East Side Story talked community, history and gentrification with one of the East End’s oldest running shoe shops. 

Walking down towards Cheshire Street from Shoreditch High Station and you would be forgiven for not thinking much out of the ordinary in the area. Vintage shop after vintage shop invite you in, with the occasional barbers thrown in for good measure. It would appear, at first glance, a fairly standard Shoreditch scene.

But go a little further and you are greeted by a rustic yet fairly inconspicuous black shoe shop. But Blackmans Shoe Shop is not just any shop. In fact it has been there, tucked away 46 Cheshire Street, since 1935. This makes it one of the oldest shoe shops in the East End.

Blackman’s has been run by the Knight family since its opening, and I was lucky enough to speak to Phil, the third generation of Knights on Cheshire Street, and a true East Ender.

“I don’t normally speak to journalists,” he quipped, “but you don’t seem like too much of a git so I will talk to you.”

Phil’s history echoed much of the past in the area. Descended from Russian-Polish Jews, his family came to the area as migrants back in the 30’s.

“It’s was a low class immigrant area, near the docks you see so people came straight here. Maltese, Jews, Indians, Bangladeshi’s, its all the same. You make a few quid then move out.”

Looking to make a mark, the family quickly got to business. “My grandad and his brother knew a bit about making shoes so started a shoe shop, and that was about it.”

While WW2 may have isolated the UK from Europe, the Knight family kept their connections across the Channel throughout. So much so that in 1958 it became the first shop in the UK to sell Doc Martens boots, having got friendly with the Germans after the war. It is just one of the many landmarks that make Blackmans so special to London and the East End.

In 1958 Blackman’s became the first shop in the UK to sell Doc Martens, having got friendly with the Germans after the war

How has the area changed?

Blackmans has stayed on Cheshire Street for almost 84 years, a wonderfully impressive stat in todays world. But the East End has changed a lot in recent years, and for Phil that’s not always a positive.

“These last few years gentrification has come along and done a lot of good and also bad. Priced a lot of people out the market. Before it might have been a pound a pint of lager, but now its £5!”

“You have got a lot of new tenants, airbnb’s and high turnover, whereas before it was families, but not a nice place to live. This was not the place you wanted your 20 year old girlfriend walking around late at night.”

As to when change really began to occur in the East End, Phil was in no doubt.

“A big turning point around here is when they got the Olympics. They tried harder. From E1 to E3, they tried harder, which is a good thing, as it was left behind anyway. It was the poor relationship to north and south London”

Commenting on the current trendiness of living in the East End for the youth today, Phil laughed about the ‘U-turn of life’ having spent years trying to get his children out of the East End, now all they want to do is move back.

“If I had known this would happen I would have bought up a few more council flats when they were going for nothing!”

While today he may commute in from Essex, Phil was in no doubt how homely and important Blackmans and Cheshire Street would always be to him.

“My Dad brought my first push bike on this street, about £8 it was. Most of my life has been in this street in one way shape or form, it’s given me a few quid in living and entertained me as well, it’s been a good education.”

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