'When a man is tired of London he should be glad he doesn't live in Croydon.'

The Backpassages of Spitalfields.

The biggie: where it all starts, for Alan as a tour guide and you as an explorer; a microcosm of the greater East End story. This is a tale of two cities starring weavers, match girls and a notorious Jack (but not the one you're thinking of). You'll uncover many histories in the now fashionable streets around Brick Lane.

So it's Sunday and You Want to Go to Columbia Road?

Well, here's an extra amble to help you find it.

Whitechapel's Always Felt Dodgy.

On this tour you'll discover a rough, tough, sometimes dangerous-to-know district that seems to love extremes. Full of loud opinions and larger-than-life characters, you'll dodge the Kray Twins, Joseph Stalin and Michael Jackson stealing the Elephant Man to find the site of London's missing mountain.

A Wapping Great Adventure.

Wapping is London's quietest urban village, but once it was a frontier town. On this stroll you'll skirt the serpentine Thames to hear terrible tales of pirates and escaped tigers, riots in churches, and The Battle of Cable Street.

Down in the 'Ditch.

Beyond Brick Lane lies London's first Theatreland, its earliest council estate and its silliest haircut. Mixing old and new like an overpriced cocktail you'll discover Little Hanoi, A Child of the Jago and the birthplace of the Shoreditch Twat.

Catch the Light.

Tired of walking? Here's a trip on the Docklands Light Railway that will speed you through the remnants of the world's largest port, London's new financial district and the old Isle of Dogs. Why not sit at the front and pretend to be the driver?

Further Reading.

Some books Alan bought and copied stuff out of.

Plus random bits on council estates, school strikers, the Blitz, lesser know Jack the Ripper suspects, how not to talk Cockney and things that are 'Bollocks But True!'

"Nah, it's shit."