Stamford Hill Haredi Jewish exodus to Essex gathers pace

An aerial view of Canvey Island. Photograph: Terry Joyce (Creative Commons)

As an exhibition charting the history of the strictly orthodox Haredi Jewish community in Stamford Hill is set to open, several Haredi families are reportedly considering upping sticks to Essex.

Canvey Island looks to be the most promising location for a Haredi exodus. A vacant school site in the area has been purchased by a Jewish philanthropist with the intention of it becoming a hub for schooling and other communal facilities, according to reports in the Basildon, Canvey and Southend Echo, the Jewish Chronicle and elsewhere.

Several Haredi families are also believed to have exchanged contracts for homes in the Thames Estuary. It is likely that 10 families will initially move to the area, which would equate to a start-up community of around one hundred people.

Niti Acharya from Hackney Museum, where the exhibition about the Stamford Hill community is about to open, said Haredi Jews started to settle in Stamford Hill in the 1930s, though the area had been home to Jewish families prior to that.

She said: “After the war, a lot of people were leaving Hackney. East Enders were decamping to have a better way of life and there had been a lot of damage to the area during the war – so it was a lot easier to buy in Hackney then. But now the area is a lot more desirable and house prices are on the rise, which might explain the move to places like Canvey Island.”

Stamford Hill is now home to Europe’s largest concentration of Haredi Jews, with the normally insular community estimated to comprise around 27,000 people.

With a birth-rate twice that of the UK average, the growing local population is struggling with the lack of large, low-cost housing in inner-London. This is the main factor driving the search for a new satellite community, with areas like Canvey Island offering a significantly more affordable and spacious alternatives.

Harlow, Westcliff and East Tilbury are also reported to be under consideration for further remote Haredi communities.

Although housing on Canvey Island may be cheap, the Essex civil parish is only just above sea level and is prone to flooding, most notably in 1953, when a deluge from the North Sea led to the death of 58 islanders. Sea defences have since been built around the island in an attempt to deal with the problem.