The joy of giving: local good causes to support this Christmas
This year has been difficult for us all. The pandemic has increased the risk of the vulnerable in our community
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Society
Your guide to the people, passions, culture and heritage that have formed Roman Road’s identity. Discover the communities and cultures of our neighbourhood, its creative industries, social history and personal stories; the heritage that has created our identity, including Bow grime music, the East London Suffragettes, East End and Cockney, and British Bangladeshi; and what we are passionate about, from philanthropic initiatives to campaigns to save our heritage and the environment.
A window into life on the canal [photoessay]
I wanted to capture intimate scenes of people’s autumn evenings on the boats.
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Swadhinata Trust’s Julie Begum: ‘If I’m not challenging the injustice I see, I’m part of the problem.’
‘If I’m not challenging the injustices that I see then I’m part of the problem,’ says Begum. ‘I am not a passive person and I don’t want to be a passive person.’
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Rosaline McCheyne: the unforgettable, forgotten East End Suffragette
Her activism did not stop there. McCheyne was responsible for the admin work of the ELFS. She would organise pitches for the selling and distributing of the Woman’s Dreadnought (the ELFS’s newspaper) in the hopes of drawing in supporters and members. And this was not as “simple as it might sound” she said in an account of a day in her life. And yet, she could sell “more newspapers than any of the other districts”, from around twenty-eight a week to around a thousand in time.
Harry and the Chicks’ new single ‘Bow Church’ captures the beauty of Bow
‘I come from a typically working-class, East End family,’ she says. So when I was young, I remember going with my mum to the market on a Saturday. And I distinctly remember what a social atmosphere it was here. How people on the streets would talk to each other.’
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Iftikhar Latif on swapping his Oxford law degree for East End poetry slams
‘When I first started I was mainly writing about how sad I was. Now I’m also thinking there are also these other things going on, like how I’m British Bangladeshi and how I come from East London but went to a really posh university.’
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Album Review: E3 AF by Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal’s E3 AF (homage to his roots) is the follow up to Raskit, the hard hitting, banger filled album where Dizzee shows those who thought otherwise that he can still bar with the elite.
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This is Home: from Libra Road to Brodick House
From the outdoor toilets and fireside tin baths of Libra Road, to the brand new high rise flats of Brodick
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Pre-fabs and pub life: the story of Ace Cars’ Phil Price
From the vibrant days of the exploding local pub culture to driving around the who’s-who of East End celebrities (‘Barbara was very nice and chatty, but she was very drunk,’ he says), it becomes clear that the story of Phil Price is the story of the East End itself.
Charles R. Ashbee: the man who brought arts and crafts to the East End
In a survey of the church in 1900, he commends the ‘good people of Bow’, for not listening to outside experts to modernise the church, as he believed its 14th century medieval architecture should be maintained as is.
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New photo exhibition encourages people to discover their high street
‘There has been, rightfully, a lot of focus on supporting local businesses during the pandemic. And I realised that more people were discovering what’s in their local area over lockdown as well as they were exploring their neighbourhoods more now.’
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This is Home: photographs of the Victoria Park Model Steam Boat Club
When we stumbled across these beautiful black and white photos of the Victoria Park Model Steam Boat Club from 1949,
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