Editing Bethnal Green (section)

===Emblems===
====Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green====
The area was once best known for the popular [[Early modern Britain|early modern]] ballad, ''The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green'', which tells the story of a beautiful young woman named Bess, the daughter of a blind beggar. The earliest known explicit mention of the ballad is from 1624, but it was clearly well established by that date, as two other ballads of similar date were said to have been sung to the tune of the ''Blind Beggar''. A play on the same theme, almost certainly based on an existing ballad, is known to have been performed in 1600.<ref>Robinson and Chesshyre 1986, p. 31.</ref>

According to one version of the legend, found in [[Thomas Percy (Bishop of Dromore)|Thomas Percy]]'s ''[[Reliques of Ancient English Poetry]]'' published in 1765, the beggar was said to be [[Henry de Montfort|Henry]], the son of [[Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester|Simon de Montfort]], but Percy himself declared that this version was not genuine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/blind+beggar.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030011746/http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/blind%20beggar.htm|url-status=dead|title= Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green |archivedate=30 October 2007|website=www.eastlondonhistory.com}}</ref> A version published in 1934,<ref>{{cite book |title=A Book of Old Ballads |editor-first=Beverley |editor-last=Nichols |editor-link=Beverley Nichols |year=1934 |publisher=Hutchinson & Sons |location=London }}</ref> closely based on Percy's but with some amendments to include much older material, contains 67 verses. The ballad recounts how Bess leaves Bethnal Green to seek her fortune, and stays a short time at the Queen's Arms inn at [[Romford]]. There, her beauty quickly attracts four suitors, three of whom lose interest when she declares her background, while the fourth, a knight is unconcerned by her father's status. The couple marry, and despite his seeming poverty, the beggar gives a huge dowry to the knight, to the bitter dismay of the other three suitors. [[The Blind Beggar]] public house, just on the Bethnal Green side of the historic boundary with [[Whitechapel]],<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Bethnal Green: Social and Cultural Activities |title=A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green |editor-first=T. F. T. |editor-last=Baker |location=London |year=1998 |pages=147–155 |website=British History Online |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp147-155 |access-date=25 September 2022 }}</ref> is reputed to be the site of his begging.

A depiction of the beggar is known to have been used on the head of the local [[beadle]]'s staff in 1690.<ref name=bening>{{cite book |title=London 1900–1964. Armorial Bearings and Regalia of The London County Council, The Corporation of London and The Metropolitan Boroughs |last=Beningfield |first=T. J. |year=1964 |publisher=E. J. Burrow |location=London  |pages=49–50}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=London's Coats of Arms and the Stories they Tell |last=Crosley |first=Richard |year=1928 |publisher=Robert Scott |location=[[London]] |pages=46–49}}</ref> Later, the beggar and his daughter were the basis of the [[Seal (emblem)|common seal]] of the [[Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Crosley |title=London's Coats of Arms and the Stories they Tell |location=London |publisher=Robert Scott |year=1928 |pages=47–51 }}</ref> The legend also inspired [[Elisabeth Frink]]'s sculpture ''[[Blind Beggar and his Dog]]'' (1958) on the [[Cranbrook Estate]] in Bethnal Green.

====Mulberry====
Bethnal Green is famous for its [[morus nigra|mulberry]] trees, most notably the [[Bethnal Green mulberry tree|Bethnal Green mulberry]] at the site of the former London Chest Hospital, which is reputed to be the oldest tree in the East End. Many of these mulberry trees may be a legacy of unsuccessful 16th and 17th century attempts to boost the weaving industries that Bethnal Green, [[Shoreditch]], [[Spitalfields]] and other East End districts relied upon so heavily.<ref>History of the mulberry in London https://www.moruslondinium.org/research/timeline</ref>

Mulberries were used as the local emblem when it was a partly self-governing neighbourhood of Tower Hamlets from 1986 to 1992, and the symbol can still be seen on many local street signs.<ref>Spitalfields Life website https://spitalfieldslife.com/2018/02/19/the-bethnal-green-mulberry-lecture/</ref> The mulberry is also used as a symbol of the East End more generally, and is featured on the [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets#Coat of arms|coat of arms of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]].