Horrible Hoxton! VICTORIAN SLUM Crime and Destitution in London's Inner City

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  • Опубліковано 27 січ 2025

КОМЕНТАРІ • 125

  • @FactFeast
    @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +20

    Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this please like, comment and share.
    ▶ Victorian documentaries (Playlist):
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  • @chrisberry9017
    @chrisberry9017 4 місяці тому +57

    My Father was born in Hoxton in 1898. He went in to fight in WW1, going ‘over the top’ on his 18th. birthday - 1st. July 1916. He spent his life improving his situation, reading avidly. He finished his formal education at twelve, his parents not being able to keep him at school. He subsequently set about working hard, and attending evening classes. He was one of the most accomplished people who I have ever met. Considering his poor beginnings, he reached heights that he could never have dreamed of. Thank you Dad for your example and love.

    • @debbief9861
      @debbief9861 4 місяці тому +6

      1898? Your dad might have known my folks!

    • @lilacscentedfushias1852
      @lilacscentedfushias1852 3 місяці тому +3

      I live in Yorkshire but worked in a school opened in 1907, just thinking that if it had been in London your dad would have been the age of some of the first pupils!

    • @xenaires
      @xenaires Місяць тому +1

      God bless your dad for his strength and determination to fight with honor. My dad was in Germany at a stadium in a tank. I believe that was during the Battle of the Bulge.
      I commend and respect the Armed Forces for protecting us.
      God bless and be safe 😊

    • @xenaires
      @xenaires Місяць тому +1

      ​@debbief9861, my mom's dad was in WW1 too. Was your dad a military man too? My dad was in WW2.
      God bless the Armed Forces for their protection 😊

  • @hiramabiff2017
    @hiramabiff2017 4 місяці тому +144

    As I have mixed feelings about breaking 112yrs of family history in Hoxton by being the last of us about to move out of Hoxton/London, in a way I do count myself blessed to have witnessed , and been part of, so many changes in Hoxton that they would have called you mental if you had predicted them 40-50yrs ago. We ( dad/brothers) had a fruit & veg stall along the market and I eventually opened a butchers shop after being given choice of 5yrs butchers apprenticeship or borstal. I miss the old days with all my heart and the community spirit and unity that could never be replicated again was something that only comes from those who have all suffered together with the echo's German bombs still in many memory's & being piss poor and ignorant living in a craphole council flat. I may miss nostalgia but the modernisation and evolution of a historic poor run down area has seen a standard of living increased for so many undreamed of not that long ago. The pubs closing & changing into flat and the 2nd hand shops now converted to selling hand made beers, nothing stays the same forever. Hoxton still has it's scumbags and faults , but I now see a modern vibrant area and wonder what my old mum & dad would think knowing we were recently listening to classical music coming from Shoreditch Green, that was once just rows of bombed out houses with the streets lined with corrugated Iron fences and a bunch of asbestos panelled pre fab bungalows the council put pensioners in to live, while sitting in the same family garden they once sat in, not worrying about the rat's coming in from the bomb sites.

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +33

      I found this story of your life in Hoxton really interesting. Thank you so much for sharing!

    • @bilindalaw-morley161
      @bilindalaw-morley161 4 місяці тому +20

      That's fascinating. Thanks for sharing your memories

    • @tomhayes4782
      @tomhayes4782 4 місяці тому +15

      My lot were from Hoxton, Shoreditch, Haggerstone...

    • @charlesjames799
      @charlesjames799 4 місяці тому +11

      Thanks for what you said about the place brings back some nice memories of Hoxton, I remember the German butchers in the market could always get peas pudding and savaloys I’m sure it was called Rutters. Just come out of Crondall street and turn right.
      I always went to the market Saturday morning to buy live eels for my mother to cook and jelly.
      We lived in pitfeld street in the early 50’s but I left in 1972 when I got married.
      Only went back once in 2005 when I had an eye injury and was sent to Moorfields Hospital.

    • @barbarabishop2064
      @barbarabishop2064 4 місяці тому +4

      Thank you for sharing

  • @debbief9861
    @debbief9861 4 місяці тому +13

    The streets and alleys in the descriptions and photographs are 100 percent those of my ancestors. As mentioned before, my family history search has uncovered even more than I learned from my dad, no longer alive, who was born there the youngest of the 9 children who survived. Going back in time to see the various parts of the family on the censuses and in the records is the most amazing thing. Trying to reach back to those relatives through time. Trying to hear their voices and picture them in my mind's eye. It's utterly compelling.

  • @garyosullivan2378
    @garyosullivan2378 2 місяці тому +4

    My family lived in Hoxton Square in the late 50's and early 60's, it was a rented Basement flat of a basement. My dad used to drink in the Red Lion and we sometimes used to have a packet of crisps and a bottle of lemonade outside. We used to go the Petticoat lane and Club Row after church at St Monica's.

  • @traceyMustafa
    @traceyMustafa Місяць тому +4

    So glad to come upon your channel...i miss the oldy eastend and london..its great to see so many graphics of the victorian era which ive always had a passion for...ty i know i. Going to enjoy your channel very much..take care from the eastend.

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  Місяць тому +2

      Welcome to the channel! Glad you’re interested in this history.

  • @xenaires
    @xenaires Місяць тому +1

    I want to thank all of you for sharing your lives. Ive always been fascinated with the royals and the UK.
    The Armed Forces are to be commended for their loyal service. 😊😊😊

  • @InglouriousBradsterd
    @InglouriousBradsterd 4 місяці тому +41

    We love Fact Feast! It makes us feel that no matter how trashy and horrible our lives are........ It could always have been worse!

    • @firecracker187
      @firecracker187 4 місяці тому +5

      And how people complained less, worked more and didn't whine to the entire world about how life isn't fair

    • @DowStUnD86
      @DowStUnD86 4 місяці тому +3

      😂😅😂

    • @jasoncoker1625
      @jasoncoker1625 4 місяці тому +3

      Truth 🤘💯

    • @TheSquad4life
      @TheSquad4life 4 місяці тому +4

      @@firecracker187 I am certain people whined about their lot in life through times( I mean one would’ve have to be dense to imagine that complaining is a modern phenomenon, like a complete nitwit) . It only makes sense, it (complaining)might have increased over time as people become more individualistic and community ties are loosen. People are exposed to more so tend to expect more from life. People back than probably never traveled outside of where they were born, let alone knowing more about the world and how “it’s unfair”

    • @GG-hu9dn
      @GG-hu9dn 4 місяці тому +1

      ​@firecracker187 So, does that mean we must accept unfairness? Change comes from progressive thinking, not stoicism or nihilism?!

  • @matthewgroves7511
    @matthewgroves7511 4 місяці тому +12

    Great video! I live on Hoxton street and love how rich it is in history. Anyone wanting to know more about the gentrification of the area, a documentary called ‘The Street’ came out a few years back.

    • @TrudyTrew
      @TrudyTrew 4 місяці тому +1

      My relations came from around spitalfields brick lane and so on. Also bermondsey.

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому +2

      I'm a couple of minutes from you😊. I've seen that documentary, a little bit dishonest I thought, as they interviewed a rough sleeper at some length who clearly wasn't roughing it in Hoxton. And having lived here since 2000 I thought I'd see more familiar faces.

  • @Hellserch
    @Hellserch 4 місяці тому +7

    I always find these documentaries fascinating. Nothing is hidden, unflinching and horrid by degrees, you are drawn into horror of early Capitalism. Please keep this vital channel. I am happy to contribute towards. Should be required watching for East London children. I would have benefited from it in the early 1970’s, in dodgy Bow.

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +1

      Thank you for your support. Much appreciated!

  • @manuellubian5709
    @manuellubian5709 4 місяці тому +14

    Although I am not a Brit nor do I live in Britain I can honestly attest to the fact that I was a witness to the beginning transition of portions of london. I actually visited London twice 6 months apart once in 1999, and again about 6 months later in the spring of Millennium year 2000.
    When I came there in 1999 yes I did see vestiges of different downtrodden areas that were torn down run down and just not too desirable as we say in america. However even when I came back I'm near 6 months later and was seeing bits and pieces of a beginning transition it was hard for me to get my head wrapped around it. And then flash forward to the present 2024 and seeing this video now allowing me to see things in the reverse. I have to agree with one of your commenters that is difficult to go back in one's mind and remember a time of what once was. While I am happy to see the transition which of course meant things were only for the better I also worry and wonder about how many families were basically run out of those areas who were already barely able to hold on to what they had and now seeing the very upscaled transition for people but now we're able to afford probably three or four times as much as the prior tenants who could afford next to nothing.

  • @SarahEnglishBird
    @SarahEnglishBird 4 місяці тому +7

    Just discovered this channel. Fascinating.

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +1

      Great! Welcome to the channel.

  • @Derek_S
    @Derek_S 4 місяці тому +15

    Both my parents families lived in the East End in the 1800's. Census returns from that era show they mostly lived in multi occupation houses with large families often living in one or two rooms. The husbands were mostly skillled or semi skilled workers such as carpenters or bricklayers so they may have beeen better off than many but many of their wives and daughters were servants.

  • @gogosegaga
    @gogosegaga 4 місяці тому +14

    You should do the modern conditions of people staying in the bed sits in east london for over £1000 a month with over 5 housholds in one house, serf living still continues in london today and probably worse in some ways.

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому

      Too depressing! I saw a room in an ex council flat on Crondall Estate for exactly that much. Very basic, no sitting room🫤. I have a council flat, but I don't know how my kids who are 25 & 28 are going to live independently ☹️. One of them pays £550 a month for a sublet and is sharing with 2 other adults in a small 2 bedroom 🤷‍♀️

  • @charlesjames799
    @charlesjames799 4 місяці тому +9

    I was also born there in 1950 living in pitfeld street some fond memories of the place, buying live eels on a Saturday for my mother to cook and jelly, plenty of bomb sites to play on going to Andersens the bakers to get a long cut tin.
    Last time I went there was 2005 I didn’t recognise it properly then, now I think I would get lost. I originally left there in 1972.

  • @galboy7899
    @galboy7899 4 місяці тому +7

    I worked there in the 80s , a great place, a real rubbing together of people while the city took off , interesting times, and I was very much on the lower rungs of change.

  • @WadeRaney-vv5oi
    @WadeRaney-vv5oi 4 місяці тому +6

    Marie Lloyd was born in Hoxton,Marie 1870-1922,A Good Presentation as usual 👋

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +1

      Thank you. She is said to have performed at the Eagle Tavern, Hoxton, early in her life.

  • @firecracker187
    @firecracker187 4 місяці тому +12

    Sunday + Fact Feast = a good day
    X friend

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +2

      Thank you firecracker!

  • @SellieM6970
    @SellieM6970 4 місяці тому +5

    Excellent as always! ❤

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +1

      Thank you! Much appreciated.

  • @mijiyoon5575
    @mijiyoon5575 4 місяці тому +12

    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ always interesting history ... Thank You *Fact Feast*

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +1

      You’re very welcome Miji 😊

  • @jarrowmarrow
    @jarrowmarrow 4 місяці тому +5

    History doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme.Many U.S. cities today could be described in similar sentences.

  • @samsum3738
    @samsum3738 4 місяці тому +5

    The Nile Street gang was notorious throughout London in the late 19th century , up until the 1930s .

  • @dodgydruid
    @dodgydruid 2 місяці тому

    My ex father in law was from Hoxton, he actually grew up next door to Lenny McLean who was lifelong friend with my uncle in law Wally Hanmore who was also a pivotal chap in the Kray's firm. My father in law's family there was 13 children living in a tiny 2 up 2 down, they didn't crib about it either as it was seen as the way of things. Wally was the eldest of the boys, next down was Billy who had an astonishing career with the SAS whilst Wally was an unrepentant gentleman villain, tough family.

  • @jendagesse4524
    @jendagesse4524 4 місяці тому +9

    What a horrible time to be in

  • @patrickrose1221
    @patrickrose1221 4 місяці тому +6

    Your channel often springs to mind whenever I'm walking through Broadmarsh in Nottingham.

  • @jacobschweitzer1068
    @jacobschweitzer1068 4 місяці тому +5

    Great video thanks from USA 🇺🇸

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +1

      Glad you liked it!

  • @samsum3738
    @samsum3738 2 місяці тому +1

    The Nile Street Mob was for many years the terror of London .

  • @TechnoMagi-h4r
    @TechnoMagi-h4r 4 місяці тому +7

    It was a Rookery a crime ridden mess of badly built houses and other buildings..

  • @shahjhanhaider26
    @shahjhanhaider26 4 місяці тому +6

    In these poor condition what romantic life would had been,Oliver twist and in great expectations we come across romance and poor live,by and large mostly people lived depraved life,but that is now only a chronicle
    You did beautiful video

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +2

      Thank you for your comment!

    • @Zivanovaable
      @Zivanovaable 3 місяці тому

      Exactly I remembered Oliver Twist when I watched the video.

  • @tonibarrone854
    @tonibarrone854 4 місяці тому +6

    Thank you❤

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +1

      You're welcome 😊

  • @zoe486
    @zoe486 4 місяці тому +22

    My Mum grew up in the area in the 1930s and 40s. I spent years searching maps for Laburnum street in oxton. Took me years to twig she meant Hoxton.

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому +1

      You just had to lose an H😅

    • @Sea-land8232
      @Sea-land8232 4 місяці тому +2

      Ha ha funny, that would be glottal stop... We drop the 'H' which is awkward when living in Hoxton or Hackney 😊

  • @mamasinger49
    @mamasinger49 4 місяці тому +3

    It is so hard to imagine kids then walking around with no shoes. Winter must have been even more hellish then usual. So interesting, and your narration and images bring it all to life. Thank you again for a wonderful video.

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +2

      Thank you mamasinger.

  • @GG-hu9dn
    @GG-hu9dn 4 місяці тому +7

    Today, it is like the rest of London: completely unaffordable?!

    • @louistracy6964
      @louistracy6964 4 місяці тому +3

      Yes, for the vast majority.

    • @HelloSinead
      @HelloSinead 4 місяці тому +1

      Yes, I rent a room in the area nearby, an apartment ranges from around £2500 - £5000 per month...

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому

      Absolutely. The ex council flats here are about 5 times the rent that the council charges.

  • @jevon363
    @jevon363 4 місяці тому +3

    Truth be told ,it is repeating 2024 in America.1 example is Aurora Colorado.So far they are beginning the journey going forward thats being told here in retrospect .anyone else see history repeating?

  • @olikane530
    @olikane530 4 місяці тому +2

    Brought up in Hoxton street,
    now reside at Hampstead 😊

  • @manuellubian5709
    @manuellubian5709 4 місяці тому +3

    5:54 -- What is a "costermonger"? I am not familiar w/ this term.
    Also part of me wonders whether or not if dear Prince Albert had lived longer than what he did whether or not London as a whole or the country for that matter would have gone downhill as precipitously as it did if only he would have lived perhaps another 30 or 40 years.
    I said all of that to say this because it is my guess that had Prince Albert lived I don't think that he would have allowed the city to go as far downhill as What It ultimately did by the end of that century.
    I also wonder given how old Victoria would have been by that time in the 1880s and 1890s it makes me wonder how much she was even aware of what was going on in the lower echelons of London housing society.

    • @markdalgarno3299
      @markdalgarno3299 4 місяці тому

      A stall holder or somebody that sells their wares from a stall in the street

    • @dodgydruid
      @dodgydruid 2 місяці тому

      Fruit and veg seller usually operating from a barrow or stall, my nan's family were a very affluent coster family from Vauxhall and I seem to remember Michael Caine's dad was a coster as well.

  • @olikane530
    @olikane530 4 місяці тому +1

    As a kid every day i walked to Burbage School from Hoxton Square, thats one end to the other end of Hoxton street.
    Leaving that junior school to Shoreditch secondary school later the walk was much shorter, infact we could climb a fence and be in school within 5 minutes 😊

  • @daveanderson3805
    @daveanderson3805 4 місяці тому +11

    Back then, crime was the result of abject poverty, and the absence of a welfare state. Today, most crime revolves around drugs. The harm that drug dealers are doing to society is beyond belief

    • @julierobinson3633
      @julierobinson3633 4 місяці тому +1

      People took PLENTY of drugs back them, the difference was that they were LEGAL. Queen Victoria took cannabis for period cramps, rich families had little salt cellar type pots of bromide on the table to dose the children - to keep them 'seen and not heard'. Laudanum - a form of opium - was a popular over the counter medication and babies were fed spoonfulls of it. Opium dens were also prolific. 'Gripe water' for colicky babies contained alcohol, Coca Cola originally contained cocaine (hence the name, from coca leaves). .

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому

      My street is one they use frequently. They are absolutely blatant. I've seen the police here once.

    • @finbarmurphy6740
      @finbarmurphy6740 4 місяці тому +1

      The war on drugs has been an abject failure. The logical thing to do is to follow Portugal’s lead and accept that prohibition doesn’t work - legalise and regulate. Drug use may well go down and become far harder to access for youths - as is alcohol.

    • @MileyGrande
      @MileyGrande 4 місяці тому

      @@finbarmurphy6740

    • @MileyGrande
      @MileyGrande 4 місяці тому

      @@finbarmurphy6740😊

  • @racheldoesacrylic4089
    @racheldoesacrylic4089 4 місяці тому

    when i see how many clothes and stuff we have in our homes today its hard to think many poor people only had like one dress/

  • @bobcosmic
    @bobcosmic 4 місяці тому +9

    Here we are once again with our weekly flashback from the voice known as FactFeast. In 2024 Hoxton is now full of trendy Wendy’s & wilful Walter’s, oh how times have changed. Gentrification has claimed more territories than the local gangs. Once again thanks to FactFeast. P.S. Shared to Elons app

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +3

      It really is different. Lots demolished or destroyed by the Blitz. A few older houses remaining and one or two pubs and all now bounded by the towering high-rises of Old Street and City Road. Thanks Bob.

    • @KC-gy5xw
      @KC-gy5xw 4 місяці тому +1

      not even the market is as good as it used to be!

    • @JC-ee6pc
      @JC-ee6pc 4 місяці тому +2

      @@KC-gy5xw A mere shadow of it's former self.

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому

      ​@@JC-ee6pcI reckon it's about 20% of what it was in the late 90s🫤

  • @CandiceGoddard
    @CandiceGoddard 4 місяці тому +2

    So just like today then.

  • @CarolLeslie-x5n
    @CarolLeslie-x5n 4 місяці тому

    While the poor went to the pub the wealth drank in restaurants and at home. Same alcohol just drank at different venues and prices, but both partaking.

  • @dennycraig8483
    @dennycraig8483 4 місяці тому +1

    Not much has changed by way of financial standing. Some properties are occupied by millionaires and around the corner it’s occupied by sex workers, whilst others will be growing skunk weed , some other criminal activity.then you’ll have the creative media designers and artists. A true melting pot. I love all aspects of London..

  • @robnewman6101
    @robnewman6101 4 місяці тому +2

    Victorian Era 1837-1901.

  • @PeaceAndLove303
    @PeaceAndLove303 4 місяці тому +4

    Worse now than it was then.

    • @Morrie-queens
      @Morrie-queens 4 місяці тому

      In some ways yes. The vulnerable are totally alone,no community whatsoever. London is a cesspit for the poor and working class. It's just a gentrified playground for hipster/yuppies. It can be a very lonely place, i liken it to an airport lounge,just a lonely pass through,where you hardly ever see the same face twice.

  • @davebayliss3142
    @davebayliss3142 4 місяці тому +6

    East London was better and safer back then than it is now

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому +3

      I've lived in Shoreditch/ Hoxton for 30 years. I'm female, have raised our children here. Never been attacked/ robbed/ burgled etc.

  • @mkervelegan
    @mkervelegan 4 місяці тому +4

    Brits have clung with desperate strength to the very chains that bind them: classism and rigid social stratification are still the norm. The smart ones left for America, Canada, Australia and South Africa and put the squalor of Blighty behind…

    • @Ryan-vg4wn
      @Ryan-vg4wn 4 місяці тому +5

      That's a lot of fancy words for 'rich exploits poor.'
      Which still happens there, and in those countries.

    • @Kenistyless
      @Kenistyless 4 місяці тому +1

      I'm not going anywhere...especially THAT Trading Post...

    • @sparagmos4748
      @sparagmos4748 4 місяці тому

      Squalor!😂 There's A LOT of very rich people here, they have all the best stuff, and a lot of them are English. They just don't care about anyone else, like almost all rich people.

  • @thepostman9664
    @thepostman9664 4 місяці тому +1

    What !!!! No welfare to get fat on 😮

  • @lanacampbell-moore6686
    @lanacampbell-moore6686 4 місяці тому +5

  • @dot2562
    @dot2562 4 місяці тому +6

    booty street 😝

  • @Kenistyless
    @Kenistyless 4 місяці тому

    Party town par excellant...❤

  • @stik
    @stik 4 місяці тому +4

    • @FactFeast
      @FactFeast  4 місяці тому +2

      Thanks for watching!