4. On the Waterfront
Sailors

Sailors from all over the world came to Docklands. Many needed a place to stay while they waited for their ships to be loaded for the outward journey or when, for one reason or another, they did not rejoin their ships.

A number of seamen's hostels were founded, often by missionary societies, to provide cheap, short-term accommodation.

Some decided to stay in the area. Sailors from India (known as Lascars) and from East Africa (particularly Somalia) settled in Limehouse, Ratcliff and Shadwell, Chinese sailors recruited by the East India Company created a substantial community in the Limehouse district.

N: 'When we proceed either in the direction of Limehouse, or along as far as Millwall, things change considerably.

Here are a host of foreign sailors, and a large number of Chinese, Hindoos, and negroes.

A good deal of difficulty arises from time to time among these foreign sailors. English sailors frequently decline to work in the same vessel with them, and sometimes scenes of disorder and violence take place among them ...

On the pavements solemn Chinamen jostle boisterous negro seamen, and blue-eyed Scandinavians look out from the windows of 'Norsk' boarding-houses. Even the public buildings maintain the local character.

On one we read, "Home for Asiatic Seamen", on another, "Passmore Edwards Sailors' Palace".'

George Sims, Living London, 1900.

O: 'A recent visit to Chinatown resulted in a welcome disillusionment.

Tidings of opium dens, drinking hells, and disreputable tenements, where Orientals, speaking no language but their own, were robbed, maltreated, and even barbarously used had prepared the mind for dark and terrible impressions.

Whatever conditions prevailed in the remote past, - things are now entirely changed. The houses are clean, well-conditioned, and open to inspection.

Many are of a superior character, costly furnished, with carpeted floors.'

London City Mission Magazine, 1911.