9 Local ( Good) Friends
Local Friend is rumored to be the first Chinese takeaway in the UK. Local Friends used to be called 'Good Friends,' and still stands today towards the end of Salmon Lane. Many Chinese takeaways and restaurants existed in Limehouse and Poplar and became incredibly popular destinations for people having a night out. This was partly because of the lack of restaurants around as well as the increasing appreciation of Chinese cuisine.
Cutting from a newspaper, depicting what a 'typical' Chinese Restaurant looks like. The caption says, 'where the fare includes fried noodles, shark fins,sea slugs and savories of bamboo shoots. A typical eating house in the Chinese Quarter of the East End.' 1920 Copyright Museum of London
Rumoured to be the first Chinese take away in the UK, Local Friends used to be called Good Friends originally.
Salmon Lane, just off Commercial Road leading from the Seamen's Mission.
Cutting from a newspaper, depicting what a 'typical' Chinese Restaurant looks like. The caption says, 'where the fare includes fried noodles, shark fins,sea slugs and savories of bamboo shoots. A typical eating house in the Chinese Quarter of the East End.' 1920 Copyright Museum of London
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Other local Chinese Restaurants
After the war, the British had developed a taste for Chinese cuisine, partly because of food rationing and also because of soldiers interactions with Chinese culture during overseas deployment. Chinese restaurants offered a cheap and tasty option. After the war, new waves of Chinese migration answered this demand for Chinese food. within this wave of migration there were the Chinese from North China, the Malayan Chinese from Singapore, but the biggest proportion were from Hong Kong. Kong Chinese. This differed from previously Cantonese and Shanghai owned restaurants and also reflected a shift in work associated with the Chinese diaspora, as the hand laundry business in declined as a result of mechanical household appliances. Today, the number of Chinese restaurants continue to rise and is most visible in London's Chinatown in Soho.
East West Chinese Restaurant Limehouse 1955 Copyright Museum of London
New Hong Kong Restaurant, 1955 Copyright Museum of London
East West Chinese Restaurant Limehouse 1955 Copyright Museum of London
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Chinese Clubs
Many Chinese social clubs existed with various focuses, from the Chee Kong Tong Society, seen as a mysterious Chinese secret society, to Sams workers Club which looked after sailors and provided various services such as support with hospital care when ill or injured as well as funeral services that catered to Chinese funeral rituals.
The Chinese community were associated with opium smoking and gambling which often fueled media sensationalism and anti Chinese sentiment in local news and gossip. These racialised stereotypes were further circulated through literary depictions of Limehouse Chinatown through authors such as Charles Dickens, Arthur Sax Rohmer and Thomas Burke.
Opium Smoking, the lascars Room in Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens, 1872. Copyright Museum of London
Mah Jong set, 1920-1945 Copyright Museum of London
Opium Smoking, the lascars Room in Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens, 1872. Copyright Museum of London
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