Jack alive in London
Chapter IV of 'Gaslight and daylight' by George Augustus Sala, in which he heads east in search of sailors. Although the edition from which this was taken was published by Chatto and Windus in 1872, the article was written between 1851 and 1856.
 
The Jews in Tower Hamlets : a miscellany (1744-1840)
A collection of short news reports from the 18th and 19th century on Jewish people in the area.
 
Limehouse
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. III, no. 27 (May 1933), on the history of the parish.
 
The London Docks
Article from 'Picturesque Sketches of London' by Thomas Miller 1852.
 
Marriages at Stepney Church
The author casts a satirical eye on wedding customs, as practised at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, in 1839: an unfortunate young couple caught by the bride's parents, couples married en masse, tars and doxies and bigamous marriages. The source of the article was not given.
 
The Matchgirls' Strike of 1888 : news reports
Reports from the East London Observer, a weekly newspaper, on the strike at the Bryant & May match factory.
 
Mathematical Society, Spitalfields.
From: History of Clubs & Club Life, John Timbs, 1872.
 
Memories of Mile End
Life in Mile End at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century as remembered by C.A. Brown (1887-1978). Published in the 'East London Record', no.2 (1979) and republished here with the kind permission of the East London History Society.
 
Mile End
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. III, no. 33 (November 1933), on the history of the hamlet of Mile End Old Town and Stepney Green.
 
Miscellanies
Collections of short articles from the 18th and 19th centuries
 
Monthly Commercial Report
Short article from the 'Monthly Magazine', September 1806, on the official opening of the East India Docks in Blackwall. Preceded by a short report on the completion of the project in July.
 
More Revelations of Bethnal Green
Article from 'The Builder', Vol. XXI, no. 1082 (31st October 1863), about the appalling housing conditions in the Old Nichol area of Bethnal Green. The slum was cleared in the 1890's and the Boundary Street Estate built in its place.
 
Murder on the North London Railway
Two news reports from the 'Illustrated London News' of July 1864 on what is said to have been the first ever murder on a train.
 
My struggle with a tiger
An account, by Charles Jamrach, from the 'Boys Own Paper' of 1879, of his rescue of a boy seized by a tiger.
 
Off the track in London
Selected chapters from a book by George R. Sims, published by Jarrold & Sons in 1911.
 
Official Guide to the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar
This is the full text (excluding advertisements) of the first edition of the borough guide issued in 1927. Until it was merged into Tower Hamlets in 1965, the Borough of Poplar covered Old Ford, Bow, Bromley, Poplar, Blackwall and the Isle of Dogs.
 
Old Ford
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. III, no. 31 (September 1933), on the history of Old Ford from Roman times.
 
On Blackwall Pier
Anecdotal article from 'East London Observer', (Saturday, July 21st 1888), taking a tragi-comic look at East End life.
 
An opium smoke in Tiger Bay
Essay from 'In Strange Company : being the experiences of a roving correspondent' by James Greenwood, published in 1883, describing a visit to an opium den in St. George's-in-the-East. And, yes, he inhales.
 
Pauperism in Bethnal-green
Article from the 'East London Observer,' no. 445 (Saturday, March 31, 1866), which looks at how the local Board of Guardians were applying the Poor Law in Bethnal Green.
 
The penny gaff
J. Ewing Ritchie visits a cheap theatre in Shoreditch in a chapter from 'Here and there in London,' 1859.
 
Poplar - apart from politics
Article from 'The Nineteenth Century', April 1924, about conditions in Poplar in the 1920's.
 
Poplar in the past
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. III, no. 32 (October 1933), on the history of Poplar and the Isle of Dogs from Saxon times to the 19th century.
 
Rag Fair
Article by J. Ewing Ritchie from 'Here and there in London' (1859) describing the Old Clothes Exchange in Houndsditch and the Jews who traded there.
 
Rag Fair, Petticoat Lane : the debatable lands in London
Article from 'The Builder' (3rd July 1858), describing the famous market and the conditions of the houses around it.
 
Ragged London in 1861
Some chapters from John Hollingshead's survey of poverty in London after a 'winter of unexampled severity' in 1860/61, published in 1861.
 
Ratcliff
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. III, no. 26 (April 1933), on the history of the parish from the 14th to the 17th century.
 
Ratcliff
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. V, no. 58 (December 1935), giving more details of the history of the parish.
 
Ratcliff
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. V, no. 59 (Christmas 1935-January 1936), giving yet more details of the history of the parish.
 
Ratcliffe-Highway
Chapter from 'The night side of London' by J. Ewing Ritchie, published in 1857, describing the highway's sailors, 'crimps' and prostitutes.
 
Riots and outrages in Bethnal Green
Two articles from 1826 on a remarkable outbreak of lawlessness in the East End that warranted the intervention of the Home Secretary, Mr. Peel.
 
Round St. George in the East
Chapter X of 'Off the track in London' by George R. Sims, published by Jarrold & Sons in 1911, in which he visits the Highway, Cable Street, Prince's Square, Wellclose Square, and other parts of the parish.
 
St. Dunstan's, Stepney
Article from: 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. V, pp. 37-44 (April 1935), on the history of the parish church of Stepney.
 
St. George's-in-the-East
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. II, no. 24 (February 1933), on the history of the parish from its creation in 1729 to the 1930's.
 
St. Katharine's and East Smithfield
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. III, no. 35 (Christmas 1933-January 1934), on the history of the parish from 900's.
 
Seaworthy Poplar
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. I, no. 8 (October 1931), about Richard Green and ship-building in 19th century Poplar.
 
Shadwell
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. II, no. 23 (Christmas 1932-January 1933), on the history of the parish from the 16th to the early 20th century.
 
Shadwell
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. V, no. 57 (November 1935), giving more details of the history of the parish.
 
Sight-seeing in Bethnal Green
Article from 'All the year round', 20 July 1872, on the opening of the Bethnal Green Museum. It's notable for some nice observation of the crowd including the local expert (Bethnal Green was a centre of the furniture industry) who thinks the Venetian thrones are 'just done up expensive'.
 
Spitalfields. Pt.1
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. I, no. 10 (December 1931), covering the early history of Spitalfields and the Old Artillery Ground up to the 17th century.
 
Spitalfields. Pt.2
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. I, no. 11 (Christmas 1931-January 1932), covering the history of Spitalfields in the 17th and 18th centuries and the arrival of the Huguenots.
 
Spitalfields. Pt.3
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald, Vol. I, no. 12 (February 1932), giving more details of the 17th and 18th centuries, of silk weaving and the Huguenots.
 
Spitalfields. Pt.4
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald, Vol. II, no. 13 (March 1932), about the silk weaving industry in Spitalfields in the 1th century.8
 
Spitalfields. Pt.5
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald, Vol. II, no. 14 (April 1932), about the decline of the silk weaving industry in Spitalfields in the late 18th and 19th century.
 
Stepney in other days
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. II, no. 19 (September1932), on the history of Stepney (i.e. Stepney Borough) in the 16th century.
 
Stratford Bow
Excerpt from 'London and Middlesex', Vol. IV, (1816), by J. Norris Brewer, on the history of the parish of Bow.
 
Sunday morning in Petticoat-lane
Description of the famous market in 1877. (As the article says at the end, the street itself is now properly known as Middlesex Street.) Source of article unknown.
 
To check the survival of the unfit
A dose of social darwinism from a Bethnal Green vicar interviewed in 'The London', 12th March 1896. The Rev. Osborne Jay was vicar of Holy Trinity Church in the Old Nichol, also known as the Jago.
 
Tower Hamlets 1888
Article from the 'East London Record', No. 2 (1979), on conditions in the borough in the year of the Matchgirls' Strike and the Jack the Ripper murders. Republished with the kind permission of the East London History Society.
 
Victoria Park
Article from 'What I saw in London', by David W. Bartlett. Published 1852 in Auburn, Connecticut.The book describes the American author’s experiences in London during two twelve month visits to London in 1847/8 (then aged only19) and 1850/1.
 
The village of Bow
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. I, no. 7 (September 1931), on the history of Bow from earliest times to the first quarter of the 19th century.
 
A visit to 'Tiger Bay'
Article from 'The Wilds of London', by James Greenwood.
 
Wapping
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. II, no. 22 (December 1932), on the early history of Wapping from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
 
The Wapping Housing Estate
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. II, no. 21 (November 1932), about the housing estate constructed by the London County Council on Old Gravel Lane.
 
Well Close
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. IV,, no. 38 (April 1934), on the history of this small area in the south west of the borough.
 
Well Close
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. IV,, no. 39 (May 1934), which continues the history above, focusing on the theatres in the area including a paragraph on Wilton's Music Hall which has been preserved and recently re-opened for performances.
 
White Horse Street
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. V, no. 52 (June 1935), on this history of this ancient street.
 
White Slavery in London
Annie Besant's famous article on conditions in the Bryant and May Match Factory which triggered the Matchgirls' Strike of 1888.
 
Whitechapel
A contemporary description of the area by Arthur G. Morrison published in 'The Palace Journal', (24 April 1889).
 
Whitechapel
Article from 'The Copartnership Herald', Vol. III, no. 34 (December 1933), on the history of the parish from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
 
Whitechapel and Houndsitch (Rag Fair)
Article from 'Picturesque Sketches of London' by Thomas Miller 1852.
 
Whitechapel Mount and the London Hospital
A previously unpublished article by David Flintham concerning a hillock which stood beside the London Hospital and its role in the fortification of London during the English Civil war.
 
Whitechapel Road on a Saturday night
An article describing the scene in the Whitechapel market one Saturday night, the women shopping, the quack doctors peddling their wares, a waxworks and a freakshow. (It was around this time, incidentally, that John Merrick, 'the Elephant Man', was exhibited in a shop opposite the London Hospital in Whitechapel Road.) The cutting I took this from is dated 1862 but the source isn't identified.