The Repair Shop star Jay Blades fronts a new Channel 5 documentary series on Tuesday, June 13. The 53-year-old, who was born in Hackney, will be exploring the fascinating history of London’s East End in Jay Blades' East End Through Time.
In the series, Jay will explore various periods in history. He starts where London's East End begins, by the Roman city wall, to hear how East of the wall became a place for "outsiders" in the 1500s, where immoral or forbidden activities would take place like gambling and bear baiting.
Heading to St Dunstan's Church in Stepney, Jay then discovers how the Great Plague in 1665 devastated the East End's population due to poor living conditions, and is spooked by the fact that thousands of plague victims' bodies still lie in the church's grounds.
