We come to Bucks Row. This is immediately behind Whitechapel Station and runs into White’s Row. You can see White’s Row on the map below. It crosses Thomas Street. Anyway, Bucks Row was in 1888 the place where Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols was murdered. She was the first of Jack the Ripper’s victims. There are many websites devoted to Jack the Ripper. In fact when researching the streets around Thomas Street it was almost impossible to avoid this gruesome event!

Just outside the estate and in number 178 Vallance Road, lived the Kray brothers. They were born and bred in the East End, and lived here in Bethnal Green and spent their early years in the boxing ring. They had their own gang which caused mayhem and terrorised the neighbourhood and the twins eventually ended up in prison. They were convicted of the murder of George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road. As a small aside George and his wife Olive lived for a while in Blackwall Buildings! As an even bigger aside, in 1950 my father made the steel pub sign for the Blind Beggar. The pub was owned by Mann Crossman and Paulin (Albion Brewery, next to the pub). My father made the swinging steel sign frame. The actual painting of the sign was done by H S Herring (signwriters) of 22 Raven Row, Bishopsgate. It’s a very small world and this is a strange connection between places. My grandfather lived in the Buildings as did George Cornell. The pub George died in had its sign made by my father. Odd !!!

Rather amazingly, in May 1907 the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was held at the Jewish Social Club Hall in Fulbourne Street; which is not still standing. Among the delegates to this momentous meeting resulting in the Russian Revolution were Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Litvinoff and Gorky. During the fortnight of the conference Stalin (then called Djugashvili) and Litvinov slept in a hostel for down-and-outs in Fieldgate Street. The area at the turn of the century was a hotbed of Anarchist activity; old Lenin himself used to hold meetings behind Whitechapel station and Trotsky too in the Bakery on the corner of Court Street .