Editing Battle of Cable Street (section)

===Aldgate and its approaches===
The largest confrontation took place around Aldgate, where the conflict was between those seeking to block the BUF march, and the Metropolitan Police who were trying to clear a route for the march to proceed along. The streets around Aldgate were broad, and impossible to effectively barricade except by blocking them with large crowds of determined people. These efforts were helped when a number of tram cars were abandoned in the road by their drivers, possibly deliberately.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fascists and police routed: the battle of Cable Street - Reg Weston |url=https://libcom.org/article/fascists-and-police-routed-battle-cable-street-reg-weston |access-date=18 January 2023 |website=libcom.org}}</ref>

Dense crowds gathered from Aldgate Pump, along Aldgate High Street and [[Whitechapel High Street]] to [[St Mary Matfelon]] Church (now [[Altab Ali Park]]) and some way along Whitechapel Road. The adjacent side streets, most notably Minories and Leman Street, which led from Tower Hill to Aldgate, also became congested. The greatest concentration of people was at [[Gardiner's (department store)|Gardiner's Corner]], the junction of Whitechapel High Street with Leman Street, Commercial Street and Commercial Road.<ref name=miller>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wyjc1SWotUoC&pg=PA117|title=The Earl of Petticoat Lane|first= Andrew|last= Miller|publisher=Arrow|year= 2007|page=117|isbn=978-0-900913-99-0}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=The East End. Then and Now|first= Winston|last= Ramsey|publisher=Battle of Britain Prints Limited |year= 1997|pages=384–389|isbn=978-0-09-947873-7}}</ref><ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

The public were requested to gather in the area at 2pm, but people began arriving long before then. At 11:30, a column of the largely Jewish Ex-Servicemen's Movement Against Fascism marched along Whitechapel Road, wearing their WWI medals and carrying their Royal British Legion standard before them. On finding their progress to Aldgate blocked by police they demanded the right to march on the streets of their own borough, the same right granted to the fascists who were heading to the area. They were attacked by mounted police, and in the ensuing fighting the police captured their standard, tore it to pieces and smashed the flag pole to pieces.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

By 1:30 Aldgate, and in particular Gardiner's Corner, was solidly blocked by a mass of people who had already endured a series of baton and mounted charges by police. The police continued to try to secure a route through Gardiner's Corner, but also tried to secure alternative routes that the BUF marchers might resort to instead.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

At around 1:40 a large group broke off from the main body and headed into the [[Minories]] which leads to Tower Hill. At around 2:15 individuals were making their way through the Aldgate crowds shouting "All to Cable Street", encouraging people to join the defence of the Cable Street/Leman Street junction near Tower Hill. The Police secured the junction after bitter fighting, and then sought to clear both Cable Street and Leman Street.<ref name="auto"/>

Although some counter-protesters had headed to Cable Street, large numbers remained around Aldgate and its approaches. The Police successfully fought to clear a route along two parallel avenues of approach, Minories and Leman Street, that lay between Tower Hill and Aldgate. They methodically advanced along each of the avenues and secured them by setting cordons of foot police along the side streets. They also continued their attempts to clear Aldgate itself, but the crowd remained solidly packed, chanting "They shall not pass".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Noreen |last1=Branson |first2=Margot |last2=Heinemann |title=Britain in the Nineteen Thirties|date=1971 |publisher=Granada Publishing Limited |isbn=978-0586037577 |page=306 to 322}}</ref>

One of the main organisers of the counter-protest, [[Fenner Brockway]], Secretary of the Independent Labour Party, who had already been injured by a police baton, decided to try to contact the Home Secretary, John Simon.<ref name="Battle for the East End">{{cite book|title=Battle for the East End|pages=207–208|first=David|last= Rosenburg|publisher=Five Leaves Publications|year=2011|isbn=978-1-907869-18-1}}</ref>

Just after 3pm Brockway found a phone box on [[Whitechapel Road]] and called the Home Office; the Home Secretary wasn't available so Brockway appraised a civil servant of the serious ongoing violence:<ref name="Battle for the East End"/>

{{Quote|"There are a quarter of a million people here, they are peaceful and unarmed, but they are determined that Mosley's provocative march shall not pass. If you permit it, yours will be the responsibility for the serious consequences"|[[Fenner Brockway|Fenner Brockway, Secretary of the Independent Labour Party]]<ref name=ilpcover>{{cite web|title=Independent Labour Party leaflet|year=1936|url=http://www.cablestreet.uk/images/They-Did-Not-Pass-cover.jpg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220619010450/http://www.cablestreet.uk/images/They-Did-Not-Pass-cover.jpg|archive-date=19 June 2022}}</ref>}}

The official assured Brockway the message would be passed on. It is not known whether this actually happened, or whether it contributed to the decision by the authorities, soon after, to ban the march.<ref name="Battle for the East End"/>