In the last few weeks, we've been looking at various aspects of the social history of London, and this morning we're continuing with a look at life in the area called the East End. I'll start with a brief history of the district, and then focus on life in the first half of the twentieth century. Back in the first to the fourth centuries AD, when the Romans controlled England, London grew into a town of 45,000 people, and what's now the East End - the area by the river Thames, and along the road heading north-east from London to the coast - consisted of farmland with crops and livestock which helped to feed that population. The Roman left in 410, at the beginning of the fifth century, and from then onwards the country suffered a series of invasions by tribes from present-day German and Denmark, the Angles, Saxon and Jutes, many of whom settled in the East End. The technology they introduced meant that metal and leather goods were produced there for the first time. And as the East End was by the river, ships could transport goods between there and foreign markets.