Comments on: Chinatown, the Death of Billie Carleton and the ‘Brilliant’ Chang

By: Catherine M

Catherine M — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 21:07:30 +0000

My grandfather, born 1875 migrated from the Highlands of Scotland to London as a young man, and he worked in the East End boatbuilding, and he smoked opium at Limehouse-he said ''it was the closest thing to Heaven''. The East end back then was so different -I visited sometime in the 1980's and it was a fume-filled modern ugly place, all vestige of the past long bombed and cleared away, not a ghost of the past remained. Opium dens, from what I understood, were not glamorous places, but simply places where a drug could be taken, it supplied a need. Traditionally, opium is smoked lying down, over a special lamp which is made for the purpose [the cut glass top focuses the flame into a ''hot spot'' over which the opium pipe is held. Opium vapourises, and the pipe has a doorknob shaped ''bowl'' with a tiny hole in it, no bigger than 3mm, the opium is stuck next to the hole, and the prepared opium bubbles and fizzles and the smoke is drawn in to the pipe bowl, a sort of reservoir for the smoke, which is a thin bluish colour. The smoke has a sweetish nutty aroma, and the taste is bitterish, but does not make one cough. After a few 'pipes' [each one is gone in a single long inhalation] one is aware of a supreme sense of lightness, all pains are eased, eg, from hard physical work, or from 'abstinence syndrome'- everything becomes more relaxed and the 'opium dreams' are really like seeing clear pictures projected upon the backs of your closed eyelids-different to normal night dreaming. Undoubtedly pleasant, but rooted firmly in the past. Opium smoking is no longer widely practiced anywhere in the world now- the newer opiates have taken hold, stronger, faster acting, and much more damaging.

By: Halima

Halima — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:56:42 +0000

Hello,

Amazing post,

I was wondering where the images came from? I would be interested in using it as part of my MA research,

Any info would be much appreciated.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:57:27 +0000

Wow! Fascinating to see these pics of Limehouse, where my dad was born in 1924… They were extremely poor, as you’d imagine, but very respectable people for all that.

By: Jimmy Jones

Jimmy Jones — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:03:56 +0000

Hugely interesting, thank you very much! I’m going to incorporate some of this into my essay… thanks again!

By: Day 9 « ragingcalmproductions

Day 9 « ragingcalmproductions — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:57:24 +0000

[...] and Billie Carlton (a star of the swing scene). You can read up on this fantastic story here: http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2009/10/chinatown-the-death-of-billie-carleton-and-the-brilliant-c…. There’s so much great material, the scene ended up being 14 minutes long! Perhaps a bit too [...]

By: Jeff Green

Jeff Green — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:26:01 +0000

A friend born London 1922 or so was a sailor and he told me that Brilliant Chen was back in London in the late 1930s. For the fact-free newspaper reports linking blacks and Chinese with drugs in 1920s London see my website jeffreygreen.co.uk under Eddie Manning, whose entry I contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (on line at many public libraries). The ODNB is to publish my articles on John Hochee (died 1860s) and a Liverpool murderer of 1904 who was Chinese.
My website also has a piece on the “Chinese Giant” who died in the 1890s in Bournemouth.
Best wishes – Jeff Green 8 Sept 2011

By: nickelinthemachine

nickelinthemachine — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:31:52 +0000

@sorcha Oh well, tried to help but to no avail.

By: Sorcha

Sorcha — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:11:18 +0000

Hi; I was doing some research into the Chinese community in Limehouse & came across your site. I’m putting together some schools learning materials for a museum and am keen to find out where you sourced a couple of the old photos you use with the article, and whether it would be possible to get hi res copies to print and use. Any information you can email me with would be appreciated. Thanks

By: celine

celine — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:15:35 +0000

This is a great blog and very engaging too. Excellent work! That’s not really much coming from an amateur publisher like me, but it’s all I could think after enjoying your posts. Excellent grammar and vocabulary. Not like other blogs. You really know what you’re talking about too. So much that you made me want to explore more. Your blog has become a stepping stone for me, my friend. Thank you for the articulate journey. I really enjoyed the 4 posts that I have read so far.

By: Adila Golam

Adila Golam — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:23:56 +0000

Hi I am so interested in the images you have found of Brillian Chang and Freda Kempton. And also of the letter Chang wrote. how did you go about finding this information? Please get back to me. Adila