Editing Bethnal Green (section)

===Victorian era===
[[File:Slum children bethnal green.jpg|thumb|right|Slum children in bed, Bethnal Green, 1900–1910]]

In the 19th century, Bethnal Green remained characterised by its [[Market gardening|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 (slum)|rookery]] was replaced with the [[Boundary Estate]] (near the limits of Shoreditch). This was a first in [[council housing]]. Brothers [[Lew Grade]] and [[Bernard Delfont]] were brought up on the estate.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22752 '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 larger '''Bethnal Green Estate''' was opened 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 web |url=http://www.affinitysutton.com/about_us/our_organisation/our_history/timeline.aspx |title=Timeline |access-date=10 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819025634/http://www.affinitysutton.com/about_us/our_organisation/our_history/timeline.aspx |archive-date=19 August 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.affinitysutton.com/about_us/our_organisation/our_history.aspx |title=Our history |access-date=10 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120123024858/http://www.affinitysutton.com/about_us/our_organisation/our_history.aspx |archive-date=23 January 2012 }}</ref> The [[Peabody Trust]] administered the funds to complete much of the estate in 1910.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cambridge Heath {{!}} Hidden London|url=https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/cambridge-heath/amp/|access-date=2020-08-27|website=hidden-london.com}}</ref>

[[File:Bethnal green slum.jpg|thumb|Slum street in Bethnal Green, circa 1900]]

The [[Regent's Canal]] opened in 1820, for horse-drawn canal barges to carry cargo between the [[London Docklands]] and the [[Grand Union Canal]]. These supplied local coal merchants and gas houses/plants (gasifiers) built along its banks including Bethnal Green.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/Documents/Planning-and-building-control/Development-control/Conservation-areas/Regents-Canal-Conservation-Area-compressed.pdf|last=London Borough of Tower Hamlets|title=Regent's Canal|date=4 November 2009|access-date=2 June 2019}}</ref>

The [[Church's Ministry Among Jewish People|London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews]] built Palestine Place as Cambridge Heath began to be fully developed during the first half of the 19th century.<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: List of Churches Pages 217-226  A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green. |url=https://archive.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp217-226 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 1998 |access-date=2 January 2025}}</ref> A windmill survived until at least 1836. Most local residents were poor, especially in the streets around the railway line and the Regent's Canal, as well as on Russia Lane.

As the population grew, a number of mission churches were founded to serve newly created parishes. St Andrew's church on Viaduct Street was built in 1841, serving a congregation of up to 350 people. It closed and was demolished in 1958.<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=Bethnal Green: List of Churches Pages 217-226  A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green. |url=https://archive.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol11/pp217-226 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 1998 |access-date=2 January 2025}}</ref>  St Barnabas Church on Grove Road, opposite Mile End Park, was founded in 1870 and still operates today.  

In 1841, the [[Anglo-Catholic]] [[Nathaniel Woodard]], who was to become a highly influential educationalist in the later part of the 19th century, became the [[curate]] of the newly created St. Bartholomew's church on Buckhurst Street. He was a capable pastoral visitor and established a parochial school. In 1843, he got into trouble for preaching a [[sermon]] in which he argued that ''[[The Book of Common Prayer]]'' should have additional material to provide for [[Confession (religion)|confession]] and [[absolution]] and in which he criticised the "inefficient and Godless clergy" of the [[Church of England]]. After examining the text of the sermon, the [[Bishop of London]] condemned it as containing "erroneous and dangerous notions". As a result, the bishop sent Woodard to be a curate in [[Lower Clapton|Clapton]]. St Bartholomew's church continued operating until 1983 and is now converted for residential use.<ref name="vch"></ref>  

Globe Town was established from 1800 to provide for the expanding population of [[weaver (occupation)|weavers]] around Bethnal Green attracted by improving prospects in [[silk]] weaving. The population of Bethnal Green trebled between 1801 and 1831, operating 20,000 looms in their own homes. By 1824, with restrictions on importation of French silks relaxed, up to half these looms became idle and prices were driven down. With many importing [[warehouse]]s already established in the district, the abundance of cheap labour was turned to boot, furniture and clothing manufacture. Globe Town continued its expansion into the 1860s, long after the decline of the silk industry.<ref name=women>From 1801 to 1821, the population of Bethnal Green more than doubled and by 1831 it had trebled. These incomers were principally weavers. For further details see: Andrew August ''Poor Women's Lives: Gender, Work and Poverty in Late-Victorian London'' pp 35–6 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999) {{ISBN|0-8386-3807-4}}</ref>

[[Columbia Road Flower Market]] is on the street of the same name which has kept some Victorian shops, and was established as Columbia Market in 1869 as a covered food market. It closed in 1886, but was later revived as a Sunday flower market.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22751&strquery=columbia%20market 'Bethnal Green: Building and Social Conditions from 1837 to 1875', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 120–26] Date accessed: 21 January 2007.</ref><ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45086 'Spitalfields', Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 149–52] accessed: 8 February 2007.</ref>

[[Bethnal Green railway station|Bethnal Green Junction]], now just Bethnal Green from 1946 (which leads to confusion with the much-later [[London Underground]] station) and Cambridge Heath railway station are on the [[London Overground]]. Both were opened by the [[Great Eastern Railway]] (GER) on the [[Lea Valley Lines]] in 1872 as part of a more direct route to [[Enfield Town]]. The GER opened further Fast Lines that allow longer-distance trains to bypass these.<ref>Forgotten Stations of Greater London by J. E. Connor and B. Halford.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=D J|title=Cambridge Heath Station|journal=Great Eastern Journal|date=July 1990|volume=63|pages=11}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Bryan|title=Hackney Downs Station, Middlesex|journal=Great Eastern Journal|date=October 2002|volume=112|pages=21, 22}}</ref> Bethnal Green was also formerly served by trains on the [[Great Eastern Main Line]] (GEML) via {{stn|Stratford}} and saw two derailments in the later 20th century, similar to other contemporary comparators of busy, metropolitan junctions.<ref name=Hoole3>{{cite book |last=Hoole |first=Ken |author-link=Ken Hoole |title=Trains in Trouble: Vol. 3 |year=1982 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=Redruth |isbn=0-906899-05-2 |page=39 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=313 "Accident at Bethnal Green on 17th June 1962"] ''The Railways Archive'' accident report 21 December 1962; Retrieved 12 May 2017.</ref>

Mowlem Street School opened in 1887. It was enlarged in 1898 and again in 1902 to accommodate 410 boys and 410 girls. A new single-storey building catering for 280 children was opened in 1971 when it was renamed Mowlem Primary School.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mowlem.org.uk/History/|title=Mowlem Primary - History|website=www.mowlem.org.uk}}</ref>