111 Places in London's East End that You Shouldn't Miss

Book excerpt: The ultimate insider's guide to London's East End Features interesting and unusual places not found in traditional travel guides Part of the international 111 Places/111 Shops series with over 250 titles and 1.5 million copies in print worldwide Appeals to both the local market (more than 8.7 million people call London home) and the tourist market (more than 30 million people visit London every year ) Fully illustrated with 111 full-page color photographs Mediaeval no-go zone, Victorian hell-hole, war-ravaged bomb site, 21st century shining city, the most exciting area in one of the most exciting cities in the world - the East End has often been London's strange alter ego. Ed Glinert trawls through the strange stories, the crazed characters, the violent vignettes, the dried-up docks, the imaginative immigrants, the proud philanthropists to give a different history of the most misunderstood sector of the capital, from the Princes in the Tower to the Ratcliffe Highway murders; from Jack the Ripper to the Kray twins; the Jewish ghetto to Banglatown; Cable Street to Canary Wharf; Mahatma Gandhi to George Orwell.