La Boheme to Gardiners: the Sights and Sounds of the Jewish East End (1989)

An historical video on the sights and sounds of the Jewish East End extending from the area from the corner of Whitechapel High Street and Commercial Road (where Gardiners, the men's clothing store, once stood) to two miles east where the La Boheme cinema and ballrooms once stood on Burdett Road facing Grove Road. Photographs and newspaper headlines are used to re-evoke the Jewish presence in Stepney. Several buildings and locations are discussed as cultural markers including Cooper's School, the Bow District Synagogue, the People's Palace on the Mile End Road, the London Hospital, Beaumont Grove, Wickhams Department Store, the Paragon Theatre, Spiegelhalther Brothers jewellers, the Great Assembly Hall, the Trinity Alms Houses, the Pavilion Theatre, the Rivoli Theatre, Mazin & Co.'s bookstore, Old Montague Street, Black Lion Yard and the Whitechapel Library. These images are brought to life by the recollections of the area from Baron Moss, Ralph Rosefield, Lottie Green-Lubett (Vice-President of the Stepney Jewish (B'nai B'rith) clubs), Sonia Senat, Joyce Saffron, Edna Hale, Stella Lucas, Anne Benjamin, Derek Reid (the Yiddish folklorist), and Dr Bernard Perlow.

Credits: Director, Aumie Shapiro; writer, Aumie Shapiro; narrator, Aumie Shapiro; editor, Michael Shapiro; photography, Henry Jacobs; sound, Warren Recordings; music, Giora Feidman; sponsor, Doron Foundation for Education and Welfare.

Copyright: Springboard Education Trust, 1989.

Tower Hamlets Local History and Archives reference number: LC15071.