beer Food Holiday Inn London

Boxing Day tourists in East End London

a bridge with a tower in the background

Is East End London safe for tourists?

I am being rhetorical.

Simply asking this question evokes emotional responses from Britons about ignorant American tourists. I posed the question if Best Western Peckham was a safe neighborhood in London after seeing £36 room rates in Nov 2016.

An article I read in a London newspaper mentioned international tourism to London increased in 2017 and is forecast to grow even more in 2018, while it is UK domestic tourism to London in decline due to safety fears of vacationing in the capital.

Boxing Day London

We spent Boxing Day eating at a Bangladeshi restaurant on Brick Lane Whitechapel, drinking in a dive pub at Watney Market, Shadwell and shopping on Whitechapel Road. Kelley enjoyed hanging out in East End London, a place where she found a local pub with character she loved and beer prices I loved.

Since we did our shopping mostly on the street and not in the malls, we missed the Boxing Day gang fight in Stratford Westfield Shopping Mall at 2:30pm in the afternoon during one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

We had checked into Moxy by Marriott Stratford Hotel 200 meters down the street two hours before the mall fight and were already dining at Brick Lane by 2:30pm.

Stratford Station

Stratford Station in Newham Borough of London is the Underground station for access to many of the 2012 Olympic venues.

Olympic medalists Stratford London

The area has a lot of high-rise development with new hotels like Moxy by Marriott London and a couple of IHG hotels. Prices were 50% of West London chain hotels and frequent trains transport you to the touristy city center in 20 minutes for about £2.40 in off-peak times.

In London geographic distances from city center are measured by the distance from Charing Cross, adjacent to Nelson’s Column at Trafalgar Square. Stratford is 9.6km/6 miles from Charing Cross.

Nelsons-Column_thumb (2)

This was our first time in Stratford and we did not explore the area. The weather sucked with cold windy conditions and rain.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Whitechapel in September 2016 and wanted to share the areas I had visited with Kelley. That hotel in the historic East End of London is about a 30 to 40 minute walk east of The Tower of London complex.

Despite weather that sucked, Kelley and I walked around Whitechapel, Brick Lane, Shadwell and Wapping to St. Katherine Docks and back through the day until about 9:30pm at night when we headed back on the London Underground to Stratford.

Is East London Safe?

The reason I started this piece with the question, “Is East London safe?†is Kelley was shocked to hear the negative descriptions of Whitechapel and Shadwell when I read her reviews of the pub and neighborhood we were hanging out in for several hours on Boxing Day. We never felt in the least bit concerned for our safety, but I would have probably been quite paranoid if I had read the descriptions of the neighborhood on the web before our day out.

whitechapel-1

My shortcut path from Whitechapel Road to Brick Lane.

Brick Lane

Whitechapel is the area where the Salvation Army was founded in 1865 to assist the destitute residents of the overcrowded East End. Immigrants have settled in this area for centuries, from Jews and Huguenots in the 1600s to a large Bangladeshi community residing here in current times.

Brick Lane Preem

There are a couple of dozen Indian restaurants and curry shops on Brick Lane.

Preem dining

We dined for two days on our set meal for two from Preem Restaurant for £26. Healthier and cheaper food than paying £15 each for fish and chips in a West London pub.

East London Mosque

East London Mosque, Whitechapel Road, London.

Whitechapel Road street market

Whitechapel-5

Whitechapel street market

Whitechapel-4

Whitechapel Road has an extensive street market on the sidewalk with dozens of stalls selling clothing, cloth, produce, fish and all kinds of goods.

Whitechapel-3

Old Royal London Hospital

Royal London Hospital

London geography is confusing for tourists with neighborhoods like Whitechapel, Shadwell, Wapping all parts of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Royal Hospital of London historic building is scheduled to be refurbished at a cost of £105m and open as Tower Hamlets Civic Center in 2022.

Father of Bangladesh 

Sheikh Mujibar Rahman, first president of Bangladesh

Thomas Neale Free House Watney Street, Shadwell

Finding an open pub in Tower Hamlets turned out to be a challenge on Boxing Day. When we walked down Watney Market to Watney Street in Shadwell, Kelley spotted Thomas Neale Free House with patrons inside.

Thomas Neale

I felt it was a sign that “She Drives Me Crazy†by Fine Young Cannibals was playing on the TV when we entered the pub. We considered that our 1989 honeymoon song when we spent a week in London at what is now the Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites and Residences.

We entered and ordered pints of Stella Artois and plopped down on a couch with the house cat and Lola the pub house dog checking us out, never mind the East End locals.

Patrons welcomed us and talked to us, but honestly, I could barely understand a word of anyone’s cockney accent, besides the lady behind the bar. I understood about 70% of what she was saying.

At £3.80 per pint for Stella Artois and £3.30 during 6-8pm Happy Hour, we were accepted as honorary east enders for the evening. Kelley enjoyed playing with the animals and a preteen played football in the middle of the pub floor with Lola, who shredded bits all around the pub. I enjoyed the retro music that was all 1980s videos for a couple of hours with The Clash, The Fall, John Cooper Clarke and some familiar songs I had not heard in many years.

The place had working class east end character. The evening was like being in a London East End participatory theatre production of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh.

Our day was more enjoyable than Boxing Day at the mall, a traditional London outing for December 26.

These two well-buzzed American tourists on Boxing Day evening walked past Shadwell Overground station and through Wapping to the River Thames and to Dickens Inn at St. Katherine Docks, a typical overpriced London tourist pub. Beer cost £5.80 pint and everyone in the pub was speaking another language besides English, even the bartenders.

Dickens Inn

We wandered back to Whitechapel Underground for the 9:30pm train back to Stratford in East London.

No Jack the Ripper types, muggers or terrorists accosted us along the way. The worst experience we had was getting hit by a wave of water when I pressed a street crosswalk button just as a car sped by into the puddle of standing water at the curb.

London Bridge

Is East London safe?

Safe enough for us this holiday season that Kelley looks forward to staying at Holiday Inn London Whitechapel in the future, only a 5-minute walk from Thomas Neale pub.

The Californians cometh.

4 Comments

  • Jessdnomad December 31, 2017

    This article warms my heart, being an east ender myself, though am based in asia now. So glad to know both of you enjoyed your time. Happy holidays.

  • Soren December 31, 2017

    Nice report. Disturbing event at Westfield.
    Twice a year, I get the tube to Stratford to catch the Stansted Airport express bus from right outside the Westfield Mall. (It’s significantly faster and cheaper than boarding in Central London or even @ Liverpool Street Station)
    Always felt that place had an edge…slight unease I guess.
    I would not go in a pub in that area. That’s just me…
    Glad you guys had a great trouble free time.
    Happy New Year.
    Peace
    S

  • Ric Garrido December 31, 2017

    @Soren – Stansted Airport Express bus was sitting right outside Stratford Station on the way to the Moxy everytime we passed. STN airport was closed for hours on Dec 27 due to snow.

    We walked by The Builders Arms on High Street Stratford and I pointed out the “Only West Ham Fans Allowed on Game Day” sign on the doors. We had a good 3.20GBP pint of Carling there. The pub interior historic photos of the area left quite an impression to see how the area looked in the early 20th century compared to today’s high rise architecture.

    Old Stratford Mall across the street from Stratford Westfield mall kind of blew my mind when I walked through shortly after 10pm to see a hundred or more homeless setting up sleeping quarters inside the mall on a frosty and windy night. Reminded me of Westminster in 1989 when doorways all around Piccadilly and Leicester Square filled up with homeless at night.

  • Soren January 1, 2018

    @Ric – I love the East end, my first job out of school was in Aldgate East!
    We would enjoy midnite Brick lane adventures regularly.

    Looking fwd to Moxy review.
    Carlson also have a new Staybridge Suites right at Westfield.
    I demurred in favor of the Radisson Blu Stansted where I always use F&F approx GBP60 – rate. It’s nearly always available and always goes unchallenged. I have only had to burn points there once in 4 years.
    Looking fwd to next blog leg…
    I’m gonna be at HI Whitechapel next month during my IHG monster burn.
    S

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