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
Princelet Street, Jewish history depicted in a multicultural street
(place your
mouse over the photos to read the captions, and double click them to
enlarge)
  One of the quaintest areas of the Jewish East End of London centres
on Princelet Street, Fashion Street, Fournier Street, Wilkes Street
and Puma Court (photo right, 1922 map of Princelet Street
area). When walking the area it takes little
imagination to picture yourself back in the 19th century
and earlier, for the houses in this unique enclave date largely from
the 18th and 19th centuries. Most of them were
occupied by Huguenots (French Calvinists) who escaped to the UK from
the persecution of Catholic France in the 17th and 18th
centuries. Many were weavers, and if you look to the roof lines of
these historic properties you will often see attic rooms with wide
windows designed to flood the interiors with light,
(photo left: view along Princelet Street looking
into Wilkes Street, note the weavers' lofts in the roofs)
and it was here
the Huguenots set up their weaving looms. Gradually they
assimilated with the local population and by the end of the 19th
century the Huguenots had virtually disappeared.
 At
the end of the 19th century another torrent of refugees
fleeing persecution arrived to take their place and many of us in
Jewish East End Celebration
Society are their direct descendants. Their history is our history.
To some extent it is possible to trace Jewish history through the sweeping tides of
World events (for example, the assassination of Tsar Alexander 2nd
in 1881 led to progroms, which led to mass Jewish emigration from
Russia to the West and so on), but the full flavour of our story is
best recalled through the patina of the objects, places and
personalities that dreamed of a better life in the streets of the
East End of London. For me, one street in particular stands out in
this respect – Princelet Street, or Princes Street as it was called
in the C19th. (Photo left - Looking down Fournier
Street)
 Come for a walk with me along Princelet Street
(formerly Princes Street), a street where the once fine houses became occupied by large Jewish families
living in one or two rooms apiece. As you turn into Princelet
Street from Wilkes Street and head up towards Brick Lane, the first
thing you may notice is the coal hole cover engraved with
a viola embedded in the right hand side pavement outside number 8.
(photo left, coal hole with viola embedded in
pavement).
A leaflet published by Tower Hamlets council says this commemorates
London’s first Yiddish theatre. The theatre had been located at
number 3 Princes Street and I suspect the Council's description is
wrong and that it actually commemorates the
life of the World famous viola player Lionel Tertis who lived at
number 8. Anyway, back to the theatre: a certain Mr
Smith, a butcher by trade, built the theatre to showcase the talents
of Jacob Adler – a Jewish actor originally from Odessa, briefly
sojourning in London who was to find lasting fame in New York’s
Yiddish Theatre. To raise funds for Mr Smith’s project an appeal
was set up with Sir Samuel Montagu (Liberal MP
for Whitechapel, philanthropist and founder of the bank that carried
his name) as honorary president of the
appeal. The funds were raised and the theatre built. When
completed it was named The Prince’s Street Club. The premises
included a members’ library, for the use of which members paid one
shilling per year. Sadly the theatre did not last long. On the
night of 18th January 1887, when a popular operetta called ‘The
Gypsy Girl’ was being shown, a member of the audience called out
‘Fire!’ causing a full house to rush for the exits. Seventeen
people were crushed and suffocated to death in the ensuing melee.
The Jewish East End went into mourning and the theatre never
recovered its reputation. It closed shortly after. Yiddish was
of course the vernacular of 19th century Jewish
immigrants. This is what Israel Zangwill, in his wonderful book
The Children of the Ghetto has to say about Yiddish and the
Yiddish theatre. In a scene where one character asks another where
to go to see the best theatre in England the answer is:
‘……at the Jargon
Theatre, the great theatre in Princes Street, the only real theatre
in London. The English stage – Drury Lane – pooh! It is not in
harmony with the people: it does not express them’.
('Jargon' is Zangwill's
word
for ‘Yiddish’. If you spoke the ‘Jargon’ it meant you were speaking
‘Yiddish’)
 Religion
played a huge part in the lives of the early Jewish immigrants, just
as it did in the lives of their Huguenot antecedents and at number 8 Princes Street
(photo left, 6 & 8 Princelet Street)
lived the Reverend Alexander Tertis (father of Lionel Tertis
mentioned earlier). Reverend Tertis was the reader at Princes Street synagogue
just down the road at no 19. Apart from his talents at leading a
Shabbat morning service he was also, according to an advert placed
in the Jewish Chronicle of 1886, a skilled mohel. His advert
states:
The Reverend A Tertis (Reader of the Princes Street Synagogue),
Practical and skilful mohel.
Eleven years experience.
Personal attendance until cured.
Numerous references from medical men.
8 Princes Street, Spitalfields E.
By
1890 Reverend Tertis appears to have moved up in the World (though
still living at the same address, because his advert now
stated:
Circumcisions,
Reverend A Tertis,
surgeon-mohel and chief practitioner in the above profession
8 Princes Street, Spitalfields, London E.
Patrons are requested to give 5 or 6 days notice, he having a
very extensive practice.
Reverend Tertis later moved to Stamford Hill where he was still
circumcising into old age. One of his last adverts read:
Circumcisions, Reverend A Tertis, youths and adults
irrespective of creed, abnormal cases a speciality
33
Listiria Park N. Phone 115 Dalston
When Reverend Tertis moved out of Princelet Street another mohel moved in next
door at number 6. Reverend Tertis’s son Lionel went on to become
one of the greatest viola players of the 20th century. Lionel
Tertis died at the age of 98 in 1975. Reverend
Alexander Tertis died in 1918 and
is buried in the Federation cemetery in Edmonton. His son’s
fame is typical of the upwardly mobile progress experienced by
many Jewish families as the immigrant generation was succeeded by
the English born generation.
Moving along to number 17 Princelet Street you will see a blue plaque on
the wall saying:
 Miriam Moses OBE JP,
Social reformer and first woman mayor of Stepney 1931 – 1932, was
born here in 1886
(photo left)
Miriam Moses, a Labour politician, was a heroine to local people.
Amongst her many achievements was the founding of the Brady Girls’
club – an organisation that aided the children of impoverished East
End Jews. The club gave food, clothing, recreation and education to
those in need and was funded by wealthy ‘West End’ Jews who had made
good. Miriam Moses was also involved with the Jewish section
of the Children’s Country
Holiday Fund – a charity providing holidays to children who
would otherwise never have seen an open field. My late mother told
me how she was interviewed by Miss Moses to determine whether or not
she was a worthy recipients of a week‘s holiday in the country.
This was in the mid 1920s when my mother (then aged about 12), her
brother, her sister, her aunt, her father and numerous first cousins
lived in 3 rooms in Mile End. The cousins were older than her and
the boys among them were all studiously cycling round London doing
‘the knowledge’ in order to qualify to join that most favoured of
Jewish professions: taxi driving.
In
her interview my mother thought she had to sound impressive, so she
went into great detail about the imminent wealth of the soon to be
taxi drivers in her family. When she went home and told her step
mother (her aunt) about her glowing financial prospects she received
a sound telling off. Fortunately Miss Moses could see through a
young girl’s fantasies and awarded my mother a week’s holiday in the
countryside…at Epsom!
  Heading up the street towards Brick Lane we come
to number 19, the location of Princes Street synagogue where the celebrated
circumciser (5/6 days notice required!) Reverend A Tertis was the
reader. Number 19 was built in 1719
(photo left of 17 & 19 Princelet street)
and the bobbin
(photo right)
on the wall depicts that it was once the premises of a Huguenot
weaver. Family and community are amongst the strongest forces
which bind Jews together, and so it was that a group of Polish Jews,
who had formed themselves into the Loyal United Friends' Friendly
Society, pooled their
resources to build over the back garden of
the house to create their own tiny synagogue. According to
contemporary Jewish Chronicle reports, the synagogue was established
in Princes Street by 1862. In 1865 demand for seats for the High
Holydays was so great that the synagogue's managing committee hired
Sussex Hall in Leadenhall Street to host the services.
 Tickets
for seats cost from 8 shillings (40p) to 10 shillings and sixpence
(42.5p) which sounds like a lot of money for those days. Then,
as now, maintaining the premises was an ongoing problem.
By 1891 the roof had became so dilapidated that Lewis Solomon -
architect to the Federation of Synagogues - declared the building
unsafe. Redecoration and refurbishment followed and it was
re-opened in 1893 by Sir Samuel Montagu.
In 1898 Fashion Street synagogue, located in New Court, Fashion
Street, (photo right) amalgamated with Princes Street
synagogue…but the story of Fashion Street is for another time.
In Princes Street in 1888 my great aunt
Minnie married Harris London, an illiterate immigrant from Poland.
Neither of them could read or write English and so had to sign their
marriage certificate with their marks. Such was the poverty
existing amongst the East End community at that time that many newly
arrived Jews soon left London to seek their fortune abroad. Minnie
and Harris London were amongst those who left and shortly after
their wedding immigrated to South Africa. No doubt they hoped to
discover diamonds like their fellow East Ender, the fabulously
wealthy Barney Barnato. I don’t think they found gold, but they did
help found today’s large South African Jewish community.
 Before I leave Princelet Street synagogue
(photo left, entrance hall to 19 Princelet
Street)
I cannot resist one
further quotation from Israel Zangwill’s Children of the Ghetto.
The quotation sums up in a delightfully light hearted way the
fervour and enthusiasm of the Jews who belonged to little East End
synagogues like Princelet Street. Here is Zangwill’s description of
a typical prayer service:
‘They enjoyed
themselves in this shool of theirs: they shouted and skipped and
shook and sang, they wailed and moaned and they were not the least
happy when they were crying. But if they did not always understand
what they were saying they always meant it. If the service had been
more intelligible it would have been less emotional and edifying.
There was not a sentiment, however incomprehensible, for which they
were not ready to die or damn’.
  Princelet Street synagogue closed its doors in the mid 1960s and now
needs urgent repair to preserve the fabric. The synagogue still
covers the back garden and is occasionally open for visitors.
(photo left
depicts the view upstairs from the ladies gallery looking towards
the Ark, and the photo on the right is the Ark which once
contained the Torah scrolls. Note the 10 commandments above
the Ark)
 Meanwhile, Princelet
Street (photo left, looking towards Wilkes Street) and
its environs have become increasingly gentrified and the Jewish
population has largely moved on to the leafy suburbs of North London
and beyond leaving only a few elderly Jews behind. Most of the
Huguenot houses have been restored and are lived in by artists,
authors and those with pretensions, or otherwise, of grandeur. How different to just a few generations ago, but with a
little imagination it is still possible to read our story from what
remains.
Sources:
Jewish Chronicle;
Children of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill;
The
Yiddish theatre and Jacob Adler by Lulla Adler Rosenfeld;
Spitalfield's centre information leaflet and of
course personal observation!
Got a story to tell? Drop me a line, click:
Phil
website copyright of Philip
Walker
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