How a misleading photo of signage at Whitechapel Station went viral on X

A misleading viral photo of Whitechapel Station has obscured the reality of its bilingual signage, which first appeared in 2022 to celebrate the vast contributions of Bengali communities to East London.

Transport for London installed the Bengali signage following a campaign from various local politicians and its former mayor.

In a letter to Mayor Sadiq Khan in September 2021, the then mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, wrote that: “Bilingual signs have been installed at Southall and replicating this at Whitechapel would be welcomed to mark the culture of British Bangladeshis and reflect the rich heritage and diversity.”

Nasrin Khan, a policy officer, told East London Lines after the successful campaign of its importance locally: “In Tower Hamlets, Bengalis make up more than 33% of its population. So, it’s quite vital that their community recognises their interests,” adding, “As a British Bangladeshi, I am thankful to everyone who worked behind this achievement.”

Many other posts on X (formerly Twitter) called out the misleading content, showing uncropped images of the station with the English signage and highlighting other bilingual signage across London.

Other posts drew attention to the problem of homelessness and the economic disparities in London, and why much of the commentary in response to the photo made little mention of it.

Polarising language from some political figures drew criticism online amid accusations of fuelling ‘misinformation’, as Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, praised the city’s diversity and his intention to keep celebrating it. Earlier this year, polarising and misleading rhetoric and debates around the signage even got the attention of X’s owner, Elon Musk.

Some members of the public flagged racist speech and racialised conspiracies about London in response to the X post or those disseminating similar imagery, echoing reports to our service last year and into the early part of this year.

Tell MAMA highlighted this issue in our previous major report, that, “In a verified case reported on 25 January [2024], a far-right account holder called for the forced deportation of individuals in Whitechapel in East London in reply to a post from a popular right-wing page that sought to spread misinformation and culture war talking points about national identity over bilingual signage at the station.”

Google Street View has displayed the bilingual signage since 2022. Credit: Google Street View.

The bilingual signage at Whitechapel Station has been ever-present on Google Street View since July 2022.

The bilingual train signage in Southall (of English and Punjabi) has existed since the mid-nineties (including a temporary removal in 2007). Similar examples have also appeared over the decades, including the “Welcome to the Underground / Bienvenue dans le Métro” at Waterloo Station in the early 2000s.

Examples outside London over the years included, in 2011, a tiny town in the Cotswolds installing bilingual signage at its train station to help Japanese tourists. There is signage in multiple languages at the station near Bicester Village, which is extremely popular for Chinese tourists and many others.

In a wide-ranging piece for Historic England about the long history of Chinese communities across England and the various Chinatowns, Steph Chan highlighted bilingual signage in cities like Newcastle. Photographs of bilingual street signs in London’s Chinatown have appeared in photos uploaded online for decades.

On X, other examples of misinformation were couched in the language of racialised conspiracies of “conquest” by using a photograph of a bilingual sign at Leicester train station, taken in 1994, welcoming communities in English and Hindi (and removed in 1999), according to the website Railway Codes. Nor did the account mention that during the 1990s, Leicester City Council had sponsored other bilingual signage at the station, including in Spanish.

Railway Codes has documented numerous examples of bilingual and multilingual signage and posters at various railway stations over the years.

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Categories: News, Whitechapel, X