Eastern promise

It's the height of the holiday season and millions of people are hoping to get abroad. The rules on "air bridges" are specific to each country and while some places (Thailand for example) are doing significantly well in their fight against the pandemic, their authorities very understandably regard outsiders as "dirty", hence access to them is virtually impossible. Meanwhile within Europe, the lights come on briefly (France, Spain) and rapidly go out as they are deemed by our authorities to be "dirty". My plans are limited to possible staycations or taking the opportunity to appreciate what London has.

A walk down river and over the magnificent Tower Bridge leads into St. Katharine's Dock and beyond that, Wapping. Away from the main roads, it's a secret place little troubled by traffic. But from the 17th century to the mid-20th it was a bustling commercial dock area. It also saw wave upon wave of immigrants starting with the Huguenots fleeing France in the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish escaping the potato famine of the 1840s and Jewish refugees from the Russian pogroms in the late 19th century. Wapping is associated with the profane (Judge Jeffries of Bloody Assizes notoriety) and the sacred (John Newton, who renounced the slave trade to become a writer of hymns). And further into Whitechapel, there are memories of Jack the Ripper (19th century mass murderer), Peter the Painter (activist at the Siege of Sydney Street in 1911) and General Booth (founder of the Salvation Army). And the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 when the largely Jewish community resisted a fascist rally with the cry "They shall not pass".

The fading stock brick of the 19th century warehouses, now converted into upmarket apartments, could tell many a story but today all is quiet apart from the chatter of other sightseers. But not such good news for the Old Rose (4) which was once popular with journalists before their office moved away. Image 5 is a detail of the impressive St. George in the East church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Christopher Wren, while the final image shows quiet contemplation in an enclave walled in by former docks.Read more