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Bethnal Green is an area in the London Borough Of Tower Hamlets , in the East End Of London . Bethnal Green is located 3.3 miles (5.3 km) north east of Charing Cross . BOUNDARIES Bethnal Green forms a part of Tower Hamlets, centred around the Central Line tube station at the junction of Bethnal Green Road, Roman Road and Cambridge Heath Road. The district was originally a part of the Parish of Stepney, but formed a separate parish in the 19th century, as the population increased. This parish bordered the London Borough Of Hackney in the north and west (at Shoreditch ), and Mile End in the east. To the south is Whitechapel . The district is associated with the E2 Postal District , but this also covers parts of Shoreditch, Haggerston and Cambridge Heath . The areas name is believed to have come from an earlier ''Bethan Hall Green'' which because of local pronunciation as ''Beth'n 'all Green'' and the resulting confusion was changed to "Bethnal Green" by the 19th Century. Between 1986 and 1992, the name ''Bethnal Green'' was applied to one of seven neighbourhoods, to whom power was devolved from the council. This resulted in replacement of much of the street signage in the area, that remains in place Tower Hamlets Borough Council Election Maps 1964-2002 accessed 14 April 2007. This included parts of both Cambridge Heath and Whitechapel - north of the Whitechapel Road - being more associated with the post code and administrative simplicity, than the historic districts. HISTORY Early history A Tudor ballad about the 'Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green' tells the story of an ostensibly poor man who gave a surprisingly generous dowry for his daughter's wedding. The tale furnishes the parish of Bethnal Green's coat of arms. According to one version of the legend,found in Percy's Reliques of ancient English poetry, the beggar was the son of Simon De Montfort , but Percy himself declared that this version was not genuine.. Boxing has a long association with Bethnal Green. Daniel Mendoza , who was champion of England from 1792 to 1795 , though born in Aldgate , lived in Paradise Row, on the West side of Bethnal Green, for 30 years. Since then numerous boxers have been associated with the area, and the local leisure centre, York Hall, remains notable for presentation of boxing bouts. In 1841 , the Anglo-Catholic Nathaniel Woodard - who was to become a highly influential educationalist in the later part of the 19th century - became the Curate of the newly created St. Bartholomew 's in Bethnal Green. He was a capable pastoral visitor and established a parochial school. In 1843 , he got into trouble for preaching a Sermon in St. Bartholomew's in which he argued that '' The Book Of Common Prayer '' should have additional material to provide for Confession and Absolution and in which he criticised the 'inefficient and Godless clergy' of the Church Of England . After examining the text of the sermon, the Bishop Of London condemned it as containing 'erroneous and dangerous notions'. As a result, the Bishop sent Woodard to be a curate in Clapton . Modern history , this was also, for a time, Tower Hamlets town hall, until the borough decentralised itself in the 1980s.]] In the nineteenth century, Bethnal Green was characterised by its market gardens and by the silk-weaving trade. Having been an area of large houses and gardens as late as the eighteenth century, by about 1860 Bethnal Green was mainly full of tumbledown old buildings, with many families living in each house. By the end of the nineteenth century, Bethnal Green was one of the poorest slums in London. Jack The Ripper operated at the western end of Bethnal Green and in neighbouring Whitechapel . By 1900, the ''Old Nichol Street Rookery '' was demolished, and the Boundary Estate opened on the site, near the boundary with Shoreditch . This was the world's first Council Housing , and brothers Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont were brought up here 'Bethnal Green: Building and Social Conditions from 1876 to 1914', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 126-32 accessed: 14 November 2006. On March 3, 1943 at 8:27PM the unopened . During the 1960s, the infamous gangsters the Kray Twins lived in Bethnal Green, but by the beginning of the twenty-first century, Bethnal Green, in common with much of the old East End, began to undergo a process of Gentrification . The former Bethnal Green Infirmary, later the London County Council Bethnal Green Hospital, stood opposite Cambridge Heath Railway Station . The hospital closed as a public hospital in the 1960s and was a geriatric hospital under the NHS until the 1980s. Much of the site was developed for housing in the 1990s but the hospital entrance and administration block remains as a listed building. Marcus Garvey was at one time buried here, before his body was returned to Jamaica . PLACES OF INTEREST
TRIVIA
THE GREEN AND POOR'S LAND The Green and Poor's Land is the area of open land now occupied by Bethnal Green Library, The Museum and St. John's Church. In Stow's survey of London (1598) the hamlet was called "Blethenal Green, now called Bednal Green". It was one of the hamlets included in the Manor of Stepney and Hackney. Hackney later became separated. In 1678 the owners of houses surrounding the Green purchased the land to save it from being built on and in 1690 the land was conveyed to a trust under which the land was to be kept open and rent from it used for the benefit of poor people living in the vicinity. From that date until now the trust has administered the land and its minute books are kept in the Greater London Record Office. Bethnal House or Kirby's Castle was the principal house on the Green. One of its owners was Sir Hugh Platt (1552-1608), author of books on gardening and practical science. Under its next owner it was visited by Samuel Pepys. It became associated with the ballad of the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (see Thoms Percy). In 1727 it was leased to Matthew Wright and for almost two centuries it was a mad house. Its two most distinguished inmates were Alexander Crudens, compiler of the Concordance to the Bible, and the poet Christopher Smart. Crudens recorded his experience in ''The London Citizen Grievously Injured''(1739) and Smart's stay there is recorded by his daughter. Records of the asylum are kept in the annual reports of the Commissioner in Lunacy. The original mansion, the White House, was supplemented by other buildings. In 1891 the Trust lost the use of Poor's Land to the London County Council. The asylum reorganised its buildings, demolishing the historic White House and erecting a new block in 1896. This building became the present Bethnal Green Library. A history of Poor's Land and Bethnal House is included in ''The Green'' (A.J. Robinson and D.H.B. Chesshyre). OTHER HOUSES ON THE GREEN The north end of the Green is associated with the Natt family. During the 18th century they owned many of its houses. Netteswell House is the residence of the curator of the Bethnal Green Museum. It is almost certainly named after the village of Netteswell, near Harwell, whose rector was the Rev. Anthony Natt. A few of its houses have become University Settlements. In Victoria Park Square, on the east side of the Green, No.18 has a Tudor well in its cellar. (Source, The Green, Land assessments records, Gascoyne's survey of 1703.) On Monday 14th May 2007 , builders digging on a housing plot discovered a World War II Bomb , which was at first thought to be a boiler in Palmers Road, Bethnal Green . The 1m long, 500lb device is now being dismantled by bomb disposal experts. 50 local people have been evacuated and Roman Road is closed to all traffic, causing problems with the shops, council offices and health services. 1 EDUCATION For details of education in Bethnal Green see the Tower Hamlets Article TRANSPORT Nearest places Nearest tube stations Nearest railway stations REFERENCES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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