Who lived on East London’s Cable Street in 1939?

An Italian ice cream seller. A Russian boot dealer. A café owner who'd sailed the world before settling in the East End. Just three years after the Battle of Cable Street, the records reveal the real lives behind the barricades.

A clash in the streets, pictured in the Illustrated London News, 1 October 1988. 

Read on to discover their stories and how you can listen to our podcast series, East London vs The Fascists: A Family History Of... Cable Street. 

What was the Battle of Cable Street? 

In the 1930s, this ordinary street became the focus of one of the most famous confrontations in British history. 

A map of the Battle of Cable Street, from the Daily Herald, 5 October 1936. 

When Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists planned to march through East London – then home to a large Jewish and migrant population – tens of thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators, local residents, trade unionists and community groups gathered to oppose them. 

Barricades appeared across the area, clashes broke out, and eventually the march was diverted away from the East End. Today, the Battle of Cable Street is remembered as a symbol of community resistance.  

Aerial view of the East End, towards the Thames Estuary, from the west, 1934, in Britain From Above, England Collection, 1919-1953. 

By September 1939, with Britain newly at war, Cable Street remained what it had been for generations: a vital artery running between the City and the docks. Laundry hung from windows. Shop doors opened onto the pavement. Children played in courtyards and alleyways while workers headed for cafés, workshops, and warehouses. 

The 1939 Register allows us to meet them. Recorded on 29 September 1939, just weeks after Britain entered the Second World War, it’s a snapshot of a neighbourhood crowded with shopkeepers, sailors, labourers and families from across the world, all living side by side along a single East End road. 

Cable Street on a c.1937-1961 map (the main road below Commercial Road, running west to east from the Royal Mint to Stepney), from © MapTiler, © OpenStreetMap, NLS, © OpenStreetMap

The East End had long attracted people from elsewhere in Britain, Ireland, Italy, Russia and beyond, as well as from across the British Empire. The docks brought a constant exchange of people, goods and ideas. And all of them have stories worth telling. 

Meet the residents of Cable Street 

In 1939, the Durso family lived at 417 Cable Street. The household's head, Alfonso Durso, was born in Italy and worked as a street hawker, selling goods directly to passers-by. Earlier records show the family name as D'Urso and reveal Alfonso’s trade as an ice cream vendor.  

The Durso family in the 1939 Register. View the full record here.

His children worked across a range of industries including brewery work, steelwork, leatherwork and glass bevelling. Further down the street, another family tell us different migration story. 

At 124 Cable Street lived Abraham and Rosie Ginsberg, both born in Russia. By 1939 their children were Londoners: Samuel drove a taxi, and Sarah worked as a dress machinist. Abraham operated his own boot-dealing business and even held a street trading licence.  

The Ginsberg family on the 1939 Register. View the full record here.

Their story reflects how one generation arrived from abroad while the next became part of the city's everyday life. 

The gateway to the world 

The Thames is never far from the records of Cable Street. Again and again, the 1939 Register reveals residents whose lives were shaped by ships, ports, and journeys between continents. At number 116 lived confectioner and shopkeeper Christo Antoniades. Born in Cyprus, he spent years serving in the Merchant Navy before settling in the East End. Sharing the home was Able Seaman Julian Rimanez. 

Number 116 Cable Street on the 1939 Register. View the full record here.

We even find a photo of Christo in his Merchant Navy records. 

Christo’s Merchant Navy record. See the full record here. 

At number 118, café proprietor Mahmood Khan represented another global journey. His Merchant Navy records show he had previously served as a seaman under the name Ahmed Ali and was born in either Calcutta or Abbottabad.   

The Khan family in 1939. View the full record here.

Like with Christo, we find a photo of Mahmood in the Merchant Navy records. 

A photo of Mahmood/Ahmed in the Merchant Seamen records. View the full record here. 

The cafés and shops of Cable Street must have reflected these diverse journeys. Conversations about work, family and world events likely unfolded over counters and kitchen tables, shaped by experiences reaching far beyond East London. 

The Le Monnier family in the 1939 Register. View the full record here.

Meanwhile, at 411 Cable Street, wharf labourer William Le Monnier had made his own way to the neighbourhood. 

William’s merchant seaman record. View the full record here. 

Born in Jersey, he served in both the British Army and Merchant Navy before settling with his family in England. 

From rural Wales to the East End 

Not every resident's journey to Cable Street crossed oceans. Some travelled from elsewhere in Britain, drawn by the opportunities of London and the docks. David and Margaret Williams lived at number 495. David worked as a cow keeper and dairyman, while their household also included milk roundsmen Daniel Richards and Maldwyn Hamer, alongside wine merchant's clerk John Davies. 

Number 495 in the 1939 Register. View the full record here. 

With a daily routine of early starts on the milk round, this working-class household kept the city fed.

Maldwyn (centre) was declared missing in 1944, in Manchester Evening News, Friday, 20 October 1944. Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. 

Maldwyn Hamer was born in Merionethshire, Wales. But his story did not end on Cable Street. During the Second World War, Maldwyn served with the Army Air Corps, was captured as a prisoner of war and was later reported missing in 1944. When he died in 1991, his obituary remembered a life that had carried him from rural Wales to East London and eventually into some of the most dramatic events of the war. 

Neighbours from across the world 

When you delve deeper into who lived on Cable Street, a picture of a rich, multicultural community appears.

The Dragovitch family in the 1939 Register. View the full record here.

At number 224, cabinetmaker Hyman Dragovitch lived with his wife Annie and daughter Renee. Annie was born in Dvinsk, then part of Russia and now Daugavpils in Latvia. Hyman's parents were also Russian-born.  

The Lumley family in the 1939 Register. View the full record here.

At 476 Cable Street lived the Lumley family. Family records reveal that Louisa Lumley came from Belfast, while her daughter Alice worked in a biscuit factory and volunteered as a first aider. Sadly, plagued by ill health and worry, Alice took her own life in 1940.

Alice’s death, in East End News and London Shipping Chronicle, Friday, 17 May 1940. 

Then there were numbers 80 to 84. Here, interpreter Sayed Saied lived in the same building as Italian couple Bastiano and Victoria Tafone. Close by were Nathan and Carrie Zlotnicki, and Samuel and Leah Zelinsky. 

Numbers 80-84 Cable Street in the 1939 Register. View the full record here.

Sayed was born in Aden, Arabia, and arrived via a career in the Merchant Navy before marrying a London woman and settling permanently in the East End.  

A photo of Sayed in his Merchant Navy records. View the full record here. 

Taken together, the addresses create a picture of a street that sounded very different from the image often associated with 1930s Britain. We see people finding common ground, sharing languages, food, and culture. 

A community that looked out for its own 

When Samuel Zelinsky was attacked in 1939, his neighbour Sayed Saied gave evidence that helped identify those responsible. He found Samuel afterwards and pointed out suspects to the police.  

Sayed stood up for his neighbour, in East London Observer, Saturday, 27 May 1939. 

It’s only a brief newspaper report, but it offers a small window into daily life. Neighbourliness is difficult to trace in historical records. Moments like this allow us to glimpse it directly. 

And earlier in 1939, when two young boys, Ronald and Leonard Hazard, lost their lives in a fire, hundreds attended their funeral and a mile-long procession – “Jews and non-Jews alike.” 

The community gathered for the funeral, in East London Observer, Saturday, 8 April 1939. 

The article goes on to say that the Hazards’ neighbours contributed to a collection, which helped pay for the funeral. 

Three years earlier, people from different backgrounds had stood together against Mosley's march. In 1939, that spirit appears again in more ordinary, but no less human, acts of kindness. 

Cable Street was more than a battleground 

The 1939 Register shows Cable Street at street level: families sharing buildings, shopkeepers opening for business, workers returning home after long shifts and children growing up among a remarkable mix of cultures and traditions.  

The East End is often described as a melting pot, each household bringing its own colours, histories and experiences. Some families had arrived only a generation earlier. Others had travelled thousands of miles to build new lives here. Together, they formed the neighbourhood that appears in the 1939 Register. 

Who was living on your family's street in 1939? 

And what about your own family? You can explore the 1939 Register, census records and historical newspapers to discover the people, occupations and communities that shaped your ancestors' world. You may find that your own family lived alongside a fascinating mix of neighbours with stories stretching far beyond Britain. 

Discover more about the Battle of Cable Street 

Now you've met those who called Cable Street home, it’s time to meet those who took part in the events of 6 October 1936.  

Listen to East London vs The Fascists: A Family History Of... Cable Street, wherever you get your podcasts.