Jan 29, 2024
1 | The assignment, initial ideas, and a brief history of Limehouse Causeway
- Izzy Foo
- Jan 30, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: May 8, 2024
The brief for GAR106 was to 3D model and texture a three-story building to fit in with Diagon Alley, with architectural influence from the Victorian era and pre-existing film set. I was full of bees after hearing this, my mind dancing and buzzing over all the different buildings I could possibly create. A dragon riders guild? Tattoo parlour? A Church???? I decided to sit on my ideas while I wrote a Short Note about JK Rowling, having mixed feelings about working in the world of Harry Potter knowing of the harmful things she has said and written into her stories.
The Short Note, in fact, was not short.
After writing a foreword that was much longer than intended, I was stubbornly set on an idea of what I wanted my building to be. The Diagon Alley Multi-Faith Chapel would, unfortunately, have to wait. Researching Cho Chang and seeing how she had been marginalised and simplified resonated with me, being half Chinese and feeling very disconnected from that half of my heritage, so I decided I wanted to add some more cultural variety into the wizarding world.
I was going to make a Chinese restaurant!
Did Chinese restaurants exist in Victorian-Era London?
The Victorian era is classed as 1837-1901, following the reign of Queen Victoria, and a quick Google informed me of the first Chinatown in London, appearing in the late 1880s – which fitted neatly inside the timeframe specified by the brief.
VICTORY.
Forcibly pushing representation into a series that does not contain it does not feel like a solution to the issues raised among many, but I would like to think of it more as an expansion further along Diagon Alley or into a side street, Internation Alley.
The first Chinese appeared in Limehouse Causeway in the late 1880s as sailors settling away from their homes in Shanghai or Canton. Limehouse is located on the west side of the Thames and the docks brought opium and tea from the East. 2 main groups formed, with the Shanghai immigrants making their new home around Pennyfields Lane and those from Southern China and Canton settling in Limehouse Causeway.
Restaurants, laundrettes, and other small businesses were established by the former sailors trying to make a living, and a small, tight-knit community grew. These sailors got married to working-class white women and their children grew up with a foot in both cultures. Chinese schools were built, and children were taught about their language and culture.
Konnie Ho grew up in Limehouse Causeway and remembers it as “full of warm community spirit” (Ho, 2015), describing viewing friends’ parents as family and being cared for by a neighbour after her father moved to Hong Kong and her mother passed away. She married a man she met in Limehouse, and they lived there for 28 years.
The press and newspapers painted a very different picture of the East End, describing opium dens, gambling, crime, and rampant sexuality. The rumours about the area leaked into fictional media as well with Arthur Sarsfield Ward – known by his alias of Sax Rohmer- releasing his wildly popular novel series ‘Fu Manchu’ in which the protagonist was “Dr Fu-Manchu, a criminal mastermind who threatened Western society by plotting world domination” (Brown, 2022) set in Limehouse Causeway.
The downfall of the first London Chinatown was fuelled by the caricature presented in the media, as well as police deportations, and schemes to redevelop areas. The use of Opium was criminalised in the Defence of The Realm Act from the beginning of WW1, providing police with more power to deport the Chinese people. WW2 brought bombings targeting the East End and maritime trade dwindled, stripping the sailors of employment opportunities. The situation continued to worsen after the end of the war, with new schemes set on re-developing the area around the causeway.
Today the Causeway no longer exists, destroyed by bomb damage, but Limehouse has become a bustling residential area, home to financial workers, the former foreign secretary, and actor Ian McKellan who has taken ownership of a pub there. Chinatown reformed in the area near Gerrard Street in the 70’s after an influx of Hong Kong immigrants and thrives there today.
As a semi-frequent visitor, I can recommend Dumplings’ Legend for some excellent Xiao Long Bao and Chinatown Bakery to grab some cheap and sweet Taiyaki afterward!
REFERENCES
BROWN, Helen. (2022). The Story of Limehouse’s Lost Chinatown. [online] Available at https://poplarlondon.co.uk/limehouse-chinatown-history/ Poplar London
CAMBRIA, Dr. Jak. (n.d.). Limehouse Chinatown 1860 – 1950. [online] Available at: https://www.chinatownology.com/chinatown_limehouse.html Chinatownology
HO, Konnie. (2015). Interviewed by the BBC. Konnie Ho - The girl from Chinatown. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02xyrlk BBC
MIX-D: MUSEUM. (n.d.). Limehouse’s Chinatown. [online] Available at: https://exhibition.mixedmuseum.org.uk/museum/timeline/limehouses-chinatown mixedmuseum.org
XIN, Li. (2022). History of Chinese immigration to the United Kingdom. [online] Available at: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/s2227564_tpg-studio-2021-2022sem1/2022/04/03/history-of-chinese-immigration-to-the-united-kingdom/ University of Edinburgh
CHEN, Anna. (2008). Episode 2: The creation of Chinatown. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/chinese_in_britain2.shtml BBC
LOVELL, Julia. (2014). The Yellow Peril: Dr Fu Manchu & the Rise of Chinaphobia by Christopher Frayling – review [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/30/yellow-peril-dr-fu-manchu-rise-of-chinaphobia-christopher-frayling-review. The Guardian
HITCHCOCK, Tim, SHOEMAKER, Robert, EMSLEY, Clive, HOWARDS, Sharon, MCLAUGHLIN, Jamie. (n.d.). https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/about/chinese#:~:text=The%20first%20Chinese%20immigrants%20arrived,in%20the%20capacity%20of%20cooks. www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0, Autumn 2023, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield.
SHU-YENG CHUNG, Simone. (2008). The Study of CHINATOWN AS AN URBAN ARTIFICE And Its Impact on the Chinese Community in London. [online] Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14192/1/14192.pdf University College London
GOODREADS. (n.d.) Fu Manchu Series [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/series/54318-fu-manchu Goodreads
BRITANNICA. (n.d.) Sax Rohmer [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sax-Rohmer. Britannica
BAKER, Phil. (2015). Fu Manchu and China: Was the 'yellow peril incarnate' really appallingly racist? [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/fu-manchu-and-china-was-the-yellow-peril-incarnate-really-appallingly-racist-a6701766.html Independent
ENGLISH HERITAGE. (n.d._) Victorians [online] Available at: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/victorian/#:~:text=The%20Victorian%20era%20spans%20the,its%20empire%20across%20the%20globe. English Heritage
HOLLAND, Oscar. (2017) Inside the Last Three Restaurants of London's Forgotten Chinatown [online] Available at: https://www.thatsmags.com/guangzhou/post/17619/the-last-three-restaurants-in-london-s-forgotten-chinatown. www.thatsmags.com
Figure 1: FOO, Isabella. 2024. No Title. [digital artwork]
Figure 2: FOO, Isabella. 2024. No Title. [digital artwork]
Figure 3: Unknown Photographer. Ca. 1880-1940. No title [photograph] www.thatsmags.com [online] Available at: https://www.thatsmags.com/guangzhou/post/17619/the-last-three-restaurants-in-london-s-forgotten-chinatown.
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