East End

Where’s London’s oldest…bagel bakery?

by exploringlondon

Founded in 1855, the Beigel Shop on Brick Lane in the East End claims to be the oldest bagel bakery in the UK.

PICTURE: Ollie Singleton/Unsplash

The shop, located at 155 Brick Lane, is sometimes known as the ‘yellow shop’, thanks to its bright yellow sign, to distinguish it from the ‘white one’, another bagel bakery a few doors down, Beigel Bake.

Two brothers named David Barel and Aron Zelman took over the business, then known as the Evering Bakery, in 1987, and were, according to the shop’s website, joined by their sister Mazal White soon after.

The shop, which changed the spelling of bagel to beigel in its name in 2002 in reflection of its Yiddish roots, introduced a bagel-shaping machine in 1994 but many products are still hand-made. According to the website, the bakery these days makes more than 7,000 bagels a day.

The shop, which is famously open 24 hours a day, did briefly close for several months last year, explaining on social media when it reopened in June that the closure had been for a range of reasons including a long-standing family dispute over the building’s ownership and rents and the health struggles of Aron.

They announced that the next generation – including Aron’s 22-year-old quadruplets and Mazal’s three children – would be taking over the business and launched a funding raising effort to help with some of financial burdens the shop was facing.

For more, see www.thebeigelshop.com.

10 historic London docks…2. St Katharine Docks…

by exploringlondon

Located just to the east of the Tower of London, St Katharine Docks were opened in 1828 following the demolition of more than 1,000 houses along with a brewery and what was left of the medieval St Katharine’s Hospital.

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10 London mysteries…10. Who was Jack the Ripper?

by exploringlondon

Linked to the brutal slayings of at least five women in the later half of 1888, the identity of Jack the Ripper is London’s most infamous mystery and one which continues to fuel speculation – and make headlines – more than 130 years later.

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London pub signs – The Widow’s Son…

by exploringlondon
The Widow’s Son in late 2020. PICTURE: Google Maps

This pub in London’s East End takes it’s name – or so the story goes – from the building which formerly stood on the site – a cottage belonging to a widow.

The pub’s sign showing a sailor with the hanging net of buns.

The tale goes that the widow’s only son went to sea – it’s thought this was during the Napoleonic Wars – and wrote home to his mother that she should expect him at Easter (and could she have a nice hot cross bun waiting for him)?

Tragically, the son never returned, but for the rest of her life, the widow – apparently refusing to accept he had died – continued to keep a hot cross bun for him on every Good Friday. It’s said that following her death, a net full of the unclaimed buns was found hanging from the ceiling of her house.

The site became known as The Bun House and when the pub was built on it in 1848 and named The Widow’s Son in honour of the widow’s tradition, it too carried the “bun house” moniker.

The pub has continued the widow’s tradition and every Good Friday, a sailor from the Royal Navy places a new bun in a net which hangs over the bar.

The now Grade II*-listed pub at 75 Devons Road in Bromley-by-Bow, while not particularly appealing from the outside, still has interior fittings dating from the 1870s.

For more, see https://www.widowsson.co.uk.