Markets and Flowers

Last Sunday, IES led a tour of the East End Markets for students. We started at Petticoat Lane which was a huge market full of inexpensive clothing and knock-off items. Petticoat Lane was renamed in 1830 to Middlesex Street due to the “promiscuous” thoughts that were mustered from its name! We then traveled to Spitalfields market which was more artsy and sold many handmade and vintage clothes and accessories. We continued down Brick Lane, which lies in the heart of the Bangladeshi area of London. There were food vendors from all over the world selling delicious smelling food. Our final, and more memorable, stop was the Columbia Road Flower Market. I won’t describe it since the pictures will do the market the most justice.

 

What I learned in class this week:

• One of the first films to banned in London was called Cheese Mites in 1903. It showed microscopic mites eating cheese, which caused the cheese industry to complain, arguing that it would hurt their business by scaring people away from buying cheese.
• The Beatles were one of the first, if not the first, to sing pop songs in British accents and about English news. This revolutionized British music and helped to develop a distinctive British youth culture.
• The Black death killed an estimated 30 to 40% of the English population. While this traumatized the country, peasants that had survived were now at a material advantage. They gained a strong bargaining position for wages since work demand greatly increased.