Rag Fair: A Different Migration History of London’s East End, 1780-1850

In the early Victorian age, the streets of East London were home to migrants from different regions and religions. In the midst of this area lay the famous Rag Fair street market, sustained by trade routes stretching across the globe. The market’s history demonstrates that it was not only a place of economic exchange, but also an intercultural contact zone where Jewish and Irish migrants mingled, entered client relationships and forged political alliances. Reconstructing the varied (partly multiethnic) group-building processes operating in the market, Rag Fair draws on approaches across migration history, economic history, economic anthropology and the sociology of political movements to uncover the social mechanisms at work in the old clothing trade.

Ole Münch is a research fellow for modern British history at the German Historical Institute London. He studied history and sociology in Göttingen and completed his doctorate at the University of Konstanz. In 2020, his dissertation was awarded the Wolfgang J. Mommsen Prize of the German Historical Institute London and the City of Konstanz Prize to Promote Early Career Researchers at the University of Konstanz.

Subject: History: 18th/19th Century Cultural Studies (General)Mobility Studies Jewish Studies

Area: Europe

Subject Codes

LC: HF3520.L65 M8613 2025

BISAC:
HIS015060 HISTORY/Europe/Great Britain/Victorian Era (1837-1901);
HIS015050 HISTORY/Europe/Great Britain/Georgian Era (1714-1837);
SOC007000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Emigration & Immigration;
SOC008060 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Ethnic Studies/European Studies

THEMA: 1DDU-GB-ESLF; KCLT; NHTB

Chapter 1. Collecting Rags and Being Jewish: On the Interplay between Urban Folklore, Group Formation, and Social Inequality
Chapter 2. Transnational Lifestyles among Old Clothes: The Social Make-Up of the Long-Distance Trade Corridors to the Rag Fair
Chapter 3. On the Advantages of Not Having to Belong: Or, the Significance of Jewish Emancipation for the Rag Fair’s Shopkeepers
Chapter 4. A ‘Wild’ Contact Zone: On the Integrative Dynamic of High-Risk Business

Part II: Integration through Conflict

Chapter 5. The Cutler Street Conflict: Group Formation in the Dispute over the Old Clothes Market
Chapter 6. The Agreeable Feeling of Shared Outrage: An Integrative Movement for Electoral Rights
Chapter 7. A Multireligious Neighbourhood Movement: Or, the Story of a Productive Defeat

Conclusion: On the History and Social Dynamics of an Intercultural Contact Zone

Bibliography
Index

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Volume 10

Studies in British and Imperial History

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Rag Fair

A Different Migration History of London’s East End, 1780-1850

Ole Münch

Translated by Angela Davies and Jozef van der Voort

Description

Subject: History: 18th/19th CenturyCultural Studies (General)Mobility StudiesJewish Studies

Area: Europe

Contents

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Subject: History: 18th/19th Century Cultural Studies (General)Mobility Studies Jewish Studies