Last Whites of the East End: BBC documentary reveals cockneys are becoming a dying breed

Stratford Broadway: Newham is now the most multicultural place in the UK
Hannah Al-Othman14 May 2016

Cockneys are becoming a dying breed in one east London borough, according to a new BBC documentary.

The film, the Last Whites of the East End, claims that white British people are leaving the borough in such numbers that 73 per cent of the local population is now made up of black and minority ethnic people.

The borough, in the shadow of the Olympic Park was historically almost all white working class, home mostly to dockworkers who moved in during the 1800s.

However, according to the documentary, more than half of the white population has left Newham in the past 15 years alone, resettling in places like Essex.

While in the same period, seventy thousand immigrants have moved into the borough, meaning it now has the lowest percentage of white British residents of anywhere in London.

Newham is now the most multicultural place in the UK, with 147 languages spoken across the borough.

One man says in the documentary: “It’s hard to find somebody who speaks English in Newham.

“We’ve always been a country where immigration plays a part, but not on the scale you find now.

“You go from Aldgate to Barking and there is very few English people left.”

Children at one local primary school, Drew Primary in Docklands, speak 43 different languages, with a new non-English speaking pupil arriving each week.

Australian head teacher Emma Peltier said she believes the school’s multiculturalism to be a positive thing.

She said: “We no longer live in a mono-cultural society, we have 43 languages spoken and at least once a week we have a child arrive who has no English.

“Really quickly children pick up the language.

“Schools and children can be a fantastic way of people assimilating into society because children don’t see colour and children don’t see religion.”

Last Whites of the East End airs on BBC1 on Tuesday, May 24, at 10.45pm.

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