London now
I grew up in London, first the East End and then the suburbs. My friend Barry took us on several trips around London last week. It has certainly changed!
It is much more affluent, cleaner and more lively and cosmopolitan. When I lived there we Jews were the minority in the East End, with a few West Indians and some Pakistanis. Now there are people from all over, and certainly lots of Muslims.
We went for a stroll around the Brick Lane area where I grew up. It is now known as Banglatown, filled with colorful Bangladeshis. The Huguenots, Protestants from France in the 1680s fleeing Catholic persecution, were the first immigrants that settled in the Spitalfields area. Now their houses are very expensive and sought after. But, the Bangladeshis generally live in poorer housing. The Huguenot Church on Brick Lane was converted into a large Synagogue (the Masik Hadas) by Lithuanian Jews, and it is now a Bangladeshi Mosque.
We stopped over in Hoxton, that was a no-go area for Jews when I was growing up and was a center for Moseley's blackshirts before WWII. Now it is full of Black people and is the current hip area of London, with good restaurants surrounding Hoxton Square, what a transformation.
In Shoreditch there is a Vietnamese area, with Vietnamese restaurants lining Kingsland Road. Then we passed through a Turkish area near Dalston, although these Turks are mainly from Cyprus. In Finsbury Park we saw the Mosque where there has been a lot of trouble. Everywhere there was a complete multicultural mixture of people.
Going north we came to the largely Jewish area of Stamford Hill, where Naomi grew up. There are many haredi Jews living there and their presence is evident. At no time did we see any sign of animosity or friction. However, I am sure that if you walked around carrying an Israeli flag you would soon be challenged. All Jewish sites are surrounded by high security fences.
We also took a spin around the West End. Buckingham Palace was crowded with tourists. When it was sunny everything looked pleasant, when it rained, as it tends to do there, it was gray and depressing as I remember it. London is certainly an exciting place to live, but perhaps not so conducive to Jewish life.
It is much more affluent, cleaner and more lively and cosmopolitan. When I lived there we Jews were the minority in the East End, with a few West Indians and some Pakistanis. Now there are people from all over, and certainly lots of Muslims.
We went for a stroll around the Brick Lane area where I grew up. It is now known as Banglatown, filled with colorful Bangladeshis. The Huguenots, Protestants from France in the 1680s fleeing Catholic persecution, were the first immigrants that settled in the Spitalfields area. Now their houses are very expensive and sought after. But, the Bangladeshis generally live in poorer housing. The Huguenot Church on Brick Lane was converted into a large Synagogue (the Masik Hadas) by Lithuanian Jews, and it is now a Bangladeshi Mosque.
We stopped over in Hoxton, that was a no-go area for Jews when I was growing up and was a center for Moseley's blackshirts before WWII. Now it is full of Black people and is the current hip area of London, with good restaurants surrounding Hoxton Square, what a transformation.
In Shoreditch there is a Vietnamese area, with Vietnamese restaurants lining Kingsland Road. Then we passed through a Turkish area near Dalston, although these Turks are mainly from Cyprus. In Finsbury Park we saw the Mosque where there has been a lot of trouble. Everywhere there was a complete multicultural mixture of people.
Going north we came to the largely Jewish area of Stamford Hill, where Naomi grew up. There are many haredi Jews living there and their presence is evident. At no time did we see any sign of animosity or friction. However, I am sure that if you walked around carrying an Israeli flag you would soon be challenged. All Jewish sites are surrounded by high security fences.
We also took a spin around the West End. Buckingham Palace was crowded with tourists. When it was sunny everything looked pleasant, when it rained, as it tends to do there, it was gray and depressing as I remember it. London is certainly an exciting place to live, but perhaps not so conducive to Jewish life.
posted by Jack Cohen at 10:23 AM
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