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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
In the afternoon we visit the elegantly refurbished Jewish
Museum in Camden Town. Exhibits include the oldest
English Hanukkah lamp and a mediaeval tax receipt.
There’s a café on site at the Jewish Museum where you
can buy refreshments before heading home at 4-45pm.
This is a fascinating and illuminating day and it is
recommended for groups who like to get their teeth into
a subject. It is available throughout the year on week
days only and works well for a winter option.
Adults: £20.50 Seniors: £18.50
Add morning coffee & a fish & chip lunch for £9.00pp
Coach Mileage: 5
Above:
Orthodox men on a day out peer through the railings
at the Wellington Barracks
Below:
The Association of Jewish ex-Servicemen on
Whitehall, November 2009.
This day tells the story of the Jewish presence in London
over the past 2000 years with a walking tour through the
Jewish East End and visits to the Bevis Marks Synagogue
and the Jewish Museum.
We begin at 10-30am with time to buy morning coffee on
Tower Hill before making our way on foot from the City
to the East End. Along the way we stop to visit the oldest
synagogue in England built when Sir Christopher Wren
was building his churches nearby. Indeed some authorities
believe that Wren designed the synagogue and when you
step inside you can see why. The Bevis Marks Synagogue
had to be built inside a courtyard as in 1701 synagogues
were not permitted on public streets. This is also known as
the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue built to serve the
spiritual needs of Sephardic Jews who came to London as
refugees in the 16th century.
We are heading to Whitechapel which would become the
hub of Jewish life in the 19th and 20th centuries. These
streets thronged with Jewish cabinet makers, tailors, shoe
smiths and cigarette makers. They rubbed shoulders with
actors, artists and musicians for this was the childhood
home of such luminaries as Jack Cohen (Tesco’s), Alan
Sugar, Bud Flanagan, Joe Loss, Harold Pinter, Lew Grade,
Bernard Delfont, Vidal Sassoon, Lionel Blair and Claire
Rayner. There are traces of the Jewish past almost
everywhere you look in this fascinating district. For lunch
we will stop in and around the Old Spitalfields Market
where there is a choice of pubs and cafés with interesting
boutique-type shops and market stalls. The walk isn’t a
route march but it is a walk and it wouldn’t be suitable for
anyone with pronounced walking difficulties.
JEWISH LONDON