Page "Bethnal Green" Paragraph 17

In the 19th century, Bethnal Green remained characterised by its market gardens and by weaving.

Having been an area of large houses and gardens as late as the 18th century, by about 1860 Bethnal Green was mainly full of tumbledown old buildings with many families living in each house.

By the end of the century, Bethnal Green was one of the poorest slums in London.

Jack the Ripper operated at the western end of Bethnal Green and in neighbouring Whitechapel.

In 1900, the Old Nichol Street Rookery was demolished, and the Boundary Estate opened on the site near the boundary with Shoreditch.

This was the world's first council housing, and brothers Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont were brought up here .< ref >< cite >' Bethnal Green: Building and Social Conditions from 1876 to 1914 ', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green ( 1998 ), pp. 126-32 accessed: 14 November 2006 </ ref > In 1909, the Bethnal Green Estate was built with money left by the philanthropist William Richard Sutton which he left for ' modern dwellings and houses for occupation by the poor of London and other towns and populous places in England '.< ref >< cite >< cite >