In 1975 Colin Ward described Spitalfields as a classic inner-city 'zone of transition'. Bordering on the City of London, the place had traditionally been a densely-populated 'service centre for the metropolis' where wave after wave of immigrants struggled to gain a foothold on the urban economy: Huguenot silk weavers, the Irish who were set to work undercutting them, Jewish refugees from late 19th-century pogroms in East Europe, and the Bengalis who have settled in the area since the 1950s. Since 1975, Spitalfields has achieved a national reputation as a reclaimable area of beautiful houses and exotic contrasts which has survived the levelling embrace of the welfare state.

LRB 29 October 1987 | PDF Download