East London
Stratford, in east London, will be the epicenter of the Olympics in 2012. It’s where the Olympic Stadium and Olympic Park are currently being built.
East London, or the ‘East End’ as we lovingly refer to it, has a rich and varied culture stretching back many years. Almost a culture of its own compared to the rest of London.
Located east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames, the area is not actually defined by formal boundaries (see the map below for its exact location), and has seen successive waves of foreign immigration for several centuries. Jewish, Irish and Bangladeshi immigrants have all made the East End their home since the 17th century. Many of these people worked in the clothing industry.
Widely known in the past as one of the poorest parts of London, the East End has spawned some hard but very proud people.
It’s the home of the ‘Cockneys’ – traditionally, people who are born within the sound of the ‘Bow’ bells, a predominantly working-class area based around the docks and the world-famous River Thames where, in the old days, the locals fished for eels. A traditional dish of London – and especially the East End – is ‘jellied eels’, but the main traditional Cockney dish is pie and mash.
