Walking Britain's B Roads: the B126 Cable Street
[Tower Hamlets] [1.4 miles]
The B126 is one of the longer B Roads, at least compared to what's gone before. It's also one you should have heard of, having gained notoriety in 1936 when a fascist march met its match amid East End defiance. It's Cable Street, an east-west backroad running roughly parallel to the DLR viaduct either side of Shadwell. It's all one-way if you're in a car but two-way if you ride a bike, which is by far the most common way to experience it. Only the very western end was originally called Cable Street, but that's for reasons we'll discover in the last paragraph because I'm kicking off out east.
The B126 starts in Ratcliff, a historic maritime settlement whose name has long been extinguished, close to the northern entrance to the Rotherhithe Tunnel. At the start of the 18th century this end was known as Back Lane, being two roads back from the wharfside, and later as Brook Street. Today it bears off from the hurlyburly of Butcher Row behind an array of planters designed to let bikes in but cars only out. The striking Art Deco building on the corner with the copper-domed clocktower used to be the confectionery works of Batger and Co, longstanding purveyors of jam and Chinese figs. Today it's called Thames House and exhibits strong arts collective/independent workspace vibes, so it probably won't surprise you to learn there are plans to bolt 200 flats onto the back.
The segregated cycle lane which starts here will be with us all the way to the other end of the street, having swallowed up one lane of traffic long before Cycle Superhighways were a thing. It doesn't always stick to the same side of the road but it is safe, convenient, well-used and very blue. Just don't expect exhilarating views because redevelopment came to Cable Street early and most of what lies ahead is resolutely social housing. It never gets too repetitive because the council never seemed to build more than two blocks the same, but it does feel like all aspects of postwar 20th century design are on display. A graffitied phone box and a bleak basketball cage do little to lift the mood, but better these than the brothels, slums and opium dens that characterised the area previously.
It's still not well-to-do round here and feels much more backwater than B road. The local convenience store is unbranded and prominently features lottery tickets and stacked cans of Red Bull in its window display. At Brodlove Lane (formerly Love Lane, formerly Cut-Throat Lane) the one-way-ness of the B126 suddenly switches direction which certainly keeps traffic levels down. Seven pristine terraced properties have somehow survived the maelstrom and are thus way out of most neighbours' price range. The land behind was originally known as Sun Tavern Fields, where in the 1740s a mineral spring rich in "sulphur, vitriol, steel and antimony" was discovered, but despite much medicinal drumbanging the idea of Shadwell Spa never really caught on.
The church with the spire is St Mary's, a Victorian benevolence to serve the surrounding slum streets. Ian Visits has been inside for a look and can confirm it's not as Catholic as it looks. The adjacent pub surrendered to the inevitable 20 years ago and is now The Ship Apartments. Beyond this brief heritage bubble the cityscape reverts to a surfeit of council blocks, the next few being particularly substantial. A blue plaque on the wall of Gosling House confirms this as the site of a pioneering chemical discovery in 1856. William Henry Perkin had been trying to synthesise quinine in his home lab but serendipitously invented the first cheap artificial purple dye instead, which he called mauvine and which revolutionised the clothing industry.
The local primary school is named after Blue Gate Fields, a blackspot where off-duty sailors did their wickedest and which Dickens knew as one of the East End's worst slums. It's followed by Shadwell Fire Station, a modern box which flies its red flag high. For those who like to know which bus routes we're following it's both the 100 and the D3, but only through this central bit and only in one direction. Of significantly more transportational importance is Shadwell station whose Overground portal faces Cable Street (and whose separate DLR outpost is visible up Watney Street). And still the Cycle Superhighway ploughs on... n.b. also suitable for those on one-wheel electric skateboards.
At last we've reached the worth-seeing bit. St George's Town Hall used to be Stepney Council's administrative base, and since last year has started a new life as Tower Hamlets Register Office. Its most noticeable feature is a colourfulmural which covers one end of the building and includes, amongst much other detail, a chucked bottle, riot police on horseback and Adolf Hitler in his underwear. It took seven years to paint and commemorates the infamous Battle of Cable Street on Saturday 4th October 1936. Sir Oswald Mosley had hoped to march his blackshirt supporters to a rally in Victoria Park but 250,000 East Enders thought otherwise and blocked their way. The barricades weren't here - we'll get to those - but this mighty painting counts as both a celebration and a warning.
The finest houses on Cable Street follow, courtesy of an unbombed three-storey terrace, before the Legobuild flats recommence. The orange block on the corner of Cannon Street Road is particularly visually offensive (and if this crossroads seems familiar it's because we've already been here on the B108). Cable Street has been shadowing the DLR for the last mile but only now does it nudge over to run alongside, which means we're about to be walking past a lot of businesses that like lurking under viaducts. That's either a builders yard or a building site, that's a stash of black cabs and that's nominally a courier company. Today the turn-off for Christian Street is in no way evocative but in 1936 Mosley's mob got no further, blocked by whatever materials the angry crowd could find. For a fuller account try this 80th anniversary website and take comfort that They Did Not Pass.
The B126's last few hundred metres are the oldest and the only section originally christened Cable Street. That's because it started out as a ropewalk, a path where hemp was twisted to make ship's cables, which again confirms the importance of shipping to this edge of East London. The backdrop of drab flats and railway viaduct continues, this the point where trains to Bank start to make their descent. Alas the marvellous Wilton's Music Hall is just out of sight or I'd have mentioned that. Instead the final parade of shops includes a minimarket, a Papa Johns and a Filipino restaurant. It also hosts the dubious Jack The RipperMuseum whose reputation never recovered after promising to open as "Museum of Women's History". It still has international custom willing to pay £10 to see a few floors of stuff, but I say never trust a building decorated with two blue plaques commemorating events that happened elsewhere.
Ahead lies Royal Mint Street, a short connection to the City, but that somehow has A Road status so I have to leave things here. Shame because it actually has a pub... which somehow lowly Cable Street, former backdrop to Sailortown, no longer has.
