The full title of this charming little book is East End Passport: A Guide to Petticoat Lane. I picked it up at a new (only to me – it's been around for 50 years or so) used bookstore, Rodgers' Book Barn, in Hillsdale, NY, on a recent weekend trip, along with some other treasures.
Published in 1969, it is wildly out of date as a travel guide, and be warned, uses some language and commentary that over five decades later, could be deemed somewhat offensive or patronizing by certain readers, but it must be taken in its historical context.
It has a wonderful design – the size and shape of an old-style British passport, with numerous pen and ink sketches by the author's wife, Cécile.
Its great value is as a window into the historic East End of London, where numerous immigrant groups passed through on their way to other parts of London, the whole of Great Britain, or to America, as my own great-grandparents did just after 1900. It retains some of the flavor of what it must have been, not unlike New York's Lower East Side, South Philadelphia, or the West End in Boston as they once were, and now are entirely changed to the point of being unrecognizable.
Fortunately for me, my first trip to London in 1988 included a Sunday walking tour of the area, when it still retained a bit of its old-time flavor. I only wish I had had this book beforehand for more context and added insight. However, I am happy to have it now, and enjoyed it despite the odds and ends that made me wince just a bit.
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