JEWISH
EAST END OF LONDON PHOTO GALLERY & COMMENTARY
London's East End Synagogues, cemeteries and more......
My personal journey through the Jewish East End of London
Cheshire Street synagogue
(United Workmen's and Wlodowa Synagogue), off Brick Lane
A
reader was kind enough to give me the photo on the left of
Cheshire Street synagogue, 21 Cheshire street, off Brick Lane,
Bethnal Green.
The photo (click to enlarge) was taken in the late 1980s after the synagogue's
closure in 1987. The synagogue's formal name was the
United Workmen's
and
Wlodowa Synagogue. It was an independent synagogue
and was founded in 1901. Wlodowa is in Poland near Lublin
and is where the founders' families originated. In it's
last years it struggled to maintain a minyan and was finally
closed because the building's structure had become dangerous.
It had been the base for the welfare work of 'The Fund of Good
Deeds' which helped to look after the welfare of local elderly
housebound Jewish residents. The Fund ran a shop in
Cheshire Street but the income from the shop was insufficient to
save the building. At the closure the synagogue had 180
members. Many of the original members were skilled
carpenters who made the synagogue's furniture.. It would be good
to hear from any readers who know what became of the furniture.
Minnie
Lansbury memorial clock, Bow Rd, Bow, London E3
Next time you are in Bow take a
look at the Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock, on the side of Electric
House, Bow Rd, London E3. The clock was
recently restored as a result of a campaign by the Jewish East
End Celebration Society. It was first erected in the 1930s
to commemorate the life of Minnie Lansbury (born Glassman), a
Jewish suffragette who died tragically young from pneumonia in
1922 at the age of 32. Her husband, Edgar, was the son of East
End politician & Labour Party leader, George Lansbury. In
1921 George Lansbury led the Poplar rates Rebellion when thirty
Labour Councillors and aldermen (including Minnie) refused to
implement rate (council tax) rises on an impoverished local
community. These 30
local representatives were sent
to prison. Minnie Lansbury's stay in Holloway Prison broke
her health and she died of pneumonia shortly after her release.
After Minnie's death her husband Edgar married an actress and
their daughter was the actress Angela Lansbury.
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Plaque commemorating Mnnie Lansbury on the side of the Electric Building, Bow
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Minnie Lansbury memorial clock in pristine condition following its restoration in 2008
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Minnie Lansbury being congratulated by one of the crowd as she makes her way to Poplar town hall to be arrested
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MInnie Lansbury Clock on Electric House 1925
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MInnie Lansbury Clock on Electric House 2008
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website copyright of Philip
Walker
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