Insightful article on the BBC web site to a Radio 4 programme on what attracts so many French to live in London. Many of the estimated 400,000 French in London live in the East End which is where the they first came en masse in the 17th Century. At that time, the French were mainly Huguenots, who had endured years of persecution in France because of their Protestant faith. As the article neatly points out, they called their flight Le Refuge - coining the word refugee.

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