The real East Enders | The West Australian

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The real East Enders | The West ***********

No part of England’s capital has changed like London’s east in recent decades.

Once synonymous with industry, crime, and characters like Jack the Ripper and the Kray twins, it was long portrayed as dirty, dangerous and downtrodden, where the West End of London was dishy, dashing, and dripping with money.

Of course, things were never that reductive or ******-and-white.

But while the west — more specifically the central-west of London like Mayfair and Soho — remains moneyed and tourist central, gentrification has brushed through the east, transforming districts and leading to a rise in property prices and rents for its assortment of low, medium and high-rise housing.

Even many visitors prefer to stay in this half of the city nowadays, and there’s a good choice of stylish and trendy hotels, with many scattered in and around Shoreditch, the epicentre of east London’s renaissance, a bagel’s throw from the skyscrapers and financial headquarters of the Square Mile.

Yet gritty and edgy pockets still stud east London, and it’s the socio-economic contrasts, and hodge-podge of architecture, vibes, people and languages, that make this such an absorbing place to explore.

Camera IconBethnal Green’s York Hall is known as the home of British boxing. Credit: Steve McKenna/

Enclaves like Bethnal Green and Hackney, in particular, brim with intriguing ingredients, from always-busy, graffiti-marked streets thronged with cosmopolitan shops, eateries and red double-decker buses to leafy, tranquil backstreets with handsome Victorian terraced houses, inviting canal paths and grassy parks where locals picnic and enjoy sports.

Having once lived in this part of London for several years, I have my favourite old areas that I like to check in on whenever I’m back in the neighbourhood.

These districts are in perpetual flux but still usually manage to retain at least some of their old essence.

One place that always drags me back is Broadway Market, which runs between the Regent’s Canal and the sprawling greenery of London Fields.

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It’s an everyday street as much as a market, containing shops, pharmacies, bookstores, watering holes, bakeries and eateries, though stalls do pop up here at the weekend.

While fruit and vegetables were once the mainstay of a market that (some say) inspired the one in the TV soap EastEnders, today’s vendors sell everything from aromatic artisan European cheeses to fragrant dishes from Asia and the Caribbean.

Strolling along the street early one midweek winter’s morning, I pass an organic grocery store and a plant-based deli that weren’t here last time.

Some places I used to frequent are still trading — Victorian gastropub The Cat & Mutton and Buen Ayre, Britain’s first authentic Argentine charcoal grill steakhouse — but sadly F. Cooke isn’t.

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F. Cooke on Broadway Market in Hackney. Credit: Steve McKenna/

Founded in 1900, this was one of London’s last traditional pie, mash and jellied eel shops, but rocketing rates and changing tastes led to its closure in 2019.

Its green-and-gold facade and signage remain but, peeking inside, I see an upscale eyewear brand has set up shop, though its retained many of Cooke’s original features such as the stained-glass windows and marble counter.

Exiting Broadway Market, I drop down to the towpath of the Regent’s Canal, which threads 14km between north-east and west London.

I used to jog here in all weathers, and as I amble by the water today, people younger and older than me are puffing, sprinting and cycling past.

Gazing over the line of houseboats moored here, I see a cluster of Victorian gas holders, which were vacant and skeletal a few years ago.

Now they’re being filled with fancy new apartments (later, in a real estate agent’s window, I see studio flats priced from $1.3 million).

I exit the towpath at Cambridge Heath, a stone’s throw from Bethnal Green. London Overground trains rumble on a viaduct above, while the railway arches below contain a mish-mash of businesses, from car mechanic garages and music studios to coffee roasteries and natural wine stores.

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The ******* Museum — billed as “the world’s first bricks-and-mortar museum dedicated to vaginas, vulvas and the gynaecological anatomy” — is also here, but the shutters are down today.

Across the street, and open again after a major overhaul, the Young V&A displays a treasure trove of nostalgia-inducing exhibits and hands-on fun and games.

This excellent free museum is next to Bethnal Green Tube station and the York Hall, the so-called “home of British boxing”, staging fight nights since the 1940s (though few as brutal, I’d wager, as the scraps in A Thousand Blows, a new Disney Plus drama by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, set in the world of bare-knuckle boxing in the Victorian-era East End before gloves and proper pugilistic rules were adopted).

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E Pellicci, an East London icon. Credit: Steve McKenna/

While York Hall is a real East End stalwart, so too is E Pellicci. This family-run Anglo-Italian “caff” is on Bethnal Green Road, which hasn’t changed as much as some east London thoroughfares in the past decade.

I pass South Asian clothes stores and grocery shops and revitalised boozers like The Star of Bethnal Green before joining a small ****** outside E Pellicci.

There’s now a small covered outdoor dining area, but I want to sit in the Art Deco heritage-listed interior, where the walls are wood-panelled and the banter flows.

“Do you mind sharing a table?” asks Nev, grandson of Priamo Pellicci and his wife Elide, who took over the cafe at the turn of the century.

Nev, well into his 40s now, has more salt and pepper in his beard than when I last came, but he remains as friendly as ever, chatting and joking with his customers, who range from local tradesmen and pensioners to tourists and cockney and Hollywood celebrities (think EastEnders stars, Ray Winstone, Tom Hardy, Colin Farrell, and gangsters the Kray twins back in the day).

I’m seated at a table of Americans, who’ve travelled to Britain to watch their favourite soccer team (Liverpool), and decided to tack on a London stay. E Pellicci serves a range of home-made Italian and English dishes but throughout the morning a fair few punters come for ”a big fry-up”.

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E Pellicci will set you up for a stroll around London’s East End. Credit: Steve McKenna/

The Americans, accustomed to large portions, seem happy with their plates piled with baked beans, eggs, bacon, Cumberland sausage, tomato, mushrooms and toast.

Around us, there’s a flurry of conversations in half-a-dozen languages, orders being made and relayed to the kitchen, clashes of crockery and cutlery.

It’s cramped, communal and crackling with cooking smells. While prices are higher than before (inflation!) and more Pellicci-branded merchandise is for ***** (including tote bags, tea towels and T-shirts), the soul of this caff endures.

When I come to pay — £15.60 ($32.60) for the gut-busting full English with a mug of tea — Nev’s cousin Tony tells me it’s still cash only.

I’m so used to paying contactless for everything now, in east London and beyond, that I have no notes in my wallet.

“There’s an ATM across the road,” says Tony. Five minutes later I’m back, skipping round the growing ****** outside to settle my bill.

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