTivE]

@@garethjones9605 IDIOTIC comment. Would you like to live in an area where 99% of the culture is not your own?

[@aceshahriyar8291]

Lived in Stepney all my life.. this is so cool to see 👌🏻

[@remrettgorden2566]

This is a very informative and fantastic video! Thank you for uploading it!

[@leepowis5215]

Born in vallance rd 61 lived and grew up there until the mid nineties drive thru there sometimes now sad to see what its become 😔

[@bobmiah]

What u mean

[@Steven_Rowe]

Blimey the Krays lived in Valence Road

[@ThomasPrior-wv6zn]

mm so did the TWINNS , LOVE THEM HATE THEM THEY WERE AND ARE PART OF THE EASTEND HACKNEY BORN IN 1953 LIVED THERE TILL I WAS 10 YEARS AND MOVED TO SOUTH LONDON GENERATIONS OF EASTENDERS STEPNEY , WHITE CHAPPEL , DALSTON , HACKNEY NOT ONE LIVES THERE NOW , PLAYED IN VICKY PARK , LONDON FIELDS , THE STREETS WERE MY PLAY AREA , NEW MOST OF HACKNEY LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND NOW ITS A BYGONE TIME FOR ME YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF THE EASTEND ,,, BUT CANT TAKE THE EASTEND OUT OF THE BOY I FEEL SO PROUD I WAS AND I AM A EASTEND BOY AMEN

[@dodgydruid]

I used to go to school with two brother's who hailed from Stepney, John and Tony Gold who I fell out of contact with as the years lengthened, my daughter's mother's family all hail from Bethnal Green, Stepney and Hoxton part of the once huge Hanmore family of which my daughter's maternal grandfather was one of 13 siblings (and two doors down from Lenny McLean) living in the equivalent of a tiny two up two down O.o I think my daughters great grandfather was a proper Stepney lad, all the siblings born in Bethnal Green and the kiddies hospital in Hackney if a bed was available then I think they moved south of the water when the old slums and tenements were being levelled.

[@derin111]

Really enjoy this. I moved to this area in 1994. I worked at the Royal London Hospital when I first qualified as a doctor in 1995 and all three of my children were born there. It was a good area to live in then but I had to move for career reasons to Glasgow.

[@rogersingh3031]

Was aged 9, admitted to the London Jewish hospital in February 1962. Spent months very I'll. The good staff and care I received lives with me still. I remember the names of the nursing staff. How disappointing to hear its been pulled down. We lived a few minutes away in Copley street.

[@gillscott4721]

My dad taught at Raine's Foundation from 1947 to 1977.

[@graceproby2662]

I lived in Stepney until 1970 then moved to Bow until 1977. Moved out of London completely then. I would still go back to King John Street even as it was then, I loved it. Not the same now. Only 2 people I know still live in the area. I lived around the corner, literally, from the Jewish Hospital. I spent four days there in 1964 when I fractured a bone in my arm. It was Passover so certain things I couldn’t eat. At 11 years old and not jewish there wasn’t much I liked. I would eat them now but as a child…. It brought many happy memories flooding back from when I lived there,

[@youngpr3z156]

I am a true stepney by blood name and origin my father his father his father his father and his father were all stepneys

[@bobmiah]

My chicken burger meal is from stepney aswell

[@freddyashton2361]

Born and bred in Stepney and still here

[@elizabethferrier6429]

Just enjoyed learning about that time snd the community .

[@tonywright340]

Love the cockney accent.

[@sandypompilii6901]

You and I both love the Cockney accent. I'm in the US.

[@jasonparfitt5936]

That accent has long gone ,it’s a myth.It’s a mixture of Jaficain and MLE,Bangladeshi or white middle class.cockneys moved out of the area on mass years ago,mainly to Essex or the other Home Counties.Only small pockets of traditional” cockneys “ mainly working class residents who cannot afford to move out or elderly who simply to frail to leave.The American romantic “ chirpy cockney “ is long gone.

[@TheRedPeril]

This makes me sad. A great country, handed over to people who won’t fight for their own. We will be condemned by future historians.

[@boyblunder8889]

Lived in Stepney as a small child , from about 1962 - 1968 , St Paul’s way in a pre-fab house.

[@abigailpowlesland4796]

How interesting I went with my brother's to Stepney Jewish my brother's teacher was Mr Balkin we also lived in the flats opposite the school

[@baatsheva]

I went to stepney Jewish school. On of my teachers was Mr. Balkin.:I remember him being young and a very nice teacher.

[@yzsr4]

Very interesting regarding the efforts of the Jewish people to open a hospital..

[@michaelleiper]

The centre at Beaumont Grove at the end of the video closed earlier this year.

[@fredflintstoner596]

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?

[@danmccurry]

This should be titled 1965 not 95.

[@THLHLA]

Hi Daniel, thank you for your comment. The date in brackets was a reference to the year the documentary was made, however we have now edited it to make that clearer.

[@theridiculousnicolaus]

🇵🇸

[@manofweed1]

I'm interested in the villages of Peckham 2012.