A reader from the north of England wrote to me: “My late father was born and grew up in Bethnal Green and his forebears all came from the Old Nichol. In fact, his grandmother, Cordelia Craig (née Shearing), was born at 15 Collingwood Street in the heart of the Nichol on 1 June 1853. In 1891 Cordelia and her husband, Thomas, were living with six of their children at 4 Half Nichol Street, sharing the house with four other families. My grandmother, Mary Ann Craig, was born at 4 Cooper’s Gardens, just north of the Nichol,* on 31 August 1883. She later worked as a french polisher; other family trades of the Craigs and the Shearings were bootmaking and bedstead-making.

“Some of the family had been weavers who had come down from near Norwich, when trade was bad there, in search of work. But – as it did for so many others – the trail ended in the crowded slums of Bethnal Green. Some of my forebears lived at 7 Virginia Row/Road and others at 10 Mount Street, both in the Nichol. Various of the children were baptised at St Philip’s, Mount Street.

“Regarding my father and his memories. . . how can I put this? I’m sure you’ll know that a lot of people (especially elderly people) can be quite sensitive about personal memories. You see, my father was born in the Bethnal Green Workhouse. I only discovered this after he died. Admittedly, my grandmother was only there for my father’s birth, in June 1903, and stayed two weeks before returning to her mother, Cordelia. My father had a hard life in certain ways, but he was a real chirpy Cockney, with a wonderful sense of humour, right up to the time he died, in 1961. He talked a lot about Bethnal Green and particularly about street life and about his contact with the Jewish community: he acted as a ‘shabbas boy’ – being a gentile, he would be employed for a few coppers to light the fires and lamps in Jewish homes on their Sabbath.

“His stepfather made rocking horses and my father did the deliveries, first with a horse-and-cart and then with motorised transport. The firm later became general hauliers. This all took place around Virginia Row/Road and later, farther east, in Mansfield Street.

“Despite the good work done by various individuals to help the poor of the Nichol, I suspect certain of them were using the inhabitants for their own ends. Non-judgmental, no-strings-attached assistance is a rare but necessary commodity for all those who seek to alleviate society’s problems.”

* Cooper’s Gardens, pictured below from each end, is no longer there. It stood between today’s Austin Street and Baker’s Rents.