| In the last few weeks, we've been looking at various aspects of the social history of London, |
| and this morning we're continuing with a look at life in the area called the East End. |
| I'll start with a brief history of the district, |
| and then focus on life in the first half of the twentieth century. |
| Back in the first to the fourth centuries AD, |
| when the Romans controlled England, |
| London grew into a town of 45,000 people, |
| and what's now the East End - |
| the area by the river Thames, and along the road heading north-east from London to the coast - |
| consisted of farmland with crops and livestock |
| which helped to feed that population. |
| The Romans left in 410, at the beginning of the fifth century, |
| and from then onwards, the country suffered a series of invasions by tribes from present-day Germany and Denmark, |
| the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, many of whom settled in the East End. |
| The technology they introduced meant that metal and leather goods were produced there for the first time. |
| And as the East End was by the river, |
| ships could transport goods between there and foreign markets. |
| In the 11th century, in 1066 to be precise, |
| the Normans conquered England, |
| and during the next few centuries London became one of the most powerful and prosperous cities in Europe. |
| The East End benefited from this, |
| and because there were fewer restrictions there than in the city itself, |
| plenty of newcomers settled there from abroad, |
| bringing their skills as workers, merchants or money-lenders during the next few hundred years. |
| In the 16th century, the first dock was dug |
| where ships were constructed, eventually making the East End the focus of massive international trade. |
| And in the late 16th century, |
| when much of the rest of England was suffering economically, |
| a lot of agricultural workers came to the East End to look for alternative work. |
| In the seventeenth century, the East End was still a series of separate, semi-rural settlements. |
| There was a shortage of accommodation, |
| so marshland was drained and built on to house the large numbers of people now living there. |
| By the 19th century, London was the busiest port in the world, |
| and this became the main source of employment in the East End. |
| Those who could afford to live in more pleasant surroundings moved out, |
| and the area became one where the vast majority of people lived in extreme poverty, |
| and suffered from appalling sanitary conditions. |
| That brief outline takes us to the beginning of the 20th century, |
| and now we'll turn to housing. |
| At the beginning of the century, |
| living conditions for the majority of working people in East London were very basic indeed. |
| Houses were crowded closely together |
| and usually very badly built, because there was no regulation. |
| But the poor and needy were attracted by the possibility of work, |
| and they had to be housed. |
| It was the availability, rather than the condition, of the housing |
| that was the major concern for tenants and landlords alike. |
| Few houses had electricity at this time, |
| so other sources of power were used, like coal for the fires which heated perhaps just one room. |
| Of course, the smoke from these contributed a great deal to the air pollution |
| for which London used to be famous. |
| A tiny, damp, unhealthy house like this might well be occupied by two full families, |
| possibly including several children, grandparents, aunts and uncles. |
| Now, before I go on to health implications of this way of life, |
| I'll say something about food and nutrition. |