Fitzrovia, The Other Side of Oxford Street: A Social History 1900-1950

By Dr Ann Basu

This is the other side of the story. Before the Second World War, Ann Basu’s family of Jewish tailors lived where the BT Tower stands today. At that time of high migration, the women’s fashion trade and the new car industry were sweeping into Fitzrovia, Russian and German anarchists argued in its clubs, Indian revolutionaries practised at the shooting range, and popular cafes such as Lyons’ transformed the social lives of workers. The Jews of Fitzrovia and Soho saw each other as being on the ‘other side’ of Oxford Street, and this book reflects Fitzrovia’s distinctive ‘inbetween-ness’ – at the inner edge of central London, but separate from the West End. Putting the spotlight on Fitzrovia’s enterprising twentieth-century immigrant workers, this is the history of working-class and outsider voices that have previously been muted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: May 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780750991650

Dr Ann Basu

DR ANN BASU has always lived in London. Her mother's family were tailors in Fitzrovia, living on a site now occupied by the BT Tower. After a 35-year career in librarianship, Ann began researching and writing, gaining a PhD from Birkbeck College in 2010. Her book on Philip Roth, States of Trial, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014. She studied London literature for her MA at Birkbeck, writing her dissertation on Iain Sinclair. Ann writes regularly for Fitzrovia News, a local print and online publication. She researched local music hall for the 2018 Fitzfest. She belongs to the Camden History Society, and organises monthly talks on historical and political subjects.