eastlondonhistory.com

Dear readers,
The news yesterday that Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman is defying Eric Pickles’ attempts to shut down local authority freesheets is good news for East End Life and its staff, though it hasn’t been universally welcomed … this is putting it mildly! A couple of declarations of self interest are in order here. Most of you won’t be aware, but the history pieces on this site run first in East End Life – who then kindly allow me to republish here and reap the enormous financial rewards they then generate from Google Adwords – this week I will be spending my earnings on a Twix or, if things go especially well, a bar of Fruit and Nut.
Thus I benefit financially from penning a weekly piece for East End Life, while this website is more of a labour of love (though one I don’t labour at as much as I should). But I’d like it to be more than just online reprints of what goes into the paper. We do a pretty good job on ‘the great man’ type of history – the big figures whose acts and reputations outlive them. Thus eastlondonhistory.com has loads of philanthropists, charitable souls, entrepreneurs, sports stars and the rest. We’re not so good on interviewing ‘ordinary’ people (I use the term cautiously, because there’s no such thing.
So come on, tell us YOUR story. We’ll change it as little as possible, though we do ask that you try not to libel people or settle personal scores! With that in mind, every story will come to us to be moderated first (as we become responsible for any libels that we publish).
We’ll also edit for sense, grammar, spelling etc – we’re journalists, so that’s what we do – and put a lovely headline on your story so Google can find it. We won’t limit stories to our little patch of Tower Hamlets – I’m interested in hearing from people in other parts of London too. ‘Ordinary’ people make history, so let’s hear your story.