Anthony Street, E1

This part of Anthony Street was formerly known as Catherine Street with the oldest section of the street, always called Anthony Street, further south. It was combined into one street during the 1880s but largely swept away in the 1960s.

The Commercial Road had been built in 1803 as a conduit for newly arrived goods from the Isle of Dogs straight into the City of London. Catherine Street (Anthony Street) was a turning to the south.

As the nineteenth century progressed, the street became occupied by the Jewish community with the community surviving into the 1960s.

As a teenager in post-war years, the playwright Steven Berkoff lived for a time in Anthony Street. His father Abraham had run a successful tailor’s shop in Leman Street. The family’s move to the United States was unsuccessful, so they returned to two rooms and an outside WC, with chickens in the yard, in Anthony Street.

In 1958 much of the street was subject to a compulsory purchase order under Part III of the 1957 Housing Act. The street was closed off in 1964 and the Mulberry School/Sports and Leisure Centre has been built on top of a large part of the former street.




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