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From at least the 1850s, stalls and costermongers' barrows were in operation on the north and south sides of Whitechapel Road. This was common manorial land or 'waste', owned by the Manor of Stepney. Stepney Borough Council eventually took charge of the market in 1909, now officially 'Whitechapel Market' but still colloquially 'The Waste',¹ which describes the section of Whitechapel Road from Brady Street to Vallance Road. The pavement is believed to be the widest in London.

The local Jewish community both shopped and worked on the Waste. Pamela Raine remembers working as a fourteen-year-old on a Friday after school for 'Stanley For Tights And Stockings'.² Barry Gelkoff's parents owned the confectionery and tobacco kiosk at the entrance to Whitechapel Underground Station, right in the centre of the market. Stallholders, post-office workers, patients and staff from the London Hospital opposite would call for sweets and cigarettes (he remembers the hospital staff being particularly heavy smokers).³

From the 1880s to the 1950s the Waste served as a promenade, especially on the Sabbath and other Jewish Festivals when young Jewish men and women paraded up and down eyeing one another up, dressed in their best clothes, which led to this stretch of road being known locally as 'The Monkey's Parade'. Many a shidduch (match) was made there! Every kind of Jewish food and goods could be found on the Waste, which was open daily until late at night and lit by gas light for many years. From 1936 until his death in the 1980s a common sight was the great Yiddish poet Avram Stencl, who was often seen there, hawking his Yiddish magazine Losh un Leben ( Language and Life ) to the Jewish customers who frequented the market.

Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem featured the Waste in his last novel Motl Peysi Dem Khazns ( Motl Peysi the Cantor 's Son). In the first section, Fun Der Heym Keyn Amerike ( From Home to America ), migrant youngster Motl has a stopover in Whitechapel and spends time on the Waste where he notes it 'smelled of fried fish'.

The market continues to flourish, stalls offering everything from mobile phone covers to clothing, it now predominately serves the Bangladeshi community in the area, with many specialist Halal foods.

Cite This Article

Whitechapel Waste, jewisheastendmemorymap.org?feature_type=point&id=43, accessed April 2025.