England, UK: H Doe Foon's Chinese Restaurant at 57 Pennyfields, east London, c. 1900

Limehouse, in Stepney, was London's first Chinatown.
From the 1890s the Chinese community in the East End grew in size and spread eastwards, from the original settlement in Limehouse Causeway, into Pennyfields. The area provided for the Lascar, Chinese and Japanese sailors working the Oriental routes into the Port of London.

The main attractions for these men were the opium dens, hidden behind shops in Limehouse and Poplar, and also the availability of prostitutes, Chinese grocers, restaurants and seamen's lodging-houses. Hostility from British sailors and the inability of many Chinese to speak English fostered a distinct racial segregation and concentrated more and more Chinese into Limehouse.

From the 1970s, London's Chinatown was increasingly established further to the west, in Soho, centred on Gerrard Street.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History