Pearly queen winds East End clock back 100 years
THEY had a right old knees-up with the Lambeth Walk for the centenary of one of London’s oldest social housing schemes. The families their own pearly queen for yesterday’s street party on the Bethnal Green Estate
THEY had a right old knees-up with the Lambeth Walk for the centenary of one of London’s oldest social housing schemes.
The families had their own pearly queen for yesterday’s street party on the Bethnal Green Estate.
Hackney Pearly Queen Jackie Murphy and her 11-year-old Shoreditch Pearly Princess Amy Rowe, are pictured (top) showing one youngster, four-year-old Hamish Carroll, how the old timers did The Lambeth’.
A traditional pearly’ choir also sang Happy Birthday’ while the kids also enjoyed face painting, henna tattoos and other street entertainment.
SOCIAL HOUSING
The Bethnal Green Estate was completed in 1909 as one of the first charitable social housing schemes in Europe, following on the nearby Boundary Estate in Shoreditch opened nine years before.
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It was a groundbreaking social experiment in its day, the first step in building William Suttons legacy. The successful businessman and philanthropist bequeathed the equivalent of �80 million for homes for the poor of London and other populous centres.’
Today, the estate has three original five-storey blocks of flats and two modern blocks built in 1950, housing 500 East Enders.
