LONDON’S EAST END

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 2

LONDON’S EAST END

“GAY AND HAPPY POOR" Where in London is the life mosthappy and gay? “The West End,” you will reply, without hesitation, says the ‘ Evening News.’ But according to no less an authority than Mr H. A. L. Fisher, a formerpresident of the Board of Education, and now warden of New College, Oxford, you are mistaken. The East End is the ceutro of gaiety. Listen to what Mr Fisher said at Oxford when he was presiding at a meeting of the College of Oxford House, Bethnal Green. “Tho population of East London is one of the glories of England,” he declared. “It is a very gay population. The East End of London is a very much better place to work in > than Oxford. It has a , brilliant, vivifying air, and all the attractions of a seaside place.” The mayor of Bethnal Green, Mr George Bayley, speaking for the East End as a whole, told an interviewer that Mr Fisher had uttered a profound truth. “We are a gay, happy people down here,” ho said. “ I was born in Bethnal Green, have been here all my life, and I desire no better place in which to live and work. It is marvellous how contented and happy the poorer classes are. They do not envy the more glaring and luxurious life of the West End, but are satisfied with their simple amusements, the cinemas, concerts and occasional outings. Wo are a sociable people, and enjoy onr pleasures We get through our day’s work with zest. If West End London wants to know how to work and to play with the greatest degree, have a look at us.”