Find out more about Chinese New Year in London including tomorrow’s parade and festival in Trafalgar Square.

This weekend, the largest Chinese New Year celebrations outside of Asia take place in and around London’s Chinatown in Soho. But did you know that London’s original Chinatown was in East London?

Limehouse was the site of a short-lived porcelain factory founded by George Wilson in 1746. It was one of many attempts to make a British version of the beautiful, white ceramic that was flooding into London from the Far East. Limehouse porcelain  looked Chinese but was made in East London. You can see examples of this porcelain at the Museum of London.

One hundred years later, a small community of Chinese sailors settled at Limehouse Causeway. This was one of two small, East End Chinese communities. The other was in Pennyfields in Poplar, where Chinese sailors from Shanghai had settled. Virtually all were single men, some of whom married British women.

By 1914, there were around 30 businesses and 300 people living in these small East End communities. Limehouse and Pennyfields became known as Chinatown, and many of its inhabitants made a living by running laundries.

During the Second World War, the Docklands area, including Chinatown, was badly damaged and many Chinese people moved out. In the 1950s, the market for Chinese food grew and restaurants and stalls began to spring up in Gerrard Street and Lisle Street. This was the start of the Chinatown we know today in Soho.

Find out more about Chinatown’s history or discover today’s Chinatown in Soho

Guest post by the Museum of London as part of our brand new Visiting the Past blog series. More fascinating facts about London’s history from the Museum of London next week!

The last Tuesday of every month is open house night at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Each month, the RIBA’s 66 Portland Place headquarters puts on a range of talks, tours, exhibitions and film screenings around a single topic.

October’s event, City Stories!, focused on great cities and their hidden histories, and included a fascinating talk by Dr Yat Ming Loo on London’s first Chinatown.

From the mid-nineteenth century Chinese seamen from Canton and Shanghai settled close to Limehouse Docks, with communities emerging on Limehouse Causeway, Pennyfields and Amoy Place.

Between the 1890s and 1920s the area become notorious as a place of gambling, opium dens and evocative smells – the legend of Fu Manchu originated here. However, the reality was quite different, with a very familiar London street scene greeting those who were curious, albeit with clinics, shops and boarding houses run by the Chinese.

The Blitz and various slum clearance projects before and after the Second World War saw the end of London’s first Chinatown, and there is little physical trace left today.

In the 1940s and 50s many families moved to the West End to capitalise on the growing demand for Chinese food, laying the foundations for London’s present day Chinatown.

Yat Ming Loo’s upcoming book “Architecture and Urban Form in Kuala Lumpur: Race and Chinese Spaces in a Postcolonial City” will be published in April 2013.

The next “Last Tuesdays” event on 27 November, Colour Me Vertical, will explore colour, light and architecture. Admission is free.

Follow @RIBA on twitter for #LastTuesdays updates, or visit www.architecture.com for more information.

Images by Mark Baynes.

Were you there? Don’t forget to add your photos to the Visit London Flickr pool.

Chinese Taipei is the designated name used by the Republic of China, commonly known as “Taiwan”, when they participate in the Olympic Games.

In recent months, Taiwan’s bubble tea has been big news here in London. Bubble tea had previously been sold in stores in Chinatown, but the drink is now going mainstream.

Served warm or cold, bubble tea drinks have a red or green tea base, and are infused with fruit flavours. Then, at the bottom, they have tapioca pearls, called “Boba Pearls.” These pearls have a texture like gummy bears with a slight caramel taste, and take in some of the flavour of the tea. Yum!

London now has a bubble tea gourmet determined to bring the true taste of Taiwan to the city: Bubbleology owner, Assad Khan.

Khan fell in love with the drink while working in New York. Spotting the potential to spread the bubble tea love in London, he opened Bubbleology in Soho earlier this spring.

Khan knows his bubble tea: he drank four or five cups a day in New York, and 40 cups a day on a two-month research trip to Taiwan before setting up business in London. He believes the choice of materials, water temperature and timing were essential. Khan has imported the shakers, plastic-sealing machines and plastic cups from Taiwan, along with the thick straws that allow you to suck up the “bubbles” and chew on them.

His staff, called ”Bubbleologists,” have trained under renowned bubble tea masters to learn the exact science of making proper bubble tea. In a nod to the country responsible for this unusual, refreshing drink, they all wear a Republic of China flag pin on their uniforms.

So if you want a taste of Taiwan in London, head down to Bubbleology in Soho or in Harvey Nichols’ restaurant. You can read more about the brand at www.bubbleology.co.uk.

Do you know of any other examples of Taiwanese culture in London? Let us know in the comments below.

For our Hong Kong in London entry we looked no further than the London Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival. This annual event has been held in London since 1997. After 10 years at London Docklands Watersports Centre, it moved to London Regatta Centre at Royal Albert Docks in 2007, allowing it to become a lot bigger. This year’s London Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is expected to attract around 10,000 spectators.

The Hong Kong connection lies partially in the sponsorship – the HKETO (Hong Kong Economic Trade Office) is the event’s principal sponsor. And, the less-than-serious nature of the London race perhaps reflects the fact Hong Kong has enjoyed more freedom than mainland China during the past century. But event organiser London China Town Lions Club‘s Monita Hung is quick to add that Dragon Boat racing is a longstanding Chinese tradition, with events held all over China although some of the most serious competitions are to be found in Hong Kong.

The main aim of the London race, however, is enjoyment. “How much practice competitors do beforehand depends on how much they want to win! But this is not a serious race, it’s more about a fun event that everyone can enjoy,” says Hung.

The festival grows in size every year and is now second only to Chinese New Year on the Chinese cultural calendar in London. “Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is a lighthearted event that’s not as serious as Chinese New Year.

“It’s more of a community event for locals and is very family friendly as it’s free to enter, with lots of food and children’s activities such as a bouncy castle.” Hung says the event is also very popular with Hong Kong-born students who are studying in London, of which there are many.

Besides the festival, Hung, who is originally from Hong Kong but has lived here for 30 years, says she finds “Hong Kong in London” by shopping at Chinese supermarkets, particularly in Chinatown. “Tesco is getting better but you’ve got to go to a Chinese supermarket for all the sauces and other Chinese essentials. You can’t not go to Chinatown – you’ll always find something great there.”

The next London Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival will be on 19 June 2011. Find out more at www.lclc.co.uk

Happy Chinese New Year!

In honour of the Year of the Tiger, this week we’re asking you for your favourite Chinese Restaurant in London.

Whether you love going to one of Alan Yau’s places for a treat (Hakkasan, Yauatcha, Cha Cha Moon), or have a favourite local budget option, or always frequent the same special place in Chinatown, this is the time of year to celebrate your love of Chinese food.

Let us know where you think the dim sum dazzles, the noodle soup has you salivating and where you can get a mean chow mein.