How the new Overground lines celebrate East End history
From the unsung heroes of the Mildmay Mission Hospital to the history of the Spitalfields Silk Weavers, the Overground’s newly named lines allow commuters to explore Tower Hamlets in more ways than one.
Last week Transport for London (TfL) rolled out its official rebrand of the Overground, with new names and colours for each of its six lines.
The Suffragette, Liberty, Windrush, Mildmay, Weaver and Lioness lines, first announced in February this year, were named to reflect aspects of London’s diverse history and make it easier to navigate the network’s 113 stations.
From famous footballers to LGBTQ+ history, here’s how the new lines are shining a light on our borough.
The Weaver line (maroon)
The Weaver line runs from Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt, and Chingford, stopping at Bethnal Green and Cambridge Heath stations.
The Weaver line celebrates the East End’s long history of textile trade, shaped largely by migrant communities. Now commonly known as the Spitalfields Silk Weavers, French Huguenots escaping persecution in the 17th, established a flourishing silk trade around Brick Lane.
Since then, the East End has been home to the Irish linen trade, a Jewish-led garment industry, which revitalised Petticoat Lane, and Bangladeshi migrants who formed a large part of the textile and leather manufacturing industries in the 1960s.
Today the Bengali community’s long history in the trade is commemorated with heirlooms such as Asma Begum’s family sewing machine displayed in the Museum of London.
The Mildmay line (blue)
The Mildmay line runs from Richmond and Clapham Junction to Stratford, stopping at Hackney Wick station.
The Mildmay line celebrates Bethnal Green’s Mildmay Mission Hospital and charity, internationally renowned for its groundbreaking care and research into HIV and AIDs.
Founded in the 1860s, the Mildmay provided care for east London’s poorest residents as nurses visited the notorious Old Nichol’s slums in Shoreditch during a cholera outbreak in 1866.
In 1988, the Mildmay, now part of the NHS, became Europe’s first hospice dedicated to caring for people with AIDS-related illnesses.
The hospital was visited by Princess Diana a total of 17 times during the AIDs crisis, helping to end the stigma surrounding the disease and the hospital remains an important part of east London’s LGBTQ+ history.
The Windrush line (red)
The Windrush line runs from Highbury & Islington to New Cross, Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace, and West Croydon, stopping at Shoreditch High Street, Whitechapel, Shadwell, and Wapping stations.
The Windrush line commemorates Caribbean communities who migrated to Britain on the HMT Empire Windrush in June 1948. Known as the Windrush generation, these communities helped to rebuild crucial industries after the war, such as construction, healthcare and transport but were often met with hostility on account of their race.
The Windrush line runs through areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities such as Hackney, Peckham and Croydon as well as Tower Hamlets, which is home to over 6500 Caribbean residents (2021).
The Suffragette line (green)
The Suffragette line runs from Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside.
The Suffragette line pays homage to those who fought for women’s right to vote in the early 20th century, including Sylvia Pankhurst who lived and worked in Bow for much of her life.
In January 1914 Pankhurst formed the East London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS), The ELFS campaigned for the rights of working-class women, marching through east London, holding public meetings, and opening social centres like the Women’s Hall at 400 Old Ford Road.
Pankhurst noted that the East End was one of the most unified working-class areas, where people could effectively organise public demonstrations and hoped that the women’s movement there would inspire similar efforts in other parts of the country.
Today, Tower Hamlets remains of significance for the Suffragettes as home to the Women Activists of East London as well as The Fawcett Society, a women’s rights charity based in Bethnal Green.
The Lioness line (yellow)
The Lioness line runs from Watford Junction to Euston.
Running through the heart of Wembley, the Lioness line celebrates the success of England’s female football team.
The Lionesses win at the UEFA Women’s EURO in 2022 became the UK’s most-watched women’s football game ever on UK television, and the team have since been praised for inspiring millions of women and girls to take up the sport.
In Tower Hamlets, Lotte Wubben-Moy has become an idol for Bow’s young female footballers since England’s 2022 victory inspiring players at teams such as the Bow’s Vicky Park Rangers.
The Liberty line (grey)
The Liberty line runs from Romford to Upminster.
The Liberty line runs from Romford to Upminster and celebrates freedom as a defining feature of London’s spirit, whilst also referencing the Borough of Havering as a royal liberty.
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