gangsinlondon

Tower Hamlets

Young Stepney Posse members (1995)

Tower Hamlets has one of the longest gang histories in London. Even as far back as the 1900s E1 and E2 areas were populated with numerous street gangs, or mobs as they were known back then. Originally a hub for Jewish immigrants, the gangs of those times were predominantly Jewish and included the Yiddishers (one of whose members Jack Spot went on to become an organised crime figure), Bessarabian Tigers, Odessians and the Jewish Mob. Other early gangs included the Blind Beggar Gang, Bethnal Green Mob, Whitechapel Mob and the Watney Streeters (who later became involved with the Kray twins).

A more recent history can be traced to the 1970s when second and third generation Bengali youths formed groups to protect their communities from racist attacks from white gangs such as the National Front. One of the first of those formed was the Brick Lane Massive. As the white population moved out of Tower Hamlets conflict arose between many of the Bengali groups that had been formed, this also co-incided with a heavy period of de-industrialisation, increasing unemployment and drug abuse during the 1980s.

There are currently around 25 gangs present in Tower Hamlets (not counting cliques that belong to larger gang allegiances) over 20 of these are entirely, or almost entirely, Bengali. It is estimated that 2,500 Bengali youth in Tower Hamlets are associated to street gangs. Some of the more prominent currently in existence are the Brick Lane Massive, Turin Massive (Turin Street) and White Flatz (Minerva Estate).

Tower Hamlets Gangs Interactive Google Map

View Tower Hamlets Gangs in a larger map

E3 Gangs:
Devons Road
E3 Bloodz
-Ennerdale
-Grafton
-MWP
BMS/Bow Muslim Souljahs
E3 Massive
TSB/Trellis Square Boys
TTT/True Tredegar Thugs
SWB/Stroudley Walk Boys

E1 Gangs:
BSM/Brady Street Massive
BLM/Brick Lane Massive
BHM/Brune House Massive
CSP/Cannon Street Posse
CLM/Cleveland Estate Massive
JSM/Jubilee Street Massive
Shadwell Massive
STP/Stepney Posse
WMD/Wapping Mandem

Click here

E2 Gangs:
BGM/Bethnal Green Massive
GTM/Globe Town Massive
Turin Massive
White Flatz

E14 Gangs:
BDT/Burdett Dangerous Thugs
IOD/Isle of Dogs
-CTM/Cubitt Town Massive
-HM/Harbinger Massive
-TRB/Tiller Road Boys
-TWM/Timberwharves Massive
Limehouse Massive
LSM/Locksley State Massive
PMC/Poplar Massive Crew

There were only 10,000 National Front votes in London in 1973. By 1977 this had soared to 117,000 most prominently in Hackney, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Newham & Enfield. In Tower Hamlets much of the borough was affected by NF voters and most notably in Stepney, Poplar and Bethnal Green.

In 1976 the Union of Pakistan Organisation was set up in response to facist and racialist attacks. It was a collection of groups willing to defend immigrant communities in Britain. It also called for the banning of racialist organisation National Front. Meanwhile in Southall the gang Holy Smokes formed to protect local Indians from racist atttacks in West London. In 1976 Tower Hamlets Bengali population was still only 6,000 far short of todays 40,000. The first and second generation Bengali population of Tower Hamlets were subject to much racial abuse and unlike the youths of today were not ones to fight back.

The Spitalfields area become recognised as a new Bengali community in the 1970s. The immigrants lived in the huddle of streets branching off Brick Lane. Fifty years previously it had been Londons East End Jewish ghetto. Like the racial abuse suffered previously by the Jewish population Bengalis were no exception.

In 1978 nearly 200 white youths stormed through this Bengali district where racial violence had been ever increasing. Shops and cars were damaged and the GLC proposed to establish racially segregated housing areas as oppose to more police protection.

Attacks on Bengalis in the Brick Lane area of Spitalfields had usually been the work of relatively small groups. This however was carried out by the largest gang to assemble to threaten Asians in the area. It was common for groups to insult the growing Bengali community in Tower Hamlts. But this incident was different, a turning point perhps, as bottles stones and masonry were thrown as youths rushed the street.

Bengali youths like other south Asian groups such as Indians and Pakistanis in London would eventually form gangs. In 1979 a group of NF supporters chased a young Bengali along Brick Lane before kicking him to death. Following this incident Bengali youths began to form vigilante groups, however, the racial torment by white National Front would continue into the 1980s.

In 1984, there were 319 racial attacks recorded against Bengalis in Tower Hamlets. In 1985 there were 485 racial attacks against Bengalis. The picture becomes clear? In the late 80s it was feared racial tensions would be heightened following the stabbing of a white boy by a gang of Bengali youths.

The attack was a new take on the racial confrontations whereby most attacks had been whites on Asians. Asian community leaders became fearful that their young people may have learned to retaliate with violence or even attack rather than just acting to protect themselves.

Another develop of the time is the growth of a Somali community in Tower Hamlets in the late 80s and early 90s. The New Somali Restaurant was the first of its kind in East London. "Gang warfare" between Bengali and Somali youths in one school saw Asian youths attending classes with meat clevers hidden under clothes. (War torn Somali meant a large increase in Somalians to Britain from 1988 onwards, Tower Hamlets has the largest Somali community in London with over 15,000)

Feuding between the groups began quickly. Like the way in which whites had targetted Bengalis (as new arrivals), the Bengalis returned the hostility to the new forming Somali community. Somalis were the most recent arrivals to Tower Hamlets, historically Londons most deprived borough, where tensions have always been sharp. Somalians become the easiest scapegoat for young bored and frustrated Bengalis.

In the way black-white conflict turned to black-black conflict, the traditional emnities of Tower Hamlets began to change. White against black/asian conflicts are giving way to new rivalries; Asian against Asian & Asian against Somali. From a Somali point of view it felt as though "we (Somalians) had invaded their (Bengali) area".

In 1991, Tower Hamlets, like previous decades was still a product of poverty. Commerce (for locals anyway, not the yuppies invading Canary Wharf) was in terminal decline, the average resident lives in a council flat whilst unemployed. Ethnic minorities, including whites, have turned in on themselves and become segregated and embroiled in territorial rivalries. Racial violence continued to increase and Asian gangs were becoming a new phenomena, the increasing frequency of their confrontations a sign of things to come?

Gangs began to rule estates. Every estate had its gang. The ethnic minorities did not exactly mix and the young Bengalis are alienated. They dont feel totally Bengali, they're not accepted by western culture and reject their own sticking them right in the middle of it all. The estates and areas where the gangs began to rule were Brick Lane, the Ocean Estate, Cannon Street Road, Bethnal Green Road, Vallance Road and Shadwell. The gangs predominantly were from the E1 and E2 areas.

The gangs to first form in the 1980s were Bengal Tigers, Osmani and the Brick Lane Massive, in response to racial violence. It was in the 90s that their territorial disputes erupted into pitched inter-Bengali battles that alarmed community elders. Bengali gang fighting become of particular concern in 1993 when a mini-riot of some 60 youths began on Brick Lane.

Windows were smashed and restaurants trashed in a fight sparked by a trivial dispute. Rival gang leaders got together and agreed a truce at a mass meeting on the Ed festival marking the end of Ramadan. However, it was not sustained for a significant period and violence between bengalis and racial attacks were still prevalent in the borough.

In the mid 1990s another "truce" was attempted when leaders of the Brick Lane Massive, Stepney Posse and Cannon Street Posse pledged to work together to keep the peace. The Committee of Youth Against Violence was renamed "Aasha" (hope) by its members and founders.

In the years between the first truce and the renewed truce the old fashioned punch ups had escalated into far more serious violence. At the time it was estimated that 2,500 youths were affiliated to gangs in E1 & E2. "The fights used to be with fists and maybe sticks but the new generation are frequently using machetes, knives, meat clevers and baseball bats.".

Many attempts at understanding the attraction of gangs have been described over the years, often the same reasons. A former member of the BLM believed it to be fuelled by machismo, drugs and unemployment. The turning point leading to this renewed truce was caused by an incident in an East End park. Fifteen members of the Cannon Street Posse were attacked by around 50 youths from three smaller gangs.

"They were all tooled up. Three of ours was seriously injured. One lost the use of his arm which was sliced open and another left with his ear hanging off".

Cannon Street were one of Tower Hamlets biggest gangs and word spread that they could get access to guns and there "was going to be a blood bath".

This is why the truce meeting was organised so quickly, it was held on neutral ground in an East London mosque where the leaders agreed to stop the violence. £15,000 was allocated to fund a gang project, the project named Aasha stills runs to this day and Tower Hamlets Council recieved Beacon Status for its work with race and communities in 2006/07.

On the whole the youngers have always been just small time "gangsters" pushing the street violence that has been part of East End culture for generations, the Asian-on-Asian violence between youths is kind of like the "black-on-black" violence idealed in the American ghetto. Olders and Asian drug dealers, however, are clever. "They are business men and they keep a low profile". The gang violence comes from estate to estate level youth battles.

Drugs were something always distanced from the Asian community but speaking to youths in the area almost 10 years ago suggested otherwise.

"Round these ends you see 13-year old boys dealing brown. Ive seen them offering it for free".

"I was hooked for two years on heroin. My brains werent mature enough, i didnt know what was right or wrong".

Tower Hamlets had been beset by Asian heroin gangs with increasing violence, while drugs were becoming a major problem in the area. Heroin has never been cheaper nor more abundant in any part of London than it was in Tower Hamlets.

A report into the Ocean Estate (Stepney Posse) in 2000 described it as an area where children as young as 11 smoke heroin, where 15-year olds are crack addicts and where the only role models are the drug dealers in their heavy gold jewellery, designer clothes and soft top BMWs and Saabs - youths who, although themselves are only in their late teens, have already made a fortune by doling out drugs to their youngers.

Despite the affluence of Canary Wharf violent crime is rising faster in Tower Hamlets than any other London borough (perhaps this has more to do with recording practices rather than an upsurge in physical violence). However, there is no denying the growth of youth street gangs London wide as well as Tower Hamlets.

The late 90s up until the millennium (depsite two truces) saw youth gangs fighting pitched battles in parks and on estates where they lived in Poplar, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and Stepney. As disputes over turf escalated, the array of weaponary used grew ever more frightening and included more dangerous weapons.

So why again into the new millennium has violence returned? The gang leaders who agreed the original truces have grown up and many have moved on. The problems now involve a new generation of gang members. The combatants are often no more than 16 years old. They may respect their elders but feel no obligation to stick by any previous truces.

As is common with youths they feel the need to prove themselves, however, their youth and suspicion of authority make for an explosive cocktail. They are vexed by other people from other areas coming onto "their" turf.

At the time there was little to suggest the conflict were drug related. Although ironically, against a backdrop of drug-enhanced poverty members loyalties have shifted from uniting for protection from whites to defending their local turf.

The main groups identified in 2000/01 were from Brick Lane, Cannon Street, Bethnal Green, Stepney and Cannon Street. Groups that newly come to be recognised were in Shadwell and Limehouse and to a lesser extent Poplar.

Some gangs exist within boundaries no bigger than their own estate whereas others (Brick Lane Massive especially) claim huge but ill-defined swathes of territory. The lack of clarity fuels the violence. In attempts to avoid the serious violent clashes of the mid-late 1990s gang veterans plead for peace and work with projects such as Aasha.

By 2003 26 Bengali gangs had been identified in Tower Hamlets.

Clockwise from top left: 1.Bow E3 graffiti, 2.E14 on top of E3, 3.Brick Lane Road sign, 4.Globe Town Massive youth gang.

Piczo