Soup Kitchen

Spitalfields
1 Jan 1934
Silent
3m

A rare glimpse inside the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in the East End during the early 1930s.

This 16mm amateur footage was filmed at the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in London's East End, and is a valuable record of a community almost vanished from this part of the capital. Located in Spitalfields on Butler Street (now Brune Street), where it moved in 1902, the soup kitchen was founded by the Jewish Board of Guardians, set up to assist Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe.

A 1932 appeal for funds in the Jewish Chronicle estimated at least 4000 people visited the soup kitchen nightly during the winter opening hours of 5-7pm, Monday-Thursday; "This food consists of soup and bread on each of these evenings and Kosher margarine and sardines on alternative evenings. In addition, pilchard and an extra portion of bread are given on Thursdays to help the poor over the weekend". It was still feeding elderly clients when it closed in 1992. The building survives today, converted into flats.

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From the collection

Jewish Britain

Jewish life on screen: a century of insights and hidden histories

This collection uncovers insights, injustices and hidden histories across a century of Jewish life on British screens. It brings together documentary and first-person accounts of Jewish life in the UK, alongside historical dramas and artists’ work exploring the 20th century Jewish experience. The earliest surviving depictions of Jewish characters in British cinema offer a troubling insight into antisemitic representation, yet prejudice was later tackled head-on, with newsreels documenting the anti-fascist movement of the 1930s.

Drop in on joyous family weddings and community gatherings, and see the ways in which UK Jewry supported Jews young and old, and those fleeing persecution, in a selection of fascinating films from the 1900s to the 1980s.

This collection is generously supported by the Neil Kreitman Foundation, Shoresh Charitable Trust, John S Cohen Foundation, and Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation.