The majority of Russian and Polish Jews arriving via the Thames settled in the 'Jewish' East End of London, just a few minutes walk from the dock or landing stage at which they had first set foot on English soil.

The concentration in ghetto-like communities of predominantly East European Jews was to have a major impact on the right of free entry to immigrants from Europe. Parliament was not alone in criticising the effect that mass Jewish immigration had on London life. The Metropolitan Police reported on the abuses to which the immigrants were exposed on their arrival in England, and praised the virtues of Jewish immigrants in a report to Parliament in 1889. But it also noted that many of those guilty of crimes against the Jews were themselves Jewish immigrants.

The Aliens Act that came into force on 1 January 1906 ended mass immigration, of Jews and non-Jews alike. The Port of London, which had served as the gateway to Britain for centuries, was permanently closed to those intending to settle in London or elsewhere, with the exception of the families and wives of those who had already arrived.

Though refugees fleeing persecution retained the right of asylum when they arrived in England, after 1906 the numbers arriving through the Thames dropped back to pre-1880 levels. In future, all those arriving via the Thames would first have to justify their right to settle before the Immigration Board, held at Great Tower Street in the City of London, before being allowed to settle. The Board met on an ad hoc basis and always included a magistrate, a Jew and a representative of the Home Office.

The impact of Jewish immigration would nevertheless continue to be felt for years to come. Eventually the Jews of the East End would move out to the North London suburbs of Finchley, Hendon, Golders Green, Ilford and Redbridge. Others would move further away to places where earlier immigrants had established provincial communities such as Reading, Oxford, Southampton or Birmingham.

Just as those arriving via the River Humber dispersed around northern England and Scotland, so the Jews arriving via the Thames would, within a generation of their arrival, move away from the ghetto-like conditions in which they had started their new lives.

Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull

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