The Widow’s Son pub in Bromley-by-Bow marked Good Friday
2013 with the annual traditional ‘bun ceremony’. Over the bar area there’s a net with a load of
old buns in. Each year a sailor (usually from the Royal Navy) adds another bun.
Everyone has a good old drink and freshly baked buns are handed out to the punters.
This cracking bit of East End Easter folklore has it roots
in the fact that home baked stuff like biscuits, buns and bread used to be hung up
to cool down. A myth grew that if this was done at Easter the bread or buns
would never grow mouldy. The house where the widow was supposed to have lived
became famous for its hanging buns and so the pub that was built on the site
became known as the Bun House/Widow’s Son.
Bromley-by-Bow is a of those places that has some rich history to it that's either overlooked or forgotten about completely. Bromley Hall is reckoned
to be London’s oldest brick-built building, dating back to the 1490s. The
Three Mills area (dating back to the Norman conquest) where the River Lea and Limehouse Cut meet is an amazing
example of persevered industrial heritage and regeneration. Also Gandhi stayed in the area for 12 weeks whilst attending a conference to
discuss Indian independence. Rather than residing at a grand West End hotel the Mahatma preferred to take in some East End hospitality amongst the working people.
He also met Charlie Chaplin during his stay, oh to have been a fly-on-the-wall
for that!
Capital Walks offers a great stroll around this historic hidden gem of an area. Click on the web link and get in touch to find out more: -
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