East London Female

The East End is the home of many accents and dialects, including the traditional Cockney of the mainly white working class, as well as many varieties of accent influenced by each new wave of migration to the area most notably Italian, Romany, Yiddish, South Asian, Caribbean and Eastern European immigrants.

It is the home of vibrant market stalls, skilled tradesmen and a strong community spirit. A population boom in C19th London saw the East End develop rapidly with a high concentration of immigrants and extreme overcrowding.

During WW2 the area was extensively bombed and much of the housing was rapidly reconstructed creating as new tower blocks and estates. While the East End is still known as a multicultural melting pot, with its market stalls, workers cafes, and many ‘urban poor’, this co-exists with a rapidly developing arts and culture scene, and a growing trend towards ‘gentrification’.

The last 20 years or so has witnessed the birth of a new London accent stemming from the east end. This shift from a traditional cockney accent of East London to a new contemporary ‘street’ sound is often known as ‘street’ London and linguistically termed ‘Multi Cultural London English’.

The younger generation growing up in London, exposed to diverse mixture of second-language English and local London English, created new social groups and with them a new accent. Young people from all cultural backgrounds continue to emulate the accent, adding their own words and sounds.